ARLINGTON -- After a disappointing homestand, the Royals tried to use Thursday’s off-day as a reset as they traveled to Texas, and by Friday, it was back to work. During a long baseball season, you can’t dwell on the past for too long. The next game comes at you fast.
Friday’s 9-1 loss to the Rangers sure hit the Royals quickly. Starter Stephen Kolek allowed four runs (two earned) in the first inning, and Kansas City didn’t score until the ninth.
At 22-35, the Royals are 11 games behind the Guardians in the American League Central and 6 1/2 out of an AL Wild Card spot with six teams ahead of them. There’s a ton of season left -- 105 games -- but it will take a magical run for the Royals to play themselves back into contention.
“There’s a lot of frustration, without question,” general manager J.J. Picollo said. “We expect to play better, compete better. You can feel the frustration. The guys are just trying to figure out what we need to do to get going in the right direction.
“The only thing we can do is keep competing, keep believing in ourselves, ask the right questions. Are there things that we can do to help us get back on track? Right now, we’re searching for it.”
Where has it gone wrong? The rotation has been reliable but stretched thin, especially with Cole Ragans and Kris Bubic on the injured list. The bullpen has taken hits, with injuries to closer Carlos Estévez and Matt Strahm, and underperformance that has led to a 5.08 ERA, third worst in MLB. There have been issues with baserunning.
But the offense stands out the most. Entering Friday, the Royals ranked second worst in MLB with 3.77 runs per game. Their .226 average with runners in scoring position was tied for second worst.
Their .633 OPS with RISP ranks 30 out of 30.
“Sustainable offense has been a big thing,” Picollo said. “Doing the little things within that offense to help you manufacture runs. I think if I had to pick one, that's probably the most frustrating. That’s where you feel it, because when you’re not scoring runs, pitchers feel they can’t give up runs.”
After watching how perennial MVP candidate Bobby Witt Jr., All-Star Maikel Garcia and the 30-homer, 100-RBI duo of Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez performed in 2025, it was reasonable to put faith in that core carrying the offense in '26. That’s why the early season struggles of Pasquantino and Perez have stood out so much. While the Royals fell short this offseason acquiring an impact bat, they tried to upgrade the surrounding pieces with the acquisitions of outfielders Lane Thomas and Isaac Collins, along with committing playing time to young hitters Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen. Their individual performances have been up and down.
The Royals have gotten better production out of their outfield; their .689 OPS ranked 17th entering Friday, an improvement from the .633 OPS that ranked 29th last year. The bottom of the lineup has improved, too; their Nos. 6-9 hitters had an .679 OPS that ranked eighth best entering Friday, while the .624 OPS from Nos. 6-9 last year ranked 28th. But that marginal improvement from the bottom of the roster hasn’t been enough.
“We felt like there’s a core here that we could rely on for offense,” Picollo said. “Surrounding them with a deeper, better group and more balanced group was the goal. I think we did that. But I’m accountable, too. There are some evaluations made that haven’t lined up just yet. I think we have the pieces to compete and win more games that we have.”
When a team with expectations struggles as much as the Royals have, it doesn’t take long to hear calls for coaching changes. The calls have been loud in Kansas City for quite some time now.
Despite the Royals falling vastly short of expectations so far, a staff shakeup doesn’t appear imminent.
“I have a lot of confidence in our staff,” Picollo said. “You can go back and look at all the historical research on changing coaching staffs. There’s not a lot of strong data on changing coaching staffs mid-season leading to what you need to do. It appeases the fanbase because you’ve made a change, but we have to be logical in our thinking. When you get to a point where you’re making a change on your staff, you reach a tipping point. And we don’t feel like we’re there.”
What is that tipping point?
“It’s when it becomes very clear to you [from] the players, I’ll say with their body language, that they need change,” Picollo said. “When you don’t think it’s the information we’re sharing, when you feel like the players have lost confidence. Then you might get to a point where you have to think about it. I’ve talked to a lot of people in the game, not just this year, but just trying to learn. There’s very little that says changing your hitting or pitching coach fixes things. The players’ confidence levels aren’t going to go up until they perform.”
Picollo did acknowledge there is a track record with managerial changes sparking a team; we’ve seen that just this year with the Phillies firing Rob Thomson at the end of April and playing better under interim manager Don Mattingly.
But Picollo expressed confidence in manager Matt Quatraro, too.
Picollo has talked to most of the 26-man roster over the past couple of days, asking for their honest thoughts on where things stand and what else they might need to improve.
“Is the work getting done?” Picollo said. “Are the conversations productive with the players? Are they still eager to get to the ballpark and learn and work and play? Are they motivated? Right now, all of my observations are: Yes, they are. If anything, they’re saying, ‘I’ve got to be more accountable, I’ve got to be better. I’m the one not executing.’”
In that regard, Picollo is right. When players are asked how much they shoulder the weight of what’s going on, most reply that all of it falls on them -- they’re the ones on the field.
And for them to play themselves out of this funk, they have to do just that: Keep playing. No matter what the expectations are.