Angiebel Gomez is the Royals prospect drawing the loudest buzz out of Arizona, and the scouting notes on him are easy to see why.
Brendan Gawlowski of FanGraphs describes Gomez as a tapered 6-foot-2 player who doesn’t fit the Elly De La Cruz-type athletic freak label, but still moves well and gets the bat through the zone quickly for his age. Against some of the best pitching he has seen, his hit tool stood out.
Gawlowski wrote that Gomez looked athletic in the box and handled a difficult mix of velocity and spin, fighting off above-average heat on the hands, turning around a 97 mph fastball above the belt, and flattening the bat to line a hard fastball up in the zone. He also stayed in against spin, spoiling a couple of tough sliders and laying off a pitch just under the strike zone.
It wasn’t spotless - he expanded the zone a few times and chased a curveball in the dirt - but in context, it was a strong showing.
The power projection is still part of the conversation, too. Gawlowski doesn’t see Gomez as an especially early-maturing player, and he also doesn’t see the kind of huge physical projection that Sebastian Walcott had at the same age.
Even so, Gomez already has average measurable power, and the read here is that there’s room for more. The projection leans toward “comfortably plus” rather than “80.”
Another Royals note this week comes from Andres Chavez at Royals Keep, who looked back at what went right for Kansas City in 2025.
Jensen, recently named to MLB Pipeline’s All-Rookie first team, backed up his brief 20-game cameo in 2025 with a full season that made the league take notice. In that short run, he hit .300/.391/.550 with a 152 wRC+ in 69 plate appearances.
Over the longer haul, he put up a .239/.323/.467 line with 27 home runs, 80 runs, 81 RBI, a 116 wRC+, and 3.7 fWAR while splitting time between catcher and designated hitter. He also added 35 doubles and two triples, and finished 15th in the majors with 64 extra-base hits.
Off the field, the downtown ballpark project cleared a major hurdle this week.
Celisa Calacal of KCUR reported that three ordinances were approved, including one passed unanimously on Thursday that rezones 68 acres in the stadium development area, a crucial step for the $2 billion plan. Another ordinance authorizes more than $615 million in bonds, with $537 million earmarked for the ballpark itself, team offices and infrastructure work.
The third creates a tax increment financing plan that establishes a “stadium impact area” stretching from Interstate 670 and the state line to 31st and Campbell streets. Under that setup, 2025 tax collections in the area serve as the baseline, and much of the revenue above that level over the next 30 years will be redirected to help pay down stadium construction debt.
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 🡒]
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 🡒]
Royals Future Is Taking Shape But Two Pitching Spots Feel Unsettled
The Royals long-term picture is starting to come into focus around a core built on Bobby Witt Jr., Jac Caglianone, Carter Jensen, Maikel Garcia, Vinnie Pasquantino and Noah Cameron. That group gives Kansas City a much clearer sense of where the lineup and young talent are headed, and it also shows how much the organization is trying to balance the present with the next wave of contributors.
The unsettled part is still on the mound, where the staff has not reached the same level of certainty. Kansas City is still sorting out which arms can be counted on in the right roles, and the broader discussion around the pitching staff now centers on whether the Royals need to make tougher decisions about who fits the rotation picture and who belongs elsewhere on the staff. [Read more 🡒]