Maikel Garcia injury forced Royals into meaningful lineup changes that are working

While the Kansas City Royals were in the process of getting swept by the Texas Rangers over the weekend, they also had to deal with the painful reality that one of their few more productive bats was on his way to the sidelines. On Saturday, Maikel Garcia would be lifted from the 7-6 loss early with a hamstring injury, forcing the Royals to make changes to the top half of their order.

They’d already tested out moving Garcia out of the leadoff role to start the series, with Lane Thomas starting in the one hole on Friday and Carter Jensen moving there on Saturday. However, the option to revert back to Garcia at leadoff was suddenly eliminated, forcing Matt Quatraro to stick with his initial instincts to make a switch in the first place.

Then, after Sunday’s game didn’t go to plan with Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez going a combined 0-for-9 with three strikeouts in the three and four holes, respectively, Monday’s game brought the next wave of changes as the Royals tried to snap another six-game losing streak. They would end up keeping Pasquantino in the three spot, but moving Jac Caglianone into the clean-up role.

And they immediately saw results with this move. Caglianone would go 2-for-4 with a homer (off a left-handed pitcher I’ll add), two RBI and a walk. This would serve as one of the key contributions to a 9-3 thrashing of the Cincinnati Reds on the road.

Looking back at the leadoff spot, while Jensen wasn’t particularly great on Monday, he still managed to contribute to the run scoring effort by drawing a first inning walk and coming around to score on the Lane Thomas grand slam. Overall, Jensen has held his own in the three straight games he’s appeared in the leadoff spot, with a respectable .747 OPS and 104 wRC+ including a two-run homer right off the hop on Saturday.

Maikel Garcia may be best suited away from the leadoff role moving forward

Now, it’s not as if Garcia was doing anything overly wrong in the leadoff spot this season, however he simply hasn’t been the hitter Royals fans got excited about last season or even this winter during the World Baseball Classic.

This season, all but three of his games have come in the one hole. In that spot, he’s hitting .264 with a .702 OPS. Not bad by any means, but very average looking.

That being said, diving deeper into his splits. We all know how strong he was last season when it came to hitting in the three hole like he did before his injury on Saturday. While he moved around a fair bit the order in 2025, in the 23 games hitting third behind Bobby Witt Jr., he posted a .289 AVG with an .836 OPS and 129 wRC+.

And there’s plenty of reason to believe he’d thrive hitting lower in the order this season. While his .294 AVG is certainly strong with the bases empty this season, a .304 AVG with runners in scoring position seems to be something that would be more valuable to the Royals at this point in time. Considering they hold sixth lowest AVG of any team with RISP as well as the lowest OPS and wRC+, they could use all the help they can get there.

The Royals will certainly want Garcia back in there lineup sooner rather than later – and reports indicate that that will hopefully be soon. However, when he does arrive back, early signs are proving they should ride their current success and have him contribute beyond the leadoff role moving forward.