Royals’ infatuation with struggling speedster is doing floundering offense no favors

The Kansas City Royals offense is struggling right now and once again found itself in the familiar position of costing the team the game on Tuesday in Detroit. Many fans will point the blame at struggling stars like Salvador Perez and Vinnie Pasquantino or familiar underperformers in Jac Caglianone and they would be entirely valid in doing so. However, there’s not much the Royals can do from a roster perspective in those cases, as the likelihood they’d make a change and option those names to Triple-A is either impossible or slim to none.

That being said, those aren’t the only offensive underachievers on the Royals’ roster this season and some of them do provide the team with the option to make a quick move thanks to minor league options. And right now, the prime name to be sent down to Omaha is Tyler Tolbert. The utility speed threat looks good in theory, but in reality has offered the Royals no real value this season.

Royals fans are well aware of how little he provides with the bat, having never posted an above-average wRC+ season in his professional career since the 107 mark he sported in his 19 plate appearance-cameo in High-A back in 2021.

However, his inability to make quality contact, which was only magnified by his lazy groundballs in his two plate appearances on Tuesday, doesn’t generate anything for this stagnant offense.

On top of that, his elite speed hasn’t nearly been an asset to the Royals this season given the fact that they’ve hardly have any opportunities to meaningfully deploy a late-game pinch runner. The Royals sit within the bottom three in MLB in hits, the bottom five in AVG and the bottom 10 in OBP. Where exactly does that give Tolbert the opportunity to hop on the basepaths?

And it’s not as if the Royals don’t have speed elsewhere in this lineup. Bobby Witt Jr. is obviously a 30 stolen base threat any given year, Maikel Garcia has been above 20 the past three seasons and even the veteran Starling Marte is a double-digit threat on his best days.

There’s plenty of Tyler Tolbert replacements within the Royals organization

The frustrating thing about Tolbert continuing to occupy a roster spot is that it’s not as if the Royals are without other names to test out. Plenty of names that provide much more offensively than Tolbert are sitting (and thriving) in Omaha as we speak.

If Kansas City wants to make things simple and look to the 40-man roster, Kameron Misner is one of the Triple-A’s elite run producers so far this season. His 17 RBI rank only behind Yankees Top 10 prospect Spencer Jones in the International League. On top his ability to cash in runs, he’s just been a sound hitter all around, slashing .319/.431/.596 with a 17.2% walk rate, a sub-20.0% K-rate and a 168 wRC+.

Then, there’s Nick Loftin, who’s already been in the majors with the Royals this season and while he wasn’t out of this world by any means, he still found a way to be a productive offensive contributor when called upon with a 106 wRC+ in his 11 plate appearances before being sent down. All the while, he offers just as much positional versatility as Tolbert does.

The Royals would even be better off giving someone like John Rave another chance. Sure, he’s let them down before, but he’s proving to be at least a “Quad-A” type of hitter after capturing International League Player of the Week honors last week. With a bat as cold Tolbert’s, without his speed he’s likely not a name the Royals would remotely consider for a big league roster spot.

On top of that, there’s plenty of major league veterans currently sitting in Omaha that could do a job. Both Josh Rojas and Kevin Newman are utility men themselves and both have OPS totals above .800 at the moment.

And from a prospect perspective, while he’s not healthy at the moment, when he does return, Peyton Wilson has looked like a strong call-up candidate with his .308 AVG and .811 OPS this season. He too is also a source for speed, coming off a 20 steal season across the upper minors in 2025.

There’s plenty of other names at the Royals’ disposal that could offer so much more to this offense starving for production at the plate, which makes riding with Tolbert that much more confusing.