{"id":2276604,"date":"2026-02-11T00:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T00:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2276604"},"modified":"2026-02-11T00:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T00:31:14","slug":"kc-royals-set-2026-goals-with-desire-to-make-playoff-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/kc-royals-set-2026-goals-with-desire-to-make-playoff-return\/","title":{"rendered":"KC Royals set 2026 goals with desire to make playoff return"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/p>\nSURPRISE, Ariz.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Kansas City Royals had an early call time Tuesday morning. Multiple players arrived at the facility well before the sun nestled into place.<\/p>\n

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It led to some interesting banter. There were first introductions \u2014 accompanied by a customary handshake \u2014 in the clubhouse. Across the room, there were groups of players engaging in detailed offseason recaps.<\/p>\n

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Royals reliever Lucas Erceg became a new father<\/a>. Bobby Witt Jr. was busy enjoying some temporary work<\/a> at a Dallas Stars game.<\/p>\n

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The clubhouse felt like a fresh start. For the Royals, Tuesday\u2019s official report date for pitchers and catchers held special meaning. It was the beginning of what the team hopes is a long-term run of playoff success.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe feel like we\u2019ve got the guys in here to be able to do that,\u201d Wacha said. \u201cYou know, we were right there on the cusp of it last year, and we were able to learn some things about our squad and hopefully made some adjustments over the offseason to get back to where we want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Royals will hold their first workout for pitchers and catchers Wednesday. The first full-squad workout is set for Feb. 16.<\/p>\n

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This offseason, the Royals focused on improving their outfield depth<\/a> and bullpen. The club acquired outfielder Isaac Collins and reliever Nick Mears from the Milwaukee Brewers. Additionally, the Royals added veteran relief duo Matt Strahm and Alex Lange to bolster the late innings.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou know, the more experience you have down there, the more opportunity for success,\u201d Erceg said. \u201c… It\u2019s all gonna help us create success a little bit more consistently. As long as we are all on the same page and doing the right things, I don\u2019t doubt that we\u2019re gonna turn some heads this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In a lot of ways, the Royals felt they elevated their roster. The club surrounded its top core \u2014 Witt, Maikel Garcia, Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez \u2014 with supporting pieces to accelerate the current timeline.<\/p>\n

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The offense should make a significant leap in 2026. That is due to both the new additions and the club\u2019s decision to move the outfield fences in<\/a> at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals expect an influx of extra-base hits as the changes are tailored to their lineup.<\/p>\n

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In the same vein, the pitchers welcome the new challenge.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m not even thinking about it really,\u201d Wacha said. \u201cAs a pitcher, at least for me, you know, I\u2019m going to stick to what\u2019s worked for me. I tend to be more of a flyball pitcher, but I feel like I\u2019m able to get weak contact at times as well. Hopefully, rely on that weak contact and get a bit more swing and miss than I did last year. I\u2019m not too worried about it though.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Royals open Cactus League play on Feb. 20 against the Texas Rangers at Surprise Stadium. The spring training opener will give fans a first look at the new additions and some of the intriguing prospects in camp.<\/p>\n

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Each game will be important in varying ways. The Royals look to be fundamentally sound as they try to make a run in the American League Central. Those divisional games are close contests that can be decided by a few plays.<\/p>\n

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And in the Royals\u2019 case, the one-run defeats must end in 2026. It\u2019s why the preparation in February and March is key to the success of the team.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think we had a lot of games where we were right there \u2014 whether we were losing and coming back and one run down,\u201d Royals starter Noah Cameron said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a lot of really good hitting coordinators and a hitting lineup. I think our lineup is awesome this year, so I\u2019m super excited to watch them work. I think our pitching staff is unbelievable. The whole group I think is going to be really good.\u201d<\/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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Jaylon Thompson<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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Jaylon Thompson covers the Royals for The Kansas City Star. He previously covered the 2021 World Series and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jaylon is a proud alumnus of the University of Georgia.<\/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":"

SURPRISE, Ariz. The Kansas City Royals had an early call time Tuesday morning. Multiple players arrived at the facility well before the sun nestled into place. It led to some interesting banter. There were first introductions \u2014 accompanied by a customary handshake \u2014 in the clubhouse. Across the room, there were groups of players engaging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2056456,"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":[91466,43627,311237,25866,416135],"class_list":["post-2276604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-bobby-witt-jr","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-michael-wacha","tag-mlb","tag-spring-training"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Cole-Ragans-shines-as-KC-Royals-finish-2025-on-high.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276604","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=2276604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2276605,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276604\/revisions\/2276605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2056456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2276604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2276604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2276604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}