Royals fans can’t believe how controversial spring training battle just flipped on its head

Entering the offseason, while many looked at the Kansas City Royals’ inconsistent outfield offense or how they’d address their immense starting pitching surplus as their biggest needs, potentially the next most pressing matter was their situation at second base.

Last winter, they likely thought they found the solution at second when the traded for Jonathan India. However, a career-worst 89 wRC+ campaign was far from what they had in mind.

Then, there was Michael Massey, who followed up his career-best 104 wRC+ campaign, a strong 2024 postseason and back-to-back double-digit homer seasons with a 57 wRC+ effort in 2025, where he was plagued by injuries for much of it as well.

The fact that the Royals didn’t do anything to improve upon the situation, rather they bought into it even further, suddenly made it seem as though history would repeat itself once again.

However, as we sit just two weeks away from Opening Day, that the once controversial issue of getting production at second base suddenly doesn’t seem so controversial anymore.

The Royals may just have a suitable second base duo after all

Now, I want to preface, it’s not wise to make definitive claims in spring training, However, this is certainly the time for players with uncertain futures to prove themselves and for any player to build momentum for the upcoming season, whether they have a certain place on the roster or not.

There didn’t seem to be a terrible amount of doubt on whether these two names would be on the roster, but what role they had to play was still up in the air.

What I’ll also say is it hasn’t been completely smooth sailing this spring even if the numbers do look strong for these two so far in Cactus League action.

India has seen a second half resurgence to look like one of the better hitters in Royals camp, after looking mediocre at best to start it.

But that resurgence has been nothing short of special, ranking fifth amongst Royals hitters with at least 10 plate appearances in wRC+ at 198. He’s hitting .294, the extra-base capabilities look strong enough with a .588 SLG and his plate discipline has been exceptional for the entirety of spring with a .520 OBP, 28.0% walk rate and 8.0% K-rate.

Then, there’s Massey who unfortunately was sidelined with “a ‘low grade’ calf strain” earlier this week and is “out of game action for ‘hopefully just about a week'” according to manager Matt Quatraro via a report from MLB.com’s Anne Rogers.

However, unlike when he went down with injury last season, Massey’s looked extremely promising in camp. In 24 plate appearances across eight games, he’s slashing .364/.417/.545 with three RBI, just a 16.7% K-rate and a 157 wRC+.

And if we’re sticking with optimism, a week isn’t all that long, so hopefully that inital timeline holds true here.

And Royals media and fans are taking notice of the apparent good fortune they’ve had in Surprise with these two.

Again, time will tell if this will translate in good regular season form. After all India posted a 185 wRC+ in spring training last year and Massey sported a 183 wRC+ himself, and we’re all well aware of their disappointing 2025 campaigns.

However, I think it’s safe to assume any team would rather have all their players, especially the questionable ones, perform well in spring training and build momentum into regular season.

And given the other positional battles for the final rotation, bullpen, outfield and bench spots, it’s certainly a relief to know that second base doesn’t need to be a worry at the moment.