If the Royals are going to get back into the mix in 2027, they can’t afford another season that drifts off the rails like 2026 did. After finishing well below the .500 mark, Kansas City has plenty to clean up, and the path back to contention in the AL Central is going to hinge on avoiding a few very real traps.
The good news is that the Royals do have a blueprint of sorts. The 2024 club won 86 games and reached the postseason by blending young talent, strong starting pitching, and a little veteran leadership. That exact formula may not be easy to duplicate, but the organization can get close if the right pieces progress the right way.
Still, there are three clear dangers sitting in front of them.
First, the young core has to keep moving forward. Bobby Witt Jr. is no longer just the face of the future; at 26, he’s entering the prime of his career and is now in position to help steer the younger players around him.
That matters because the next wave has to deliver. Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen need to keep ascending, while Blake Mitchell and other young Royals prospects wait for their turn.
If that group stalls out, Kansas City could find itself stuck near the bottom of the division again.
There’s also the Salvador Perez question, and it’s a big one. Perez remains a Royals legend and a central figure from the 2015 World Series run, but the days of giving him close to 600 at-bats are over if the club wants to maximize its offense.
At 36, his best seasons are behind him, and last year was the worst of his 15-year career. His .656 OPS sat nearly 100 points below his career average, and his 44.6% chase rate was among the worst in baseball.
If Kansas City keeps running him out there for four at-bats a game, it’s going to limit what the lineup can become.
The final issue is the pitching staff, which was nowhere near good enough in 2026. The Royals allowed exactly 5.00 runs per game, the fifth-most in baseball.
They also gave up the third-most hits and recorded the third-fewest strikeouts. That’s a rough combination, and injuries to key pitchers along with a couple of ugly seasons from top bullpen arms only made it worse.
The offense showed some signs of life, but if the front office doesn’t add real pitching help this offseason, the same problems could show up again in 2027.
The AL Central is open, but it won’t stay that way for long if Kansas City lets these issues linger.
In Other News...
Royals Stadium Reveal Has Kansas City Excited And Worried
Kansas City got its clearest look yet at the Royals planned $1.9 billion ballpark in Crown Center, and the reaction has been a mix of optimism and caution. The new renderings from the team and architecture firm Populous show a stadium built for 34,000 fans and targeted to open in 2030, a proposal that has already started reshaping the conversation around what downtown baseball could mean for the citys core.
Local residents and business owners have been weighing the potential boost against the possible strain, especially when it comes to traffic and the fate of existing Crown Center attractions. Royals officials have tried to ease some of those worries by pointing to existing parking options and public transportation as part of the game-day plan, but the larger question is how smoothly a new ballpark would fit into one of Kansas Citys most active districts. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Face A Costly Jac Caglianone Decision They Shouldnt Delay
The Royals have already shown theyre willing to act early with their young core, locking up players such as Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia before salary questions ever got too complicated. Jac Caglianone now sits in that same conversation, with a strong rookie season behind him and just one year of MLB service time, which is exactly the kind of window front offices look to exploit if they believe a player can be part of the long-term foundation.
Caglianones path to Kansas City has been fast, and that only raises the urgency around a possible pre-arbitration extension. For a club that has tried to balance talent retention with future payroll flexibility, the decision is less about whether the Royals should explore a deal than how quickly they should push to get one in place before his cost climbs with the rest of his value. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Season Still Hurt But Their Next Core Is Taking Shape
A disappointing 2026 season has left plenty for Royals fans to sort through, but it is not hard to see why the conversation keeps circling back to the future. On a recent broadcast, Ryan Lefebvre pointed to the same broad issues that have tripped Kansas City all year, from offensive inconsistency to bullpen problems and a run of pitching injuries, while also noting that the season has given the club a closer look at the pieces it may build around next.
Noah Cameron, Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone are part of that emerging group, and Michael Wachas veteran presence has been part of the mix as well. The results have not matched the hope, but the season has at least sharpened the Royals picture of which players are growing into larger roles, and which ones could help define the next competitive core once the rough edges of this year are finally put in the past. [Read more 🡒]