{"id":2339665,"date":"2026-03-21T06:49:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T06:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2339665"},"modified":"2026-03-21T06:49:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T06:49:37","slug":"previewing-red-sox-playoff-rivals-the-kansas-city-royals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/previewing-red-sox-playoff-rivals-the-kansas-city-royals\/","title":{"rendered":"Previewing Red Sox Playoff Rivals: The Kansas City Royals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"\"><em>As the Red Sox approach Opening Day, it\u2019s time to start taking at look at the other American League playoff contenders. Next up, a team that\u2019s led by an MVP candidate.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"heading\">What\u2019s this team\u2019s deal?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\">In 2024 the Royals bounced back from a 106-loss season to win 86 games and finish in second place in the AL Central. Those Royals would sweep their Wild Card series against the Baltimore Orioles before falling to the Yankees in the ALDS. It looked like a Kansas City miracle. 2025 would see a chunk of that progress fall back to earth. Regression to the mean comes for us all. But they still won 82 games last year.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This winter the Royals added outfielders Starling Marte and Lane Thomas. They\u2019ll join top prospect Jac Caglianone in his sophomore season in the majors. Caglianone is fresh off a WBC run with Team Italy that saw him slash .286\/.500\/.571 with a home run and a K:BB of 4:5. Extreme sample and quality sizes abound with the WBC, but this is a guy who put up a OPS north of 1.000 in AAA. They\u2019re expecting some runs like that mixed into a full season.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"heading\">How good are they?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\">Bobby Witt Jr. was a superstar again and finished fourth in AL MVP voting. He was an All Star. He won a Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove. When you commit to essentially a forever deal with a player, that\u2019s what you want to see.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">KC also saw a breakout season for third baseman Maikel Garcia. He finished 14th in MVP voting, was an All Star, won a Silver Slugger, and earned himself an extension that runs at least through 2030. Oh yeah, he also won WBC MVP this week after Venezuela took the championship. From Opening Day 2025 to Opening Day 2026 he\u2019s had a pretty good year.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"content-figure\">\n<div class=\"content-image\"><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"lightbox-btn\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"lightbox-expand\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Image Lightbox\" class=\"lightbox-overlay\" aria-modal=\"true\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"fig-caption\"\/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"\">Vinnie Pasquantino bounced back from an injury-shortened 2024 season to play in 160 games last year, hitting .264\/.323\/.475 with a personal best 32 home runs. \u201cWhere\u2019s the f\u2019ing wine?\u201c indeed. Pasquatch looks ready to be the solid contributor at first base they need. Especially when he\u2019s beaned up.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The starting rotation features Cole Ragans, Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, Noah Cameron, and Kris Bubic. The Royals had one of the better rotations in the game last season by ERA and are set to do so again with this crew. Lugo and Wacha are in their mid-30s, but the other three are all under 30.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">They acquired former Red Sox pitcher and Matt Strahm to shore up the bullpen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">You may remember Aaron Sanchez from his time on the Blue Jays a decade ago. Well, he\u2019s in camp as a non-roster invitee and is still just 33 years old. Old friend John Schreiber is still there, too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">There are a lot of questions in the rotation \u2014 even if it can be good. The lineup is Witt, Pasquantino, Garcia, and Perez with maybe Caglianone joining them. They need a bounce-back season from Jonathan India.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The WBC featured a number of Royals across the teams in the tournament and there is talent here, but is there enough? Bobby Witt Jr. is still just one person in the lineup.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Who\u2019s their most likeable player?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\">Most likeable isn\u2019t always synonymous with best, but in this instance there\u2019s a strong case for it. Bobby Witt Jr. is always playing hard out there and looks like he\u2019s loving every second of it. How can you not root for that?<\/p>\n<figure class=\"content-figure\">\n<div class=\"content-image\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"641\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/kJxnYLNLt8tama3oid6B_Q--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MTtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/sb_nation_articles_115\/1803084cf5e64c866e62ca0cb07a4134\"\/><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"lightbox-btn\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"lightbox-expand\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Image Lightbox\" class=\"lightbox-overlay\" aria-modal=\"true\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"fig-caption\"\/><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Who\u2019s their least likeable player?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\">I almost want to say Salvador Perez because it feels like he\u2019s always hitting against the Red Sox. As it turns out though, .276\/.308\/.483 isn\u2019t his best split against a team. And his 16 homers are just second to teams not in the AL Central (he has 17 against the Yankees). That\u2019s not really enough to override his general status as a catching legend. He\u2019s been around so long he feels like a familiar opponent but without real hard feelings.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Michael Wacha, has, if anything, been a little worse for the Royals than he was in Boston, as his health and performance continue to fluctuate wildly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Matt Strahm\u2019s hair is just\u2026scary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Maybe this space gets filled by Jac Caglianone. Did you know that the C in Jac stands for Caglianone? His name is Jeffrey Allen Caglianone, but he goes by Jac, like a PIN Number. What are we even doing here?<\/p>\n<figure class=\"content-figure\">\n<div class=\"content-image\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/KkTHVP7mfMj4yjWNxLZvOw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/sb_nation_articles_115\/16a76b9cf52cebb054cc52ec9e075ddb\"\/><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"lightbox-btn\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"lightbox-expand\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Image Lightbox\" class=\"lightbox-overlay\" aria-modal=\"true\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"fig-caption\"\/><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Schedule against the Red Sox<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\">The Red Sox will be in Kansas City May 18-20 and the Royals visit Fenway Park from September 11-13.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Season Prediction<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\">With some health and progress from their younger players like Caglianone and Garcia \u2014 and in an AL Central that\u2019s probably weak after the Tigers \u2014 they could bounce right back up to 84-85 wins. They can maybe even sneak into the division lead if things go wrong in Detroit and they flip Tarik Skubal this summer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sports.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Red Sox approach Opening Day, it\u2019s time to start taking at look at the other American League playoff contenders. Next up, a team that\u2019s led by an MVP candidate. What\u2019s this team\u2019s deal? In 2024 the Royals bounced back from a 106-loss season to win 86 games and finish in second place in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2339666,"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":[436414,360043,357719,91466,29139,311239,345193,279830,349960,313841,310650,43627,311278,423377,313842,349016,311237,314825,341113,77699,244474,400082,325526,428844,359143,22091,102808,313160],"class_list":["post-2339665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-aaron-sanchez","tag-al-central","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-bobby-witt-jr","tag-boston","tag-cole-ragans","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-jac-caglianone","tag-john-schreiber","tag-jonathan-india","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-kris-bubic","tag-lane-thomas","tag-maikel-garcia","tag-matt-strahm","tag-michael-wacha","tag-noah-cameron","tag-red-sox","tag-salvador-perez","tag-seth-lugo","tag-silver-slugger","tag-sophomore-season","tag-starling-marte","tag-tarik-skubal","tag-the-royals","tag-vinnie-pasquantino","tag-yankees"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Previewing-Red-Sox-Playoff-Rivals-The-Kansas-City-Royals.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339665","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=2339665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2339667,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339665\/revisions\/2339667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2339666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2339665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2339665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2339665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}