{"id":2212457,"date":"2025-12-26T04:16:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T04:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2212457"},"modified":"2025-12-26T04:16:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T04:16:28","slug":"where-the-royals-stand-in-the-2026-al-central-hierarchy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/where-the-royals-stand-in-the-2026-al-central-hierarchy\/","title":{"rendered":"Where the Royals Stand in the 2026 AL Central Hierarchy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Kansas City Royals finished the 2025 season with an 82-80 record, landing them in third place in the AL Central behind the division-champion Cleveland Guardians and the Detroit Tigers.<\/p>\n

After making the playoffs in 2024, the Royals took a step back last year, but the pieces are in place for a potential bounce-back campaign in 2026.<\/p>\n

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A Look at the 2025 AL Central<\/h2>\n

The AL Central was defined by one of the most dramatic comebacks in baseball history last season.<\/p>\n

The Guardians overcame a 15.5-game deficit to the Tigers and captured the division title on the final day of the regular season, with Detroit collapsing down the stretch and settling for a Wild Card spot.<\/p>\n

The Royals sat just outside the playoff picture all season, never quite able to string together enough wins to make a serious push despite solid pitching and the continued brilliance of shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Kansas City’s 82-80 record put them above the Minnesota Twins and the rebuilding Chicago White Sox, but the Royals know they need more to compete with Cleveland and Detroit next year.<\/p>\n

The Royals’ Offseason So Far<\/h2>\n

Kansas City has been busy this winter addressing key roster needs, and the bullpen has been a major focus.<\/p>\n

The Royals acquired left-hander Matt Strahm<\/a> from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for right-hander Jonathan Bowlan on December 19th, bringing back a former Royal who has become one of the best lefty relievers in baseball over the past three seasons with a 2.71 ERA across 188 appearances in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

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Strahm joins a bullpen that also added righty Alex Lange earlier in the offseason, and the club traded reliever Angel Zerpa to Milwaukee for outfielder Isaac Collins and right-hander Nick Mears.<\/p>\n

With closer Carlos Estevez and setup man Lucas Erceg already in place, the Royals could have one of the stronger back-end bullpens in the American League heading into 2026.<\/p>\n

The front office also locked up third baseman Maikel Garcia<\/a> to a five-year extension worth $57.5 million with a club option for a sixth year, ensuring the left side of the infield stays together alongside Witt Jr. through at least 2030.<\/p>\n

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How the Royals Can Compete<\/h2>\n

The path to contention in the AL Central runs through improved offense, and the Royals know it.<\/p>\n

Kansas City posted a 93 wRC+ in 2025, ranking among the lowest-scoring teams in baseball, and the outfield remains a problem area that needs to be addressed before Opening Day.<\/p>\n

The pitching staff should be a strength again with Cole Ragans<\/a> returning healthy after a rotator cuff strain limited him to just 10 starts last season, and veterans Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha anchoring the rotation alongside breakout performers like Kris Bubic and Noah Cameron.<\/p>\n

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If the offense can simply get to league-average production, the Royals have the arms to compete with anyone in the division.<\/p>\n

Breakout Candidates for 2026<\/h2>\n

Carter Jensen<\/a> \u2013 The 22-year-old catcher and Kansas City native made his MLB debut in September and showed exactly why he’s one of the top catching prospects in baseball, slashing .300\/.391\/.550 with three home runs and six doubles in just 60 at-bats.<\/p>\n

Jensen’s power and improving defensive skills make him a candidate to push for significant playing time behind Salvador Perez next season, and he could eventually become the long-term answer at catcher.<\/p>\n

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Maikel Garcia \u2013 While Garcia already broke out in 2025 with a .286\/.351\/.449 line, 16 home runs, and his first All-Star appearance and Gold Glove Award, the 25-year-old could take another step forward in 2026.<\/p>\n

His improved plate discipline and willingness to drive the ball in the air transformed him from a contact-first slap hitter into a legitimate middle-of-the-order threat, and his 5.8 WAR tied Jose Ramirez for the best mark among all third basemen.<\/p>\n

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Cole Ragans \u2013 Ragans was electric when healthy in 2025, and his three late-season starts after returning from injury showed his arm is still capable of dominating hitters with a 2.77 ERA, 0.77 WHIP and 22 strikeouts in 13 innings.<\/p>\n

A full, healthy season from the 27-year-old could mean a return to his 2024 form when he finished fourth in AL Cy Young voting.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/h2>\n

The Royals have the building blocks to compete in 2026, with Witt Jr. and Garcia forming one of the best left sides of the infield in baseball, a deep rotation, and a revamped bullpen.<\/p>\n

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The question marks remain in the outfield and with the overall offensive production, but if Kansas City can find a few more bats this offseason and get full seasons from their key players, they have a real shot at returning to the postseason for the first time since their Wild Card run in 2024.<\/p>\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 ca.sports.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kansas City Royals finished the 2025 season with an 82-80 record, landing them in third place in the AL Central behind the division-champion Cleveland Guardians and the Detroit Tigers. After making the playoffs in 2024, the Royals took a step back last year, but the pieces are in place for a potential bounce-back campaign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2212458,"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":[360043,416711,319690,91466,308583,360072,313221,311239,345193,424369,353432,366847,310650,43627,311278,311283,313842,349016,311237,313216,327041,424370,314825,357712,77699,244474,22091,329003],"class_list":["post-2212457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-al-central","tag-alex-lange","tag-bobby-witt","tag-bobby-witt-jr","tag-carlos-estevez","tag-carter-jensen","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-cole-ragans","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-isaac-collins","tag-jonathan-bowlan","tag-jose-ramirez","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-kris-bubic","tag-lucas-erceg","tag-maikel-garcia","tag-matt-strahm","tag-michael-wacha","tag-milwaukee","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-nick-mears","tag-noah-cameron","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-salvador-perez","tag-seth-lugo","tag-the-royals","tag-white-sox"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Where-the-Royals-Stand-in-the-2026-AL-Central-Hierarchy.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212457","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=2212457"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2212459,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212457\/revisions\/2212459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2212458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2212457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2212457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2212457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}