Royals could be making early pitching mistakes after pair of surprising roster cuts

The Kansas City Royals are inching closer to getting the 2026 season underway, with Game 1 kicking off Friday night in Atlanta.

And the roster construction has been fully underway as well, with the Royals determining which names will have a role in the Opening Day 26-man clubhouse and which will open the year as depth in the minor leagues.

After they surprised several among the Royals sphere last week when they sent Ryan Bergert to Omaha, they doubled down this week by optioning a pair of spring training standouts and big league bullpen pieces last season down to Omaha to start the season in Steven Cruz and Luinder Avila.

With a rotation largely set, other than maybe the fifth starter role, a majority of the questions came in the bullpen. And with those questions lower down in the big league depth chart, as well as one major one arising with their closer in Carlos Estévez and his slow ramp-up, names like Cruz and Avila could be argued as ones to really get them started on the right foot.

Royals may regret their decision to open the 2026 season without Steven Cruz and Luinder Avila

Spring training stats aren’t the be-all-end-all by any means, but it’s hard to look at the Cruz and Avila and not think that they did enough to warrant returning to this bullpen again.

Through 5.2 innings of Cactus League action, Cruz was throwing to a 1.59 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and .150 BAA while striking out 11.12 hitters per nine.

Then, there’s Avila, the more multi-inning specialist. While it may’ve been only 4.0 innings of work across two outings due to his involvement with Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, he still looked the part plenty in Surprise. He sported a 2.25 ERA and 9.00 K/9.

While spring training stats can be scrutinized to a degree, what can’t be disregarded as much (if at all) are how they looked in past seasons, or in Avila’s case at the World Baseball Classic.

Cruz is coming off a year where he stepped onto the big league scene early and never gave the Royals the chance to send him back to Omaha. In 45.2 innings in 2025, Cruz tossed to a respectable 3.74 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and .212 BAA and in the first half of the season in particular, he was a staple in Matt Quatraro’s ‘pen.

Avila’s time in Kansas City was more limited than Cruz’s last year, but it looked even more impressive. In 14.0 innings of work, the Royals’ promising prospect arm posted a 1.29 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, .140 BAA and 10.29 K/9.

Then, there’s the World Baseball Classic, where Avila turned it on with eyes of the world watching during Venezuela’s run to their first WBC title in their nation’s history. He didn’t surrender an earned run in the tournament and his performance against Italy in the semi-finals was crucial to their eventual triumph.

Available options are likely the motivating factor for these decisions, but with MLB.com’s Anne Rogers reporting names like Bailey Falter and Alex Lange are “expected” to be in the Opening Day bullpen, it’s hard to see the complete logic behind it.

Putting aside the fact that Cruz and Avila’s spring training numbers were better, although Falter had respectable track record as starter, his poor first impression on the mound with the Royals in 2025 makes him a somewhat skeptical decision to be a long-man.

Then with Lange, although he was once a strong-looking closing option with the Detroit Tigers back in his prime, he’s suffered with struggles both in performance and in health in recent years, throwing just 19.2 innings over the past two seasons.

The Royals only started the season 16-15 through the month’s of March and April last season and ended the year at just 82-20. This makes it imperative that they hit the ground running from Day 1 and waste no-time establishing themselves as a contender.

And perhaps the inclusion of Cruz and Avila would’ve shored up a lot of questions this bullpen unit still has.