The Kansas City Royals were on the brink of making the playoffs last season, they were in it until the final week of the season, despite the myriad of starting pitching injuries and hitters underperforming.
Things like that happen in baseball, everything doesn’t work out the way you want or plan for them to go. Last season, the usual suspects, Bobby Witt Jr., Salvy, Vinnie were all great. The bullpen for the most part was exceptional.
It was leaps by players like Maikel Garcia and Kyle Isbel. Taylor Clarke had a surprisingly good year, considering his expectations at the beginning of the season. Steven Cruz was a revelation out of the bullpen before suffering an injury. It was “role” players or “secondary” guys like this that helped the Royals get to another winning season of baseball.
There are plenty of candidates for the 2026 squad that could fill this role of surprise hero or big part of the team. Names like Jac Caglianone, Carter Jensen, Jonathan India come to mind immediately for me. Jac and Jensen are obviously still really young, so I don’t like calling them “role” players or “secondary” players, but the Royals are relying on those two to be huge parts of the team this season, so I feel like they fit into the category still.
The point being, outside the main cast of superstars that the Royals have, who would you pick to have a big 2026 season?
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