Carson Roccaforte has put himself in position to force the Royals’ hand.
After a 30-homer, 30-steal season split between Double-A and Triple-A, the outfielder took a major leap in his fourth professional year with the organization. That kind of breakout has made a possible MLB debut in 2027 feel a lot more real.
Royals general manager J.J. Picollo made it clear Roccaforte is on the club’s radar.
“Carson Roccaforte is a very good center fielder,” Picollo said. “He will be in the mix to help our club, whether that’s opening day or sometime during the season.
I don’t know when it’s going to be, but he’s certainly played himself into gaining that opportunity. And we look forward to seeing him in spring training.”
For Kansas City, the timing matters. The team is spending this offseason trying to reshape its pitching staff, with the bullpen needing a full rebuild and another frontline starter still to find. On the position-player side, there could be real competition for the last few roster spots.
Center field is one place where Roccaforte can make his case. He’ll be pushing Kyle Isbel, who is entering his final year of team control in 2027 and his age-30 season after an uneven year. Isbel hit .224 with six home runs and 24 RBIs, while posting a .591 OPS and a negative-0.4 WAR, according to Baseball Reference.
Picollo’s comments also pointed beyond center field. The Royals are looking for more production in the outfield overall, and he specifically mentioned both center field and left field as areas that need to improve.
That leaves Roccaforte with a real opening if he keeps trending the way he just did. The Royals have plenty of work to do elsewhere, but his breakout has given them one more interesting name to watch as 2027 approaches.
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What makes this pursuit interesting is the price of being better. The available arms have shown they can handle high-leverage work and bring strong underlying metrics, but the question for Kansas City is how far it wants to push to get them. Fixing the bullpen is not just about identifying help, it is about deciding how aggressively to spend to secure it, and that choice could define how much improvement the Royals get from one winter to the next. [Read more 🡒]