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The Royals were officially eliminated from the playoff race<\/a> minutes before taking the field for a game last week, so manager Matt Quatraro approached the everyday players seeking feedback.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHow do you want to play this out?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It had been a grind of a season, some 156 games into it, and now the final six would have literally zero effect on their playoff fate. He was offering his top players a day off or two.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThey looked at me like I was nuts,\u201d Quatraro said Tuesday, before recalling their response:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We\u2019re playing. Every day.<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Royals won a game that night, and won four of their final six, to finish 82-80 and reach just their second winning season in the last decade.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Which makes this a bit of a paradox, because we\u2019re here to analyze why the Royals fell short<\/i> in 2025.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The exercise itself is illustrative of an elevated standard. But it results in a most glaring reply: The Royals scored 84 fewer runs in 2025 than they did in 2024, which is why they were holding a season-ending news conference Tuesday as opposed to preparing for the opening game of the postseason, as they were this time a year ago.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The most compelling news from that conference came swiftly from general manager J.J. Picollo:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Alec Zumwalt will return as Kansas City\u2019s hitting coach in 2026.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You could get lost in that headline, fooled into thinking the Royals are content with where this offense stands. But context never hurt anyone, right? The Royals are not running back a lineup and offensive staff that finished 26th in runs and simply praying for better results.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They want change.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just not with the man in charge.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Over the course of a 45-minute media session, Picollo listed the job employment that won\u2019t change but spent the majority of his time talking about the things that will change offensively. The things that must change.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That will include the potential of staff adjustments, possibly an addition to the room. They spent those final six days evaluating how that might look, though they\u2019ve yet to reach a final conclusion. \u201cWhat are we missing?\u201d Picollo has asked his staff.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He wants the athleticism to pop more on the bases, though the Royals cannot run into outs at the same clip. He wants to evaluate swing decisions. He wants to evaluate, well, everything.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We could delve deeper into the weeds, but the point is the Royals will be doing the digging on their own. Picollo even asked aloud Tuesday if the Royals are striking out enough<\/i>. No team struck out less than the Royals did. They used to wear that as a badge of honor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe have to look at that. Is that good or bad? Is that getting us to where we want to go?\u201d Picollo said. \u201cGenerally speaking, not striking out is good, but if you\u2019re making early outs and weak contact, we have to adjust that.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s a change, and maybe an overdue one \u2014 even if the voice in the room will be the same.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, let\u2019s talk about that voice in the room. Why are the Royals sticking with the hitting coach of the league\u2019s 26th-best offense?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Picollo talked about relationships, game-plan preparation and processes, but the answer is actually pretty simple: It\u2019s hard to fire the hitting coach when the star players are producing, and even harder yet when they all credit the processes for that production.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 Bobby Witt Jr. will follow his runner-up MVP season by likely finishing third. He\u2019s worked with Zumwalt his entire professional career.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 Salvador Perez eclipsed 25 home runs in back-to-back seasons for just the second time in his career and drove in 100 runs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in his life.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 Vinnie Pasquantino followed up one career season with another. He\u2019s also worked with Zumwalt his entire professional career.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 Maikel Garcia turned into a literal All-Star this year, and the primary reason why \u2014 removing a leg kick in favor of a toe tap<\/a> \u2014 can be directly traced to the hitting coach.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you\u2019re the Royals, those are the four players you need most. They\u2019re all hitting.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The overall team output is about the rest of the body of work. And yes, if we\u2019re crediting Zumwalt with those core four, he\u2019s not just absolved from the rest of it. An additional five home runs would have counted the same, no matter whose barrel connected with them. Zumwalt has ownership in the lack of production from the bottom of the lineup.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But so does a front office that searched far and wide for a corner outfielder a year ago and found only a second baseman who could not play the position.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Which is the important part: If Picollo has determined Zumwalt to still be the right fit for the job \u2014 and the players separately voiced their approval \u2014 it\u2019s simultaneously an admission that he needs to provide him with some better supporting tools in 2026.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Where does that lead? He didn\u2019t offer specifics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To be clear, that\u2019s not to say these<\/i> players can\u2019t do some re-tooling of their own. They can.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Royals swung at the fewest first pitches in baseball, just 28.2% of them, yet the rest of the league does far more damage on first pitches than any other pitch in the count.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They swung at the sixth-fewest strikes, yet they had the ninth-highest chase percentage in baseball, as mystifying a combination as it is a frustrating one. They let meatballs \u2014 middle-of-the-strike-zone pitches \u2014 pass without much consequence. (All of those numbers are courtesy of Statcast<\/a>.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Irrespective of the talent, the swing decisions have to change.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That\u2019s among the ways the results can change.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Even if they opted for consistency at the top.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n