Royals may be making leadoff intentions clear in final exhibition games vs. Rangers

The Kansas City Royals play their final tune-up game against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday before they open their regular season in Atlanta on Friday night.

While many among the Royals faithful will be focused on the ongoing battles for the final roster spots and who will nab those, there’s some internal logistics that still need to be sorted in the next few days.

One of those matters to be handled is finalizing who will occupy the leadoff role in 2026, an area in which they had significant issues with last year.

However, perhaps this isn’t a matter that still needs to be sorted after all, as after shifting from Surprise, Arizona to Arlington, Texas for their final exhibition contests the Royals have placed Maikel Garcia atop their order.

The Royals may’ve found their leadoff man of the future in Maikel Garcia

Last season, the trade with the Cincinnati Reds for Jonathan India was largely seen as their way of establishing some consistency at the top of the lineup.

However, while India was consistently used in that spot for much of the season, he consistently underperfromed, so much so that after the trade deadline, the Royals removed him from that role entirely.

This meant they were back to square one and entered spring training searching for an answer to this question once again.

While there was much speculation on who would occupy this role for manager Matt Quatraro, one name that seemed to consistently come back into the conversation was Garcia.

Last season, although he didn’t hit in that spot all too often, he did get a decent amount of reps leading off and looked strong doing so.

In 96 plate appearances across 22 contests in the one-hole, Garcia slashed .341/.404/.476 with a 10.4% walk rate, just a 10.4% K-rate and a 143 wRC+.

And much to his credit, while not leading off for Venezuela during their championship run, his presence in the two-hole in the order were instrumental in not only securing his nation’s first ever championship, but also his tournament MVP honors.

Now, in Kansas City that two hole is obviously occupied by the face franchise in Bobby Witt Jr. and should be for the foreseeable future. However, Garcia has proven that he can be a table-setter for the heart of the order in both the one and the two hole, so why not give him the vacant leadoff spot.

While some may have hesitancies around this decision considering how strong he looked as their primary clean-up option in 2025, the possibilities that creating more opportunities for Witt and the rest of heart of the order are just as exciting.

After receiving his well-deserved long-term extension this winter, Garcia and the Royals appear to be hitting the ground running in a potentially major new role.