MLB has a preview of all Spring Breakout games:
Friday 4 p.m. ET — Royals @ Rangers Kansas City had two picks before the second round of last year’s Draft, and both selections are in position to get their first taste of pro competition at age 19 during Spring Breakout. OF/2B Sean Gamble, the 2025 23rd overall pick and the organization’s No. 5 prospect, brings a solid hit tool and above-average speed. SS/3B Josh Hammond, the 28th pick and No. 6 prospect, has some raw power and is also speedy. The Rangers’
roster boasts two-way player Josh Owens (TEX No. 6), who has promise in the box, at shortstop and on the mound.
Also at MLB, Anne Rogers gives us “three things to watch” the last week of Spring Training:
The final bench spot(s)
The position player side of the roster is looking like this right now:
Catchers: Perez, Jensen
First base: Pasquantino
Second base: Jonathan India
Shortstop: Witt
Third base: Garcia
Outfield: Collins, Caglianone, Kyle Isbel, Lane Thomas, Starling MarteThat’s 11 players with two spots still open. One of those will likely be Massey if he’s healthy. There are still plenty of hitters competing for the final spot, including Nick Loftin, Tyler Tolbert, Drew Waters, Abraham Toro, Josh Rojas, Kevin Newman and Brandon Drury. Loftin, Tolbert and Waters have the advantage of being on the roster already, and Waters is out of options.
A lot will depend on how the Royals feel about the health of their roster overall. If they think they’re going to have to manage at-bats for Collins or Massey early on, there’s a bigger need for a player who could be used for offense more often.
At The Star, Pete Grathoff quotes J.J. Picollo about Estevez’s velocity:
“It’s hard not to notice it but we also had the experience of last year, and we went through the same thing,” Picollo said Thursday in a phone interview. “And I think last year we were a little bit more nervous about it, because we hadn’t been with him before.
“But not only did he tell us that this is how he always starts in spring training, but the other clubs he had been with, our coaches called their coaches and asked, ‘Is this normal?’ And they confirmed it for us.
“So while you would like to see him more in the 91-92 range right now, this is exactly where he was last year.”
He also writes about three Royals WBC items heading to the Baseball Hall of Fame:
Garcia, the Royals’ third baseman who was the WBC MVP, sent his batting helmet…
Perez’s shin guards, chest protector, helmet and mask are going to be on display…
The bat used by Pasquantino during the WBC will be in the Hall, too. Pasquantino was the first player in WBC history to hit three home runs in a game.
Todd Palmer at KSHB 41 summarizes the stadium situation:
With another Royals season on the horizon next week, the publicly discussed options for a new baseball stadium have narrowed to the point that Washington Square Park remains the last one standing…
Washington Square Park has been discussed as a possible stadium site for several years now, but it’s emerged in recent months as the city’s preferred destination, especially with Kansas and Clay County seemingly out of the running.
There has been talk that movement toward a deal was possible before the Royals’ home opener, but a new priority — convincing voters to extend to 1% earnings tax on April 7 — is Kansas City’s priority at the moment.
If the city and the Royals are going to reach a deal for a new stadium at Washington Square Park, it seems like mid-April would be the soonest it could happen.
Listicles?
David Brandt at the AP previews the AL Central:
2.) Kansas City Royals. The Royals were unable to follow their divisional playoff berth in 2024 with a return to the playoffs last year, but they still finished 82-80 after an abysmal start. They have one of the league’s most exciting players in All-Star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., an emerging star in All-Star third baseman Maikel Garcia, a popular veteran catcher in Salvador Perez and plenty of starting pitchers capable of shutting teams down. The big problem for Kansas City for years has been outfield production, and other than signing Starling Marte to a $1 million deal and making a couple of smaller moves, Royals general manager JJ Picollo was unable to make any major improvement. Instead, the Royals will hope that power-hitting Jac Caglianone will improve against big league pitching in his sophomore season. If starter Cole Ragans can return to All-Star form after injuries last season, Kris Bubic can follow through on his breakout year, and the offense can tick up with some help from Caglianone and promising young catcher Carter Jensen, the Royals have a shot to win their first AL Central title since 2015, when they went on to beat the New York Mets in the World Series.
At The Athletic ($), Keith Law lists breakout candidates:
Jac Caglianone, OF, Kansas City Royals
I feel like everyone and their brother is calling for a Caglianone breakout this year, and why not, given how incredibly hard he hits the ball and how well he hit everything up through Triple A. He’s already off to a torrid start this spring between his time with the Royals and his caffeine-laden stint with Team Italy. (I love espresso, but there’s no way my heart or stomach could survive drinking that much.)
He was awful in his big-league debut last year, and I think a big part of that is that he never stayed at any level long enough for opposing teams to adjust to him and force him to adjust back. He also became an extreme groundball hitter, with nearly a quarter of his balls hit in play pulled on the ground — a recipe for a low BABIP. He’s never been that hitter before, and he doesn’t look like that hitter this spring. It’s not sustainable; if he’s really that guy, we all missed on him in the MLB Draft.
Nick Stellini at CBS Sports bets on Rookie of the Year candidates:
AL best bet: Carter Jensen (+550)
Catchers don’t win this award often (Atlanta’s Drake Baldwin last year notwithstanding), in part due to the rigors of the position and the challenges young players can face in managing a pitching staff. Focusing on the defensive side of a player’s game can eat away at their offense.
That being said, Carter Jensen burst onto the scene in his brief cameo last year and has long had a pedigree for offensive dynamism. With franchise mainstay Salvador Perez entering his age 36 season, the Royals could benefit from moving Perez to more DH work and letting Jensen settle in behind the dish. A full season’s worth of plate appearances could produce some eye-popping numbers from the young backstop and add yet another dynamic bat to an ascendant Royals lineup that already features Witt, Maikel Garcia and Vinnie Pasquantino.
Speaking of money: Team Italy’s Espresso Machine is up for auction. Winning bid is over $2000(!) and there are still 3 days left.
Blogs?
At Inside the Crown ($), David Lesky gushes over the Royals at the WBC:
I know this might be a small market fan thing, but I can’t consume enough of my favorite team being spoken of in a positive light. And almost from the very start of the World Baseball Classic, praise was being heaped on the Royals that simply didn’t stop and still hasn’t stopped. In some ways, I almost want it to stop. Let them be unassuming and sneak up on everyone. But in way more ways, I hope it never does. Witt didn’t really need to get the attention. He’s just littered with awards in the section on Baseball Reference. He was seventh for the MVP in 2023, second in 2024 and fourth in 2025. He’s won back-to-back Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers. But the rest? Yeah, I like that the rest have become household names around baseball. In about a week, it’s time to start proving to people that they should remain household names.
At Into the Fountains, Craig Brown has “Roster Projection 3.0”:
Michael Massey, who occupied a spot on my previous roster iteration, suffered what the Royals call a “low-grade” calf srain on March 6. He hasn’t appeared in a Cactus League contest since March 8, when he left after two at bats after trying to play what, at the time, the Royals thought was just tightness. He played in a minor league game on a backfield on Tuesday but I wonder about his fitness this close to Opening Day. Unfortunately, he has quite an injury history.
Tolbert gets Massey’s spot if he’s unable to go on Opening Day. The Royals love their speed guy off the bench.
Speaking of injuries, I was waffling on Collins as he missed about a week of action with back tightness. Then, he took part in a full workout on Tuesday and was declared good to go. The Royals are progressing a bit slowly, holding Collins out of the field and instead having him as the DH in Wednesday’s game where he went 0-3 with a strikeout as the leadoff hitter. While Collins may in fact be the guy at the top of the order for the Royals, his appearance there was more to maximize his plate appearances after missing the time.
Darin Watson is back! The 2026 version of “This Date in Royals History” will feature 1976. Here’s the first entry:
The most-anticipated season in the Royals’ short history finally began with spring training opening in Fort Myers, Florida. Camps had been delayed for roughly two weeks after arbitrator Peter Seitz, just days before Christmas in 1975, ruled that the reserve system that had been in place in organized baseball pretty much since the beginning was not legally valid. As you might expect, this ruling threw the sport into uncertainty. The owners eventually locked out the players as negotiations began with the players’ union on a new collective bargaining agreement, as the old one had expired anyway. But in mid-March, with no agreement yet in place, commissioner Bowie Kuhn ordered teams to open camps.
This was none too soon for Royals fans, who were understandably excited to get the season underway. Kansas City baseball partisans were starved for a winner; remember, the A’s did not post a winning record in their time in Kansas City (1955-1967), with a high-water mark of 74 wins in 1966. More annoyingly to KC residents, the A’s became a juggernaut almost immediately after landing in Oakland, entering 1976 with five straight AL West titles under their belts and three straight World Series titles (1972-1974) on top of that…
Over the next seven months, we will explore the Royals’ pursuit of their first-ever division title, along with the upheaval in baseball following the Seitz decision, which echoes even in today’s game. Of course, we will also check in with the news and culture of 1976, a year that featured Olympic games, a presidential election, and America’s bicentennial.
At Royals Keep, Kevin O’Brien asks if Witt can be the leadoff hitter after his WBC stint:
Witt’s Previous Leadoff Struggles and Other Options
The only issue with Witt being the Royals’ leadoff hitter on Opening Day is that he doesn’t have a great track record at the top of the order. According to Fangraphs splits, in 201 plate appearances at leadoff, he has a .204 batting average, a 0.20 BB/K ratio, a .620 OPS, and 62 wRC+. Leadoff has been his worst spot in the batting order by a significant margin. Except for fifth, which he has only 8 plate appearances, the next-lowest batting-order wRC+ is third at 119.
For context, he has accumulated 2,154 plate appearances in the second spot in the batting order, which is the most of any spot for Witt. He has a 0.40 BB/K ratio, .301 average, .870 OPS, and 136 wRC+ in that second spot in the order.
Thus, manager Matt Quatraro has no reason to move Witt, especially since he has been so good at the No. 2 spot. However, the leadoff spot has been a thorn in the Royals’ side, especially in Quatraro’s tenure as manager.
Blog Roundup:
- Cory Moen at RK: American League Central Preview: Minnesota Twins
- Mike Gillespie at RK: Kansas City Royals 2026 Position Analysis: First Base
- Caleb Moody at KOK: Royals fans surely breathing sigh of relief after latest Matt Strahm injury report
- Jacob Milham at KOK: CBS Sports’ Top 100 MLB players list finally gives Royals the respect they deserve
I had the pleasure of going to New Zealand over the holidays this past year. We made some movie-related stops, mostly Lord of the Rings* stuff, but others, as well. At one point, we had a tour guide who had been an extra in a number of movies filmed there. So we’ll use that as a jumping-off point for our movie reviews this month.
*I don’t think I’ve done the Lord of the Rings (or the Hobbit movies) before, but those would require their own Rumblings.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
As a whole, I really want to like these movies. And they’re not bad. The acting is… fine. The effects are… fine. The direction needs work: there are times when it feels more like a collection of highlights than a cohesive story. But they’re not great. And The Chronicles of Narnia should be great.
TLTWATW is the most polished of the three. It sticks to the source material and surrounds the Pevensie children with acting veterans like Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, and Liam Neeson. It’s not daring, but it generally gets the job done.
Prince Caspian was more Eastern Europe than New Zealand and it loses a lot of its magic. It played more as a dark, brooding young adult movie than light-hearted family fantasy and effectively killed the franchise. Additionally, I’m not sure this series knows what its visual language is: England looks like cheaper Harry Potter and Narnia looks like cheaper Lord of the Rings.
The Dawn Treader is my favorite book, but this was not my favorite movie. It starts out with fast swashbuckling fun and it looks like the director transition from Andrew Adamson to Michael Apted was a good one. But, as the movie goes on, curious decisions are made with regards to which plots to keep and which to shorten and adapt and it loses steam.
As uneven as these were, I had always wished they did all seven. Though we are getting a reboot, of sorts, from Netflix later this year. Though they’re starting with The Magician’s Nephew and using the controversial newer way of ordering the books.
What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
I’m not the biggest Taika Waititi fan and I usually find the fake documentary format tired and restrictive, but this was a hoot. Waititi takes advantage of the format and beautifully sends up reality tv and documentaries. It’s very understated and very New Zealand and those work well together. I was expecting lots of cringe, but there was very little. The intentionally bad effects are executed well to humorous effect. Each time the movie started to feel stuck, a plot like Nick and Stu would pop up to move things along. I enjoyed it thoroughly: it’s a good little comedy.
We go from a nice little comedy to a big, bad science fiction bomb. First the good: WETA probably had a blast doing the effects for this and they look good. And it has Hugo Weaving, even if he’s phoning it in. We get Mildly Annoyed Max (since it’s New Zealand instead of Australia) shoved into a blender with broken pieces from Star Wars, Matrix, Doctor Who, and Terminator. Out comes this slurry of half-baked sci-fi cliches mixed with bad acting. At one point, Jihae stares straight into the camera and says “I’m not that subtle”. That should have been the tagline for this movie.
This is the movie I’m most conflicted about. My initial impression of this movie was that it was a great movie plus 30-45 minutes and that opinion hasn’t really changed on future rewatches. I always enjoy the setup: Black, Brodie, Watts, Kretschmann, and Hanks are all fun. I know that School of Rock is the quintessential Jack Black role, but I love him in this as the con man movie director.
Once they get on the boat, the move just drags through a much-too-long Act Two. We spend too much time getting to know characters who are quickly killed on the island (just to raise the stakes). There’s a bunch of needlessly creepy dramatic tension (now with extra slow motion). You feel like it’s an excuse to show off the animal models and CGI (but they’re not very good). And that’s without even getting into some of the major plot holes.
But then the movie goes back to New York City, and it just works again. Much like The Hobbit trilogy(!), I wish an editor had been able to rein in Peter Jackson. Snip at least 30 minutes from the middle, and this film goes from a mostly enjoyable slog to an excellent movie.
Want an hour of the March Madness Theme with slightly hypnotic graphics? Sure you do
