After a disappointing season, the Kansas City Royals are setting their sights on a return to the playoffs in 2026.
It’s not much of a secret that the Royals’ offense was what cost them a shot at October. They scored the fifth-fewest runs and hit the fifth-fewest home runs of any team in Major League Baseball, and the outfield was the biggest culprit as a collective.
There are lots of moving parts in this Royals outfield, as trade deadline acquisition Mike Yastrzemski is a free agent and rookie Jac Caglianone struggled mightily in his debut. So there are accordingly a lot of potential paths to “fixing” that outfield in free agency.
What are Royals’ outfield objectives?
All that really matters, though, is how the Royals themselves plan to do it. And on Wednesday, MLB.com insider Mark Feinsand revealed what the Kansas City front office is currently thinking.
“The Royals are focused on the outfield market, looking to add a left fielder – ideally one who can play every day – and a right-handed bat who can complement the left-handed hitting Jac Caglianone in right field,” wrote Feinsand.
Feinsand also quoted general manager J.J. Picollo on the intent to find that righty platoon bat.
““We don’t want to spend a lot of money on the short side of a platoon, but the reality is we need it,” Picollo said, per Feinsand. “If we can find the right person, the right bat to complement Cags, that would be great.”
There are still lots of options on the gable even knowing these objectives, as an “everyday left fielder” sounds a lot like potential trade targets Jarren Duran or Taylor Ward, in addition to whatever names the Royals might have the free-agent budget to chase (Trent Grisham? Harrison Bader?).
In this writer’s opinion, the Royals also shouldn’t overlook center field as an area for a potential upgrade, as the sport is now full of guys who can track the ball as well as Kyle Isbel can, so there’s not much of a competitive advantage for Kansas City there.
But deciding to platoon Caglianone is an important decision in itself, and one that could have serious implications on the Royals’ season, as well as the 22-year-old’s development. We’ll have to see how that progresses, and whether the youngster can earn himself opportunities against lefties later on.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.si.com ’
