{"id":2296663,"date":"2026-02-24T01:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2296663"},"modified":"2026-02-24T01:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:44:12","slug":"young-sluggers-no-5-starter-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/young-sluggers-no-5-starter-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Sluggers, No. 5 Starter Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Kansas City Royals were active this offseason, addressing areas that kept them out of the postseason in 2025. The club made several notable additions to both the lineup and pitching staff, creating key decisions as it shapes its Opening Day roster.<\/p>\n

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Spring training is underway, giving Kansas City the next few weeks to evaluate its roster before making final cuts. Several players are firmly on the radar, and with a strong camp, they could position themselves to earn a spot on the Opening Day roster.<\/p>\n

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Without further ado, let\u2019s project what the roster will look like on March 27th in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

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If you like our content, <\/strong><\/em>choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Royals Opening Day Roster Projection 1.0<\/h2>\n

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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n

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Jul 20, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Kansas City Royals right fielder Jac Caglianone (14) looks on after the game against the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

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Lineup:<\/strong>
Maikel Garcia 3B\u00a0<\/strong>
Bobby Witt Jr. SS<\/strong>
Vinnie Pasquantino 1B<\/strong>
Salvador Perez C<\/strong>
Isaac Collins LF\u00a0<\/strong>
Lane Thomas RF\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>
Jac Caglianone DH<\/strong>
Jonathan India 2B<\/strong>
Kyle Isbel CF<\/strong><\/p>\n

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One of the biggest questions heading into Opening Day is where young sluggers Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen will land. With Chris Sale on the mound for the Atlanta Braves in Game 1, the decision at designated hitter is not an easy one.<\/p>\n

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Despite Jensen\u2019s outstanding debut in September 2025, the Royals appear eager to see the continued development from Caglianone this season which could give him the edge on Opening Day.<\/p>\n

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Bench\/Utility:
Carter Jensen
Nick Loftin
Michael Massey
Tyler Tolbert<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Some of these spots remain up for grabs and could ultimately hinge on how players perform during camp. Given manager Matt Quatraro\u2019s reliance on analytics and matchup data, those pinch-hitting roles could shift based on performance and roster needs.<\/p>\n

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Rotation:
Cole Ragans (L)
Seth Lugo (R)
Michael Wacha (R)
Kris Bubic (L)
Noah Cameron (L)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Royals appear to have a solidified top four in the rotation with Ragans, Lugo, Wacha\u00a0and Bubic. The No. 5 spot remains the most competitive battle in camp, but it is difficult to overlook the season Cameron\u00a0put together last year, which gives him an early edge.<\/p>\n

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That said, a six-man rotation remains a realistic possibility given Kansas City\u2019s pitching depth.<\/p>\n

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Bullpen:
Steven Cruz
Daniel Lynch IV
Nick Mears
Alex Lange
John Schreiber
Matt Strahm
Lucas Erceg\u00a0
Carlos Est\u00e9vez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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For now, this feels like the safest bullpen group. As mentioned earlier, the Royals have enough starting depth that pitchers who do not make the rotation could still carve out roles in relief.<\/p>\n

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One of Kansas City\u2019s most notable offseason moves was trading for\u00a0Matt Strahm. Pairing him with Lucas Erceg\u00a0and Carlos Est\u00e9vez\u00a0will give the Royals a dynamic late-inning trio capable of slamming the door when it matters most.<\/p>\n

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More MLB: <\/strong><\/em>Former First-Round Pick a Dark-Horse Candidate to Make Royals’ Roster<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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\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.si.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kansas City Royals were active this offseason, addressing areas that kept them out of the postseason in 2025. The club made several notable additions to both the lineup and pitching staff, creating key decisions as it shapes its Opening Day roster. Spring training is underway, giving Kansas City the next few weeks to evaluate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2296664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2296663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Young-Sluggers-No-5-Starter-Battle.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296663","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=2296663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2296665,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296663\/revisions\/2296665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2296664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2296663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2296663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2296663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}