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<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>With Opening Day in Atlanta just four days away, Royals Executive Vice President & General Manager <\/span><strong>JJ Picollo<\/strong><span> joined Joel Penfield on the latest episode of \u201cOne Royal Way\u201d to provide an inside look at the 2026 squad. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Fresh off a Spring Training that was uniquely shaped by the World Baseball Classic, Piccolo expressed high confidence in the team\u2019s starting rotation and the newly bolstered veteran presence in the outfield and bullpen. Key acquisitions like <\/span><strong>Lane Thomas<\/strong><span>, <\/span><strong>Starling Marte<\/strong><span>, and <\/span><strong>Matt Strahm<\/strong><span> are expected to provide the stability needed to let young stars like <\/span><strong>Bobby Witt Jr.<\/strong><span> and <\/span><strong>Maikel Garcia<\/strong><span> shine on the national stage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The conversation highlighted the \u201cWBC Effect,\u201d with Piccolo noting that the high-leverage experience gained by players like <\/span><strong>Vinnie Pasquantino<\/strong><span> and <\/span><strong>Maikel Garcia<\/strong><span> (the tournament MVP) has primed them for a fast start. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Beyond the established names, the GM praised the progress of <\/span><strong>Jac Caglianone<\/strong><span>, noting his improved plate discipline, and discussed the strategic development of pitcher <\/span><strong>Luinder Avila<\/strong><span>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p data-attrs=\"{"url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@KCSNRoyals","text":"Subscribe here for Royals Content!","action":null,"class":null}\" data-component-name=\"ButtonCreateButton\" class=\"button-wrapper\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@KCSNRoyals\" rel=\"\" class=\"button primary\"><span>Subscribe here for Royals Content!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As the Royals wrap up their final exhibition games in Texas, the message is clear: the offense is deeper, the leadership is vocal, and the goal is firmly set on a 2026 postseason run.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><strong>The \u201cSecret\u201d is Officially Out:<\/strong><span> Maikel Garcia is no longer flying under the radar. After a stellar 2025 and a WBC MVP performance, Piccolo views the Witt\/Garcia duo as one of the premier young tandems in baseball, specifically citing Garcia\u2019s love for \u201cbig moments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Strategic Patience with Caglianone:<\/strong><span> Year two for Jac Caglianone is about confidence and selectivity. Piccolo noted that \u201cCags\u201d showed significant growth in drawing walks during Spring Training, a key indicator that his production will take a leap as he stops trying to \u201ccarry the offense\u201d alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>The Luinder Avila Balancing Act:<\/strong><span> The Royals view Avila as a potential top-of-the-rotation starter (No. 3 or better). While his stuff is \u201cfilthy\u201d enough for the bullpen now, the team is optioning him to Omaha to maintain his starter workload, ensuring he\u2019s ready to jump into the rotation the moment a need arises in KC.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\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 www.kcsn.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Opening Day in Atlanta just four days away, Royals Executive Vice President & General Manager JJ Picollo joined Joel Penfield on the latest episode of \u201cOne Royal Way\u201d to provide an inside look at the 2026 squad. Fresh off a Spring Training that was uniquely shaped by the World Baseball Classic, Piccolo expressed high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2344015,"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":[],"class_list":["post-2344014","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\/03\/Exclusive-interview-with-Royals-JJ-Picollo-Talking-Roster-Moves-WBC.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344014","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=2344014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2344016,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344014\/revisions\/2344016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2344015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2344014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2344014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2344014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}