There aren’t many bright spots for Royals fans right now. Kansas City sits 21 games under .500 after getting swept and embarrassed by the Colorado Rockies, and the season has long since drifted into damage-control mode. Michael Massey has been one of the few steady positives, though, and that’s exactly why his name is worth circling with the deadline approaching.
Massey has put together a solid 2026 campaign, and the numbers back that up. He’s hitting .263/.298/.417 with an OPS of .715 and a wRC+ of 94.
For him, that’s a respectable line - in fact, it’s the second-best wRC+ season of his career. Still, the profile comes with clear limits, and those limits are part of what makes his future in Kansas City such a tricky call.
The first thing that jumps out is the on-base percentage. A .298 OBP paired with a .263 average tells the story pretty quickly: Massey isn’t walking much.
That’s been true throughout his five years with the Royals, where his career walk rate sits at 4.5%. This season, he’s up to 5.3%, which is a career high, but still well below league average.
That lack of walks doesn’t sink his value, though, because Massey brings something different to the table. He makes contact, and he offers sneaky power from the second base spot.
Among second basemen with at least 300 plate appearances, he ranks sixth in ISO at .155 and seventh in slugging at .417. That puts him in a pretty strong group alongside names like Ozzie Albies, Bryson Stott, and Cole Young.
He’s not a monster power bat in the big-picture sense, but for a second baseman, he’s above average. The home run total sits at eight, but the doubles have piled up - he’s already reached a career-high 19.
The swing decisions are still a concern. Massey has always chased a lot, and this year that tendency has been even more pronounced.
His career chase rate is 36.0%, and in 2026 it has climbed to 39.2%. Both marks sit well below the 25th percentile on Baseball Savant.
What keeps that from becoming a total liability is the rest of his contact profile. If he does expand the zone, he usually puts the bat on the ball.
His whiff rate is 20.0%, which lands in the 76th percentile, and his strikeout rate is only 16.9%. He’s basically a doubles-first hitter with modest home run output, little patience, and limited strikeouts - an anti-three true outcome type.
There’s also a split in the pitch-by-pitch profile that helps explain the shape of his game. Massey handles breaking stuff well.
His best run values come against sliders and curveballs, where he’s sitting at three on each pitch. He’s hitting .333 against sliders and .444 against curves, and the slugging on both is above .700.
Fastballs, on the other hand, are a different story. He has just one season with a positive run value against four-seamers, and that came in 2024, when he posted a value of two.
He had a zero in 2022, but every other season has been in the negative. This year is no exception, with a run value of -4.
The oddity continues when you look at sinkers and cutters. Historically, Massey has posted negative run values against those pitches in most seasons, but he has still managed decent batting averages against them.
Defensively, though, he’s making a real case for himself. Massey has been one of the better second basemen in the league this season, with five DRS, six FRV, and eight OAA, all of which place him among the top six defenders at the position. Fangraphs credits him with a 5.8 defense value, which is well beyond anything he’s done before.
So where does that leave him? That depends on what a team wants out of a player.
Massey is 28 and under contract through 2029, and he brings pop, contact, and elite defense at second base. That kind of player has value, especially to a club in a lost season like Kansas City.
At the same time, the Royals could use him to help restock a thinner farm system. His defense would be tough to replace, but the broader question is whether Kansas City should cash in now or keep a useful, controlled piece around for the future. Either way, he’s at the point where maximizing his value makes sense, whether that happens at the deadline or later.
In Other News...
Royals Deadline Plans Could Reveal Who They Still Trust
The Royals are still sorting through what this stretch means for the rest of the season after a fourth straight loss pushed them 21 games below .500 heading into the trade deadline. Matt Quatraro sounded frustrated with the skid, but the bigger issue for Kansas City is how to navigate a roster hit by injuries to Bobby Witt Jr., Cole Ragans and Kris Bubic while also trying to keep the focus on what comes next. Recent trades involving Lane Thomas and Bailey Falter already signaled that the front office is willing to keep adjusting.
With more deadline movement still possible, Kansas Citys next decisions may say as much about who the club still believes in as about who it is ready to move on from. The Royals have been talking about adding younger players to the mix for the stretch run, which makes the coming days especially revealing because the choices are not just about selling, but about the kind of roster they want to build around the injuries and uncertainty they are dealing with now. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Deadline Approach Around Bobby Witt Jr. Just Got More Complicated
The Royals entered the trade deadline already trying to juggle injuries, roster churn and a club that still sees itself as very much in the race. Matt Quatraro has had to manage the ripple effects of Luinder Avila landing on the injured list while Kyle Isbel works back into the mix, a reminder that Kansas Citys immediate challenge is not just adding talent, but keeping enough of the current group intact to make the push around Bobby Witt Jr.
Even so, the front office has made one thing clear in the days leading up to the deadline: it is not looking at every veteran as a movable piece. The clubs stance on its pitching depth has made the market harder to read, and it leaves the Royals trying to balance present urgency with the longer view of a team that still believes its best stretch may be ahead. [Read more 🡒]