{"id":2153290,"date":"2025-11-13T03:51:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2153290"},"modified":"2025-11-13T03:51:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:51:21","slug":"how-2026-kc-royals-lineup-could-be-better-than-2025-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/how-2026-kc-royals-lineup-could-be-better-than-2025-season\/","title":{"rendered":"How 2026 KC Royals lineup could be better than 2025 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The initial round of candidates totaled roughly a dozen, a pool of phone interviews to fill two coaching vacancies on the Royals\u2019 hitting staff.<\/p>\n

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The team advanced nearly half of them to Kansas City for in-person conversations, where they settled on two announcements in the last four days: 32-year-old Connor Dawson<\/a> and MLB veteran player and coach Marcus Thames.<\/p>\n

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We can analyze the qualities that separated them from the pack, whether it be Dawson\u2019s creativity, grasp of hitter movements and the accompanying technology, or Thames\u2019 decades-long experience<\/a> working with some of the best hitters in the game.<\/p>\n

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But something else popped during the extensive interview process \u2014 something that most of the candidates themselves brought up.<\/p>\n

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Pitch selection.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCandidates,\u201d Royals general manager J.J. Picollo quipped, \u201cdo their homework.\u201d<\/p>\n

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They knew.<\/p>\n

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Their preparation for a job interview with the Royals prompted the same conclusions the Royals reached long ago: They have to make better decisions in the batter\u2019s box.<\/p>\n

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Kansas City has revised its hitting coaching staff this offseason, though with the same man at the top in Alec Zumwalt. But whoever was running the show<\/a>, pitch selection is always where the offseason talk would land.<\/p>\n

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Well, where it would continue to land.<\/p>\n

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The Royals finished 26th in runs scored, 20th in OPS and 18th in slugging percentage in 2025, but it\u2019s not as though Picollo talked about swing decisions for the first time Tuesday as he promoted the new-look staff in a Zoom call from baseball\u2019s GM meetings. They didn\u2019t need the interviews to reveal it.<\/p>\n

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In fact, when asked by The Star\u2019s Pete Grathoff where he hoped the offense would improve next year, Picollo mentioned there are a lot of areas they can enhance, \u201cwhether you go to on-base or you go to slugging (percentage), but it really is all predicated off your pitch selection.\u201d<\/p>\n

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They get it. They have long understood it, before and after these hires. You\u2019ve long known it matters, too.<\/p>\n

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But that conversation with Picollo on Tuesday morning got me thinking: How much<\/i> does it matter?<\/p>\n

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The Royals actually had two of the best hitters in baseball when swinging at pitches outside the strike zone, which seems contradictory to the point that I\u2019m trying to make here, but work with me. Maikel Garcia led baseball in slugging percentage on chase pitches. Bobby Witt was fourth, per Statcast<\/a> data.<\/p>\n

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You\u2019ll take that, right?<\/p>\n

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Well, not exactly.<\/p>\n

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There is still a Kauffman Stadium-sized gap between the damage they do on those pitches and the damage they do on strikes. Maikel Garcia might be better than any hitter in baseball at turning balls outside the zone into hits. But you know which hitter he is still worse than?<\/p>\n

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Maikel Garcia when swinging at strikes.<\/p>\n

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The same holds true for Witt \u2014 it especially<\/i> holds true for him. His expected slugging percentage \u2014 judged primarily by exit velocity and launch angle \u2014 is .304 points higher when a pitch thrown in the strike zone concludes a plate appearance.<\/p>\n

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Three hundred points higher.<\/p>\n

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He is of course not alone. The most common heart of the Royals\u2019 order last year \u2014 Witt, Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez \u2014 all had expected slugging percentages at least .300 points higher on pitches in the zone versus pitches outside the zone. Pasquantino\u2019s batting average was .162 points higher when working with strikes than when swinging at pitches off the plate.<\/p>\n

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There are players across baseball with even bigger gaps. But here\u2019s the relevant thing about the Royals: They chased bad pitches. A lot.<\/p>\n

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And here\u2019s another thing about the Royals: They made contact on chase pitches. A lot.<\/p>\n

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In other words, this all affected them at a greater frequency because they could not turn chase pitches into waste pitches.<\/p>\n

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The Royals had the ninth-highest chase percentage in baseball a year ago, and they also made contact on the third-highest percentage of those offerings. It helps explain why, at the onset of the offseason, Picollo wondered out loud if the Royals are striking out enough. There are some pitches you\u2019d probably rather swing through, so long as there are fewer than two strikes.<\/p>\n

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How will they attack all this? Or better yet: How will they attack it differently?<\/p>\n

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Picollo mentioned looking at positioning in the box \u2014 things that allow a batter to pick up the ball better or more quickly. That might be the hands. It might be the legs.<\/p>\n

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Or that might be where the change they made this week does factor in \u2014 the messenger.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about this before, but it doesn\u2019t mean different ideas (can\u2019t) resonate different with hitters,\u201d Picollo said. \u201cYou know, the messaging or the goal may have been the same all along, but sometimes just a little different message may unlock that thing that any particular hitter is looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s all placed under the easier-said-than-done file. There are reasons that teams spend considerable time evaluating which prospects make good swing decisions before adding them to the organization. These habits can be tough to break.<\/p>\n

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But the takeaway from the numbers is that the changes don\u2019t need to be drastic to make an impact. If the Royals chase even 3% less often, that\u2019s 3% less often they\u2019re letting a bad pitch determine the outcome of an at-bat and 3% more often they\u2019re working into a better count to see a pitch they actually do hit well.<\/p>\n

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And the Royals need to find themselves in more hitters\u2019 counts. They saw the second fewest 3-1 counts in the league in 2025 \u2014 a count in which the worst<\/i> team in baseball still posted a .913 OPS.<\/p>\n

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Consider this relationship: The Yankees, Dodgers and Brewers led baseball in runs. Oh, and the Yankees, Dodgers and Brewers finished with the three lowest chase percentages in baseball.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s what this is all about, incrementally putting yourself in the best position. It\u2019s oversimplifying the entire art, sure. There\u2019s a heck of a lot more to hitting a baseball than pitch selection. The pair of hitting coach staff additions are brought in to work on that heck of a lot more.<\/p>\n

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But that\u2019s the point. There\u2019s a lot to it.<\/p>\n

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What could make it incrementally easier? If it all starts with a good decision in the batter\u2019s box.<\/p>\n

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Related Stories from Kansas City Star<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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Sam McDowell<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Kansas City Star<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sam McDowell is a columnist for The Star who has covered Kansas City sports for more than a decade. He has won national awards for columns, features and enterprise work. The Headliner Awards named him the 2024 national sports columnist of the year.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The initial round of candidates totaled roughly a dozen, a pool of phone interviews to fill two coaching vacancies on the Royals\u2019 hitting staff. The team advanced nearly half of them to Kansas City for in-person conversations, where they settled on two announcements in the last four days: 32-year-old Connor Dawson and MLB veteran player […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2153291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[384307,408919,412126,410562,27155],"class_list":["post-2153290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-alec-zumwalt","tag-connor-dawson","tag-hitting-coaches","tag-marcus-thames","tag-royals"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/How-2026-KC-Royals-lineup-could-be-better-than-2025.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2153290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2153292,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153290\/revisions\/2153292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2153291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2153290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2153290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2153290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}