Eager to return to playoffs, Royals owner Sherman discusses payroll, offseason philosophy

KANSAS CITY – John Sherman’s office at Kauffman Stadium is full of images and memorabilia that pay homage to Royals baseball. One photo stands out because of the signature Salvy smile flashing in the middle, the goggles situated on Sherman’s head, and the champagne spraying everywhere.

That was a year ago, the day the Royals clinched their first postseason berth in nine years. Salvador Perez thanked the Royals’ CEO/chairman accordingly by pulling him into the celebration and giving him a bottle to pop.

“That’s where you need to be,” Sherman said Tuesday in an interview with MLB.com. “Especially once you’ve been there.”

This October is different, as the Royals finished with an 82-80 record but fell out of the race in September. It’s quiet at The K as the stadium shifts into offseason mode.

“We’re looking forward to the future, and I feel pretty good about it,” Sherman said. “It’s hard to look at this season by itself. When you think about what we’ve accomplished the last couple of years, I feel really good about the fact that the franchise has been turned around. We’re going in the right direction. We should be proud of that. But we’re also very unsatisfied.”

The beginning of Kansas City’s offseason has been focused on evaluating what went wrong, as the Royals won four fewer games than they did in ’24 and scored 84 fewer runs. They’ll be revamping the hitting department, while finding ways to improve their offense as a whole.

Evaluation at the top

As the Royals assess the roster and staff, Sherman was asked how he evaluates general manager J.J. Picollo.

“I feel good about J.J.’s body of work,” Sherman said. “He’s kind of a hustler as a general manager. He is working hard. He’s hard on himself … but he approaches this the right way. He cares deeply about the players, but he cares more about the team and the organization, and that’s the way he conducts himself.”

There’s belief in manager Matt Quatraro, too.

“I think [Quatraro] is one of the smartest managers in baseball,” Sherman said. “He processes a lot of information – J.J. talks about, he says, ‘I can’t even keep up with him, he’s so far ahead planning in the game.’ I think he has good relationships with players. But it’s a different style. He’s very steady. He’s been good for our team. The other thing, what I’m seeing right now, is he’s being very introspective and trying to figure out how he can be better. There’s no satisfaction.”

Payroll range

Sherman is fairly hands off when it comes to baseball decisions, but he’s directly involved with the payroll, which the Royals have increased since Sherman took over in 2019. They operated with a payroll of roughly $138 million in 2025, according to outlets that track those figures, including Spotrac, Cots Baseball Contracts and RosterResource, all of which rank the Royals between 16th and 19th out of 30 MLB teams.

Picollo said last week that he and Sherman haven’t talked about a firm number for 2026, but where the Royals are now is “plenty” and that it’s the front office’s responsibility “to make that work.”

When asked whether he agrees, Sherman said the payroll is “in a good spot.” He mentioned the 97-65 Brewers, who are one win away from the National League Championship Series, as sustainable winners with a sustainable payroll (RosterResource has them at $123 million in 2025) – perhaps a model for the Royals.

“I think you have to have the right mix of players,” Sherman said. “On the pitching staff, we’ve got [Seth] Lugo and [Michael] Wacha, they’re veteran guys, but we’ve got young guys making the minimum. That mix of salary, you’ve got to have both for a team like ours. I’m comfortable there. But to me, it’s always been with J.J.: What makes us better? If there’s something that makes us better, let’s talk about it.”

Sherman continued: “We have to win, right? We have to consistently try to win and be in the race. That’s going to help our business, too. It’d be great if you can have an $80 million payroll and pull it off. When we acquired the team, we had some good young guys coming up, but we didn’t really have the pipeline. So we had to make that investment after ’23 to give us a shot in the arm. If we can be competitive at a lesser dollar rate, that’s great. But we have found ourselves in a situation where we have to invest at a higher level, and it’s important to do so.”

The Royals are returning six players on guaranteed contracts in 2026 – Lugo, Wacha, Perez, Carlos Estévez, Cole Ragans and Bobby Witt Jr. – but they also have 16 arbitration-eligible players this winter, including a couple due for some substantial raises in Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia.

There could be some avenues for extensions, not unlike what the Royals did with Ragans by buying out two arbitration years and giving the club cost certainty.

“I think J.J.’s trying to have those conversations to see if they make sense,” Sherman said.

Salvy's future

It’s not a question of if the Royals will bring Perez back in ‘26. It’s how. They hold a $13.5 million club option for next season, but conversations have started about what a new deal would look like for the 35-year-old catcher, who just had a 30-homer, 100-RBI season.

Perez has stated multiple times that he’d like to retire as a Royal, whenever that might be. The Royals would like that, too.

“I would love that,” Sherman said. “That would be our goal, too. I think he’s a Hall of Famer. I know there’s different ways to look at that. But if you look at his longevity, what he did this year, now with the 300 home runs and 1,000 RBIs, that’s a pretty good body of work.”