The Royals are making a notable reset in their medical and performance infrastructure, parting ways with three longtime members of the athletic training staff and shifting another key figure into the minors.
Kansas City general manager J.J. Picollo said Wednesday that head athletic trainer Kyle Turner, assistant athletic trainer Chris DeLucia and major league rehab coordinator Jeff Blum will not return.
Turner had just wrapped up his 17th season with the organization, including five years leading the medical staff. DeLucia, who first joined the Royals’ system in 2007 with Double-A Northwest Arkansas, spent two decades in the organization and was in his fifth year as an assistant trainer on the major-league staff.
Blum completed his 19th season with the club and had served the last five years as major-league rehab coordinator after previously working as the team’s physical therapist and rehab director.
“I want to thank them for the work they’ve done,” Picollo said. “They’re tremendous colleagues and very talented tacticians.
There’s just some things we think we need to progress overall with all the different departments that we have across baseball operations. And this is going to be a step moving in that direction.”
Picollo tied the changes directly to a broader push to modernize how the Royals handle player health and recovery. The club went through a heavy injury season, with major losses including UCL surgeries for starters Cole Ragans, Stephen Kolek and Luinder Avila. Other players dealt with lingering issues too, among them Maikel Garcia, who had a muscle strain in his left hand and hamstring, Bobby Witt Jr. with knee and back spasms, and Jac Caglianone and Salvador Perez with elbow trouble.
At one point, Kansas City had at least 12 players on the injured list, a stretch that was part of the reason for the team’s struggles on the field.
“We try to do our best to prevent injuries,” Picollo said. “I think what we want to move to is a little more efficient way of getting guys back on the field.
We’ve had some guys that haven’t had surgeries that missed significant amounts of time. This is where I think the different departments, again - behavioral science, performance science, even massage therapy, along with medical and S&C (strength and conditioning) - they all have to work together.”
He added, “This world is progressing fast with medicine and technology,” Picollo said. “And we want to try to take better advantage of that moving forward.”
The Royals also reassigned Melissa Lambert, the director of behavioral science and major league mental performance, to the minor leagues. Lambert has spent seven seasons in the organization and just finished her fourth year in the behavioral science role at the major-league level. Picollo said the club plans to replace her dugout position.
“We’ll look to replace her in the dugout,” Picollo said. “It’s a position that we really value.
We think very highly of Melissa. We like what she has done.
There are things we learned from her and things we can do a little bit better moving forward.”
Lambert will continue in her directorial role in the minors, and the Royals plan to fill the open positions this offseason before the 2027 campaign.
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