The Royals’ offseason has a clear sorting job attached to it: protect the core, trim the dead weight, and figure out which arms can actually help in 2027. Kansas City isn’t being asked to tear everything down.
The problem is more specific than that. After back-to-back winning seasons, the club slipped well below .500 in 2026, and now J.J.
Picollo has to separate the pieces that should define the next run from the ones that shouldn’t come back.
Start with the obvious keepers. Bobby Witt Jr. is the anchor, and nobody is moving him.
First baseman Jac Caglianone and catcher Carter Jensen also forced their way into the conversation this season and belong in the Royals’ long-term plans. Those are the names that give this roster shape.
Maikel Garcia is in that same conversation, too, thanks to the long-term extension he signed last offseason. Then there’s Vinnie Pasquantino, who sits in the trickiest spot of the group. He flashed middle-of-the-order ability and looked strong when healthy this season, but the Royals still need a full healthy year from him alongside the other core pieces before they make a final call on where he fits.
On the mound, Noah Cameron has become one of the most important young arms in the organization. His 2025 season was the eye-opener, when he posted a sub-3.00 ERA in 24 starts.
His overall 2026 line wasn’t as sharp, but he still turned in a 3.36 ERA across 15 starts in July, August and September. With Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo on the back side of their careers, Cameron now looks like a starter the Royals can trust in the middle of the rotation, if not higher.
The tougher part is deciding who no longer belongs in the plan. Cole Ragans is the first name that stands out.
His 2024 breakout made him look like Kansas City’s ace of the future, but injuries have wrecked that projection. Over the last two seasons, he has made just 21 starts, hasn’t topped 100 innings, and owns a 4.73 ERA.
The underlying numbers, including FIP, suggest it hasn’t been quite that ugly, but the bigger issue is availability.
And availability matters even more now that Ragans is set to miss time until mid-season after UCL surgery. The Royals do have his guaranteed contract this season, worth $7.5 million, but the argument here is that a team with more room to take a gamble might gladly roll the dice. Kansas City isn’t built for that kind of risk right now, especially with a pitching staff that still needs work.
Wacha and Lugo are locked into rotation spots, and Cameron has earned his place. That still leaves questions elsewhere, and the Royals need answers they can trust. Betting on Ragans to rediscover his old form shouldn’t be the plan.
Daniel Lynch belongs in a different bucket, but the conclusion is just as firm. His starting-pitcher experiment hasn’t worked, and the Royals should stop pushing it.
In 12 starts over the last two seasons, he has an ERA north of six and a negative fWAR. In relief, though, he has been a different pitcher entirely: more than 100 appearances over the last two seasons, a 2.63 ERA in that span, and a 1.96 ERA in 2026.
Kansas City needs bullpen help, and Lynch has already shown he can contribute there. Keeping him in relief would solve one problem and remove one more offseason question. The Royals don’t need to keep searching for a starter version that hasn’t materialized.
In Other News...
Royals Face Two Big 2027 Questions After Bobby Witt Jr. Dip
A season review of the Royals on Joel Penfields podcast landed on the same theme that has hovered over the club for months: there was enough good to believe in, but not enough consistency to feel settled. Penfield pointed to bright spots throughout the roster, especially the emergence of Carter Jensen, Jac Caglianone and Michael Wacha, as reasons the year still offered something to build on even as injuries and uneven production kept the team from fully taking off.
Still, the conversation kept circling back to the pressure points that will shape 2027. Bobby Witt Jr.s offensive dip loomed over everything, and Penfield framed the offseason as a chance for Kansas City to patch obvious roster holes while waiting for its star to rebound. The bullpen remains a concern, center field is unsettled, and the Royals path forward feels tied to whether Witt can get back to the level that makes the rest of the lineup fit together. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Prospect Is Giving Fans More Reason To Believe In The Future
The Royals keep collecting little reminders that the future picture in Kansas City is getting clearer, and the latest comes from the farm system. Brendan Gawlowski of FanGraphs dug into Angeibel Gomez and came away encouraged by the young infielders bat-to-ball ability and athleticism, a combination that has become easy for Royals followers to buy into as the organization keeps layering hope on top of a season that has already produced a few bright spots.
There is still plenty for Gomez to refine, which is part of why the evaluation matters now rather than later. The upside is real enough to matter, and it arrives at a time when the Royals are also seeing positives on the big-league side and watching progress continue around the franchise with city approval advancing for a new downtown ballpark. In other words, there is a lot more here than one prospects report, even if the most intriguing part of the Gomez story is still sitting just out of view. [Read more 🡒]
Miguel Vargas Just Added A Stunning Twist To His White Sox Rise
Miguel Vargas breakout season in Chicago has been one of the more striking comeback stories in baseball, especially for a player who arrived with fresh expectations after being traded from the Dodgers in 2024. The White Sox third baseman has reset his offensive career highs, become a meaningful postseason contributor and looked like a player who finally found the right stage after a difficult stretch.
What makes the rise even more compelling is how close it came to never happening. Vargas said he considered walking away from baseball after the 2024 season, a revelation that adds real texture to a year that has looked so clean on the field. Instead, he kept going, and now the White Sox are reaping the benefits of a player whose path to this point was far less certain than his production suggests. [Read more 🡒]