<\/p>\n
The baseball has been superb all around Kansas City \u2014 Johnson County Community College capped the best junior-college season<\/a> in (at least) a generation; Central Missouri reached its third straight Division II World Series; and the Kansas Jayhawks will play Oklahoma<\/a> this weekend in the first NCAA Super Regional in program history.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But directly inside<\/i> Kansas City?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yeah, it\u2019s a far different vibe.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The team anticipating it would occupy our summer baseball fascination is captivating for all the wrong reasons. The Royals opened June tied for the fewest wins in baseball. They sandwiched three six-game losing streaks into the season\u2019s first 60 games.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As of this writing, they are pacing for 61 wins \u2014 six shy, by the way, of the total JCCC accumulated in 70 JUCO games. There\u2019s a comparison I never thought I\u2019d make.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Who\u2019s to blame? What\u2019s gone so wrong with the Royals?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nearly everyone.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nearly everything.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There will be an all-over-the-place nature to this conversation because, after all, that is most reflective of the complications confronting the Royals. They come from everywhere. Pick your starting point, but don\u2019t end there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How about the last 24 hours?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With a one-run lead Tuesday night in Cincinnati, KC manager Matt Quatraro again turned to Lucas Erceg, who has the worst ninth-inning ERA in baseball by nearly two runs<\/i> among relievers who have appeared in the final frame at least 13 times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Three pitches into the outing, Erceg lost the lead. One inning later, the Royals lost the game<\/a>. Erceg has allowed 17 hits in his last five innings. In his last four appearances, he has recorded nine outs and allowed nine runs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s one game.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s one pitcher.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s one perfect example of this season: The Royals have far too frequently pressed the same players into the same roles and expected them to produce different results.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Quatraro\u2019s motto of \u201cToday\u201d is supposed to be built for these moments \u2014 to stop the avalanche by ignoring its existence and embracing a new day. The avalanche is not only here but continues to pick up momentum.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At some point, the preference for consistency and the resolve to make decisions built on past success starts to mirror stubbornness. And a mandate to turn the page can subtract the acknowledgement, or even some of the urgency, of where exactly this team sits \u2014 which at the moment is the bottom of the baseball world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The manager in charge of one of the best single-season turnarounds in baseball history \u2014 who guided the team to back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in a decade \u2014 has not suddenly forgotten how to do his job, nor can we suddenly forget that\u2019s part of the resume.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But it\u2019s equally worth mentioning, and even more visibly evident, that Quatraro isn\u2019t pushing the right buttons. That statement alone, however, prompts a far more important question:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Do the Royals even have the right buttons available?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Somebody<\/i> has to hit third behind Bobby Witt Jr.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Somebody<\/i> has to hit cleanup.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Someone<\/i> has to pitch the ninth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Someone<\/i> has to pitch the eighth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Royals have also operated like a team without many right answers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They have scored fewer runs per game than any team in baseball. They were 26th in the league a year ago. The offense so rarely gives everyone else a night off \u2014 so rarely allows for a bullpen or starting rotation to endure even the shortest of slumps, let alone the kind of slump the Royals\u2019 bullpen has endured this year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Since the start of the 2025 season, a span of 223 games, the Royals have put up three or more runs in an inning in just 74 games, six fewer than any other team in the American League. Those are essentially game-changing innings, though that\u2019s what the Royals have almost shown an immunity toward:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Change.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The noise growing outside the Royals\u2019 walls isn\u2019t just about the results. It\u2019s about the consistency, even predictability, with which they arrive.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The lineup absorbed only tweaks, not overhauls, in the offseason after finishing 26th in runs. Club brass was banking on internal improvement but underplaying the possibility for internal regression. As an asterisk, I\u2019ll point out the outfielder names being thrown around over the past couple of winters have flopped, but the Royals have failed to acquire a middle-of-the-order bat that could ease stress on the entire operation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They had only four regulars record an OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) better than .700 a year ago \u2014 Bobby Witt Jr., Maikel Garcia, Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez. All four have a worse OPS this season \u2014 by an average of 99 points per player.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Until very recently, when Quatraro has tinkered with the order, those four continued to occupy the top four spots in the lineup. Pasquantino and Perez are top-five in the AL in plate appearances with runners in scoring position this season \u2014 which should come as no surprise for players who bat directly behind Bobby Witt Jr. \u2014 yet they are two of the three least productive hitters<\/a> in the AL with runners in scoring position this year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Those situations \u2014 runners in scoring position \u2014 ballooned the Royals\u2019 team totals in 2024. But that has proven to be an aberration. They\u2019ve not only regressed to the mean but blown far below it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Which reflects where they are.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Their lineup has grown worse and less productive, despite only one player aging beyond his peak. Their starting rotation, the foundation of the previous two seasons, entered this week ranking below-average in ERA. The bullpen is an outright mess, the second worst in baseball after Tuesday\u2019s meltdown that ruined one of the best starts they\u2019ve had all year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In other words, everyone owns a piece of this mess \u2014 the lineup, the rotation, the bullpen, those who coach and manage the players and those who assembled them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As difficult as it was to produce the 2024 turnaround \u2014 as many things that had to come together to make that happen \u2014 it\u2019s required nearly as many things to fall apart for the Royals to be this bad.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n