The Kansas City Royals offered the Cincinnati Reds a pretty clear reminder of how much a homegrown defense can matter.
On the surface, the two clubs have plenty in common. Both are built around star shortstops - Elly De La Cruz for the Reds, Bobby Witt Jr. for the Royals - and both reached the playoffs recently, with Cincinnati getting there in 2025 and Kansas City in 2024. And in 2026, both teams finished in last place in their divisions.
That’s where the similarities get a little harsher. Each club was buried near the bottom of the sport in scoring and run prevention, with both ranking in the bottom 10 in offense and the bottom five in ERA. That combination is tough on any team, and especially on two small-market organizations trying to stay in the race.
But the Royals separated themselves in one key area: defense. While the Reds were trying to patch together one of the league’s worst defensive groups, Kansas City kept flashing real strength with the glove. All four of its starting infielders were named Gold Glove finalists at their positions, and that doesn’t even count Maikel Garcia, the 2025 third base winner, who missed half the season because of various injuries.
That kind of infield is the kind of thing Cincinnati should be studying closely, because the Reds have made it clear they want to improve defensively across the roster.
What stands out most about Kansas City’s infield is how it was built. The Royals’ four Gold Glove finalists - first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, a 11th-round pick; second baseman Michael Massey, a fourth-round pick; third baseman Nick Loftin, a first-round pick; and shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., also a first-round pick - all came through the organization’s own pipeline. Add in Garcia, an international free agent, and Kansas City has put together a standout unit almost entirely through scouting and development.
That’s not a simple road to follow, and it’s one the Reds haven’t exactly navigated well during Nick Krall’s tenure. Still, for small-market teams, it’s the kind of path that can lead to something sustainable when there isn’t a huge financial boost coming from ownership.
The payroll gap between the two clubs wasn’t huge, either. FanGraphs listed the Royals at 18th in total salary spend this season at $148 million, while the Reds were 20th at $129 million. Most of that difference traces to the $13 million gap between Witt’s salary on his 11-year extension and De La Cruz’s pre-arbitration number.
The 2026 Royals were not a success story - they won six fewer games than the Reds. They are not a perfect model like the Milwaukee Brewers or Tampa Bay Rays.
But what they did prove is that a team can build one of the best defenses in the league without paying outside the organization to do it. For the Reds, that’s the lesson: a sharper, more intentional player development system can produce the kind of backbone they need.
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That makes the coming offseason feel more consequential than a routine tune-up. The Reds may have to weigh a more deliberate rebuild, the sort of course correction the Cardinals have leaned into before, while also deciding how aggressively to keep pushing with a younger core and which veterans fit into that picture. Even beyond the winter, there is a sense that more of the organizational structure could be reviewed in the years ahead, with the possibility of a different general manager after 2027 hanging over the franchise. [Read more 🡒]