With the Winter Meetings just a mere matter of days away, the offseason rumor mill is in full swing and there’s been no shortage of buzz around the Royals and how they might go about addressing their pressing needs.
One of those needs, which Royals fans will be well aware of by now, is their outfield, specifically finding ways to better the offensive production there in 2026 after an abysmal 73 wRC+ from their band of outfielders in 2025.
Several analysts and insiders have gone about trying to find the best possible solutions to this problem and earlier this week, MLB.com’s Anne Rogers was the latest to weigh in.
Rogers listed five names (four trade candidates and one free agent target) that “could fit in the Royals’ vision for their 2026 offense.”
While names like Boston’s Jarren Duran, St. Louis’ Brendan Donovan and free agent Harrison Bader were included and are easy to see the vision behind, there a couple of names that held their fair share of red flags on this list, including Colorado Rockies center fielder Brenton Doyle.
And in the case of Doyle, these aren’t just red flags, they’re full on dealbreakers.
Royals should avoid trading for Rockies’ Gold Glove center fielder Brenton Doyle
After his 2024 breakout season, if Kansas City were to consider a trade for him last winter it would make more sense. Sure he may’ve only been a 97 wRC+ hitter, but a .260 AVG and .764 OPS with 23 HR, 72 RBI and 30 stolen bases in just his second season in the majors gave reason for excitement around further growth.
Not to mention, he was a near-average hitter that made up for his offensive mediocrity with world class defense, capturing his second career Gold Glove Award at the premium position of center field thanks to 11 DRS, 14 OAA and a 14 FRV.
However, 2025 came along, and was frankly a disaster for Doyle. While not much went right for the 43-win Rockies in general, Doyle’s step back was arguably the most disappointing storyline for them.
He wasn’t just bad, he looked completely unrecognizable to his form the year prior. His average dropped 27 points to an underwhelming .233 mark, his OPS fell 113 points to .651 and his once near-average 97 wRC+ suddenly turned into a very low 65 wRC+.
On top of that, his speed was lacking, dropping from 30 stolen bases to 18, and that game changing defense just looked simply good, posting 0 DRS and just 6 OAA.
All of this culminated in Doyle going from a very respectable 3.6 fWAR in ’24, to just a pedestrian 0.4 fWAR in ’25.
Now, given the young stage of his big league career, Rogers mentioned that there could still be a bounce back in him in the future.
“The 27-year-old is an elite center fielder and not a free agent until 2030, and with only three seasons under his belt, perhaps there’s more in there,” Rogers wrote. “
However, on top of touching on the risk a trade for him may be, Rogers also discussed that, as a center fielder, Doyle really wouldn’t offer that much of a different look to Kansas City’s current center fielder in Kyle Isbel.
“The Royals would have to be confident in [more being in there], though, because Doyle does a lot of the same things that current Kansas City center fielder Kyle Isbel – a Gold Glove finalist – does, except Isbel struck out less than Doyle (18.1% compared to 25.7% in ‘25),” she wrote.
He may be a right-handed hitter, which the Royals would covet, but he’s always had some offensive limitations, has not appeared in the corner outfield at the major league level and has declined defensively every season since his 2023 debut.
Even with a weaker outfield market this season, Doyle still seems he has a lot to prove, too much maybe. And for a contending hopeful like Kansas City, they can’t afford to take on the risk of another name looking to rejuvenate their career.
They know firsthand already just how that situation can come back to bite them down the road.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
