ESPN’s take on Royals’ biggest success and failure in 2025 should surprise no one

As the Kansas City Royals play out the string in the regular season with just eight games to go, the postseason looks increasingly unlikely. That means that it’s officially time to start looking towards 2026 and figuring out what worked and what didn’t in 2025. ESPN has a pretty good idea about KC should consider a success and what the Kauffman denizens should consider a failure.

To the surprise of no one, columnist Bradford Doolittle believes the big success for the Royals this season was the pitching staff. Whether talking about Kris Bubic or Noah Cameron, the rotation did everything it could to keep the club afloat.

Meanwhile, Doolittle made it clear that he believes the offense held the Kansas City Royals back this year. Despite breakout seasons from guys like Maikel Garcia, he’s definitely right there too.

The Kansas City Royals rotation was among the best in baseball, but their offense was among the worst

“Kansas City has MLB’s sixth-best rotation ERA. Whether it’s converting relievers (Kris Bubic),” Doolittle wrote. “Developing midlevel prospects (Noah Cameron) or identifying trade targets (Ryan Bergert), the Royals have become adept at finding rotation answers that fit their system.”

He also laid out why the offense was the big weakness of the franchise.

“Bobby Witt Jr. remains a superstar. Maikel Garcia has been one of baseball’s most improved players. Vinnie Pasquantino remains a high-level run producer,” Doolittle worte. “But other than a midseason surge, the Royals have just not been able to score consistently enough to hang in the playoff chase, despite their elite pitching-and-defense combo.”

“They’ve tried to paper over their holes with trades during the season, but the baseline for the lineup is just too low to fix on the fly,” he wrote.

Neither of those issues was a secret by any means. The Kansas City Royals likely know quite well where they need to find a solution this offseason. Here’s hoping they get it done in order to better position themselves for a more successful 2026 campaign.