This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers’ Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
KANSAS CITY -- We at MLB.com have been increasing our engagement on Reddit this offseason, and on Thursday, I held an Ask Me Anything with Royals fans at r/KCRoyals. This newsletter features some questions and answers from there, and the full AMA can be read here.
I plan on doing another one next month, so keep an eye out and come join the conversation if you’re interested.
Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What are you hearing on the trade front so far this offseason? There’s a lot of speculation about the Royals dealing a starting pitcher. Do those rumors have merit? Is there any indication as to who is or isn’t available for a trade?
The Royals' willingness to deal a starting pitcher isn't speculation, it's fact. They feel like their best trade assets are pitchers, because of the depth and talent, and they want to use that to find offense this winter. General manager J.J. Picollo said as much at the GM Meetings last week.
What remains to be seen is what the trade market looks like for those starters in regard to who the Royals want to get in return, and who exactly they're willing to give up. They get a lot of questions about Cole Ragans, whom the Royals are highly unlikely to trade unless they are blown away by the offer. They haven't been. Teams ask a lot about Noah Cameron, who is a young and controllable starter with plenty of upside.
But what do the Royals get in return for that? They better be getting years of control with the player(s) they ask for as well. And of course teams ask about Kris Bubic, who is a free agent after 2026. Does he have enough value, though -- with one year of control and the injuries he's dealt with -- to net the Royals the bat they're looking for? Those are the conversations the club is having internally and with other teams. The conversations are happening, but nothing is moving at the moment.
Do you think the Royals can make a play for Jarren Duran? I thought Taylor Ward was the best fit, but with him off the board, I think Duran is now the best fit.
I think they can. I've heard that right now, the price the Red Sox are asking for is too high for the Royals to feel comfortable about it. But we'll see how that shifts throughout the winter. The two teams match up on paper. The Royals want an outfielder who can add to their offense, which the Red Sox have in Duran or Wilyer Abreu. Boston wants Major League-ready starting pitching. The Royals have that.
Taylor Ward would have been a great fit, and the Royals have targeted him for a long time. The Angels haven't been ready to move him until this offseason. The Royals were in on him again this winter, swapped offers with the Angels, but in the end, the Angels got a young starter (yes, with injury questions) who is under team control for four seasons. The Orioles get one season with Ward. Interesting trade, for sure.
With the non-tender deadline Friday, how likely is it we see a Royal get non-tendered this year?
The tender deadline is Friday evening, and that's a big one in the offseason calendar. Not only can teams reshape their roster -- and payroll -- by non-tendering players, but it also opens up so many new free agents onto the market. It's always a really interesting day.
MJ Melendez is the likeliest non-tender candidate, as he made $2.65 million in 2025 in his first year of arbitration but spent nearly the entire year with Triple-A Omaha. It's time for the Royals to move on, but I'm sure Melendez will get signed pretty quick -- a good bounce-back/change-of-scenery candidate.
I’m really interested to see what the Royals do with Jonathan India, who made around $7 million in '25 and will be getting a raise from that in his final year of arbitration. I do think they end up tendering him a contract and hope for a bounce-back year from him, but that kind of money could certainly be spent elsewhere.
The Royals' starting pitching is experienced and talented, but also aging and sometimes injured (except Noah Cameron). Is the team comfortable with running back the same top five and hoping that four of them are healthy and in a groove for the playoffs?
I think to a certain point most teams truly hope for the best when it comes to pitcher health. You never want to have what happened last year to the Royals, but that's more of the reality than their 2024 season. The top five you're talking about -- Cole Ragans, Michael Wacha, Bubic, Seth Lugo, Cameron -- is as good of a rotation as any, honestly. I think they'd be comfortable running them out there again. None of the injuries sustained required surgery, that's a really important thing to remember. That doesn't stop other injuries from popping up, of course.
What they have to do, what all teams have to do, is prepare for the worst. You have to have good depth. Right now, they do, so it becomes interesting to think about the balance between keeping that core and its depth versus trading it away to get some offense. If the Royals do the latter, and all indications say they're willing to, you'd have to expect for them to pivot after they get the bat they need to acquire more pitching depth heading into the season.