KANSAS CITY -- The Royals walked into 2026 with momentum, expectations and a core that looked ready to push for an AL Central title. They walked out of it with a 69-93 record and a long offseason of hard decisions ahead if they want to be back in the mix in 2027.
Manager Matt Quatraro didn’t soften the edge of the disappointment before Sunday’s 3-2 win over the Guardians in Game 162 at Kaufmann Stadium.
“We have to execute better. I have to lead better,” Quatraro said.
“I think we all have to look at [ourselves] and see what that means to us individually, and how we put that together as a team. But there will be a lot of conversations through the offseason to figure out the best way to go about it.”
The biggest hole is obvious: the bullpen. Kansas City’s relief corps finished 29th in the Majors with a 5.07 ERA, and the season went sideways almost immediately when Carlos Estévez, who led MLB in saves in 2025, got hurt in the second game and never made it back after several setbacks.
That left the Royals chasing late-inning answers all year. Matt Strahm posted a 7.32 ERA, the worst season of his career, and was released in August. Lucas Erceg also battled command problems, finished with a 5.70 ERA and was sent down in the middle of the season.
The rotation was hit just as hard. Opening Day starter Cole Ragans had left elbow surgery and gave Kansas City only eight starts.
Stephen Kolek, Ryan Bergert, Luinder Avila and Kris Bubic, who was on the IL before his trade to the Dodgers, all dealt with long-term injuries too. The result was a 4.58 ERA from the starters, good for 25th in MLB, and a franchise-record 37 pitchers used over the course of the season.
Kansas City is not expected to have Ragans, Kolek, Bergert or Avila back by the end of Spring Training, which means the Royals will likely need multiple bullpen arms and multiple starters this winter. The free-agent market could be especially active in November.
The lineup needs help too, especially in the middle of it, where the Royals want a bat in the outfield. But most of the offense that will shape 2027 is already in place: Bobby Witt Jr., Carter Jensen, Jac Caglianone, Vinnie Pasquantino, Maikel Garcia, Salvador Perez and Michael Massey.
Pasquantino didn’t sugarcoat the year.
“It was a failure. We’ve got to face that. It just sucks,” he said.
“I just think we were playing bad baseball. We weren’t doing the little things right.
… There were things in there we did well, we just didn’t do them well enough. We gotta live with that.
We got to look in the mirror and get ready to go next year.”
Pasquantino and Perez opened the season as the Royals’ No. 3 and No. 4 hitters, but neither produced enough in the first half and both were moved lower in the order. Witt’s 18 home runs and 54 RBIs were career lows.
Garcia played only 82 games because of injuries and was moved out of the leadoff spot. Kansas City will need all four to bounce back.
There were bright spots, and they were loud ones. Jensen and Caglianone emerged as two of the better young players in the league. Jensen locked down the everyday catching job and the leadoff role, while Caglianone made major gains at the plate, hit .289 with 23 homers and moved into the No. 3 spot.
“I think that’s probably the biggest success from the season is you look at those two guys,” Pasquantino said. “What Carter did, I hope he’s in the Rookie of the Year talk.”
The Royals have turned things around before, with much of this same group helping transform 106 losses in 2023 into a postseason run in 2024. Now the challenge is doing it again, with some coaching changes likely and outside help expected for the bullpen and rotation.
The core isn’t going anywhere, including Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo. And Pasquantino made it clear what comes next.
“From my end, I feel like we have the pieces to be able to do it and we didn’t do it this year,” he said. “Like I said, that’s a failure.
That doesn’t mean I have any less confidence going into next year. … I’m walking into next season expecting us to be in a playoff push the whole year.
Those are just words; they don’t mean anything right now, but those are my expectations. We just gotta go do it.”
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Royals Already Face One Bullpen Decision That Could Shape The Offseason
The Royals offseason has already started with a familiar kind of roster math, and the bullpen is part of it. Kansas City closed out its 2026 season with five players headed to unrestricted free agency, a group that includes Jonathan India, Matt Strahm, John Means, Craig Kimbrel and Tony Gonsolin, while Carlos Estvez remains on the books through a $13 million club option for 2027.
For a team that will spend the winter sorting through who stays and who goes, Estvez is the choice that could end up carrying the most weight in the relief mix. The Royals still have time to work through their roster decisions, but the path they take with that option will say plenty about how they plan to shape the bullpen heading into next year. [Read more 🡒]
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For Kansas City fans, the appeal is in how differently these two players arrive at the same stage. Walcott is trying to show hes past the interruption and ready to keep moving forward, while Gomez is being asked to handle a major jump in competition at an age when most players are still years away from that kind of test. It makes for a fascinating fall assignment, even if the real payoff may not come until later. [Read more 🡒]
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Vinnie Pasquantinos 2026 season became a reminder of how much the Royals offense still hinges on one bat settling in at the right time. After a sluggish start, he found his footing in the second half by adjusting both his batting approach and stance, and the difference showed up in the underlying numbers as his swing decisions sharpened, his contact quality improved and the power followed.
For Kansas City, the larger issue is bigger than one hot stretch. Pasquantino has shown a pattern of needing time to get going, and when he starts slowly, the clubs lineup feels the impact immediately. The Royals need the version of him that emerges after the corrections have taken hold, because their offensive ceiling looks a lot different when he is driving the ball and forcing pitchers to work around him. [Read more 🡒]