Though it was stunningly cold this past Saturday, plenty of Kansas City Royals fans showed up to the fourth annual Royals Rally event. Fans who bought tickets received access to autograph sessions and could listen to select roundtables throughout the day.
Additionally, just like last year, this event served as the first big media event of the year, with a variety of Royals players, coaches, and front office members sitting down to field questions from the group. I was there during media availability
and got a few questions in–including one that had been burning a hole in my proverbial pocket that I finally asked principal owner John Sherman.
This year, we’ll look at some quotes that I jotted down that I found noteworthy as we look ahead to the 2026 season.
“Stability” and “Reach”
Ok, this isn’t a quote per se, you got me. But they are two words that Cullen Maxey, the Royals’ new president of business operations, repeatedly said in regard to Kansas City’s broadcasting situation.
With FanDuel Sports Kansas City and its parent company, Main Street Sports Group, traversing the thorny path of financial ruin, the Royals have faced a choice in how to proceed: stick with FanDuel or transition to MLB. Just two days after the event, the Royals confirmed they were ditching FanDuel for the season in favor of an in-house MLB broadcast. All the broadcasters will remain on board.
When Sherman was available for an interview, I asked him about the instability with FanDuel and if that had impacted revenue or their ability to field the payroll they wanted. Sherman said that there has indeed been some revenue “erosion” and that a non-FanDuel option would result in further revenue erosion. Interestingly, Sherman also said that they considered it a short-term impact, and as such, they were simply eating the monetary difference so it wouldn’t impact the team.
So, why then did the Royals go with MLB if it meant even lower revenues? Maxey and Sherman believe that maximizing reach is the best and most profitable way in the long haul. That’s why they did it.
“We got away from our identity.”
It was a mostly quiet offseason for Kansas City, with a young core in place surrounded by a starting pitching staff with high-end and depth talent. Still, Picollo says that there were some growing pains last year and said that the team “got away from our identity.”
Interestingly, JJ said that this identity wasn’t about any individual playing factor, but that their identity was about putting pressure on other teams. And if you watched the 2025 Royals very often, you know that some things plagued the team all year long: a lack of getting on base, baserunning blunders, and defensive miscues.
If you’re wondering why the Royals didn’t grab another bat, Picollo said that there were “few available hitters to make us significantly better,” and it is that “significantly better” part that stands out for me, because the implied part of that is “for the cost.” Picollo knows the Royals would ideally like to add another bat, and Sherman said later that there still could be opportunities to add a bat–after all, it’s only February and we’ve got two months before Opening Day.
So if the Royals do add a bat, it’ll mean that they found that piece to make them significantly better at a cost that they agree with.
“We’ll match up and move guys around.”
The Royals acquired Isaac Collins and Lane Thomas in the offseason, and they’ll have Jac Caglionone from opening day. What will the outfield look like?
That was my question to Matt Quatraro, who agreed that those three will receive a lot of playing time in the outfield. But he followed that up by strongly suggesting that the outfield would be fluid. The first additional name Q brought up as someone who would get outfield time was Michael Massey, and Q also said that Nick Loftin and John Rave would be prepared to play there, too.
Kansas City is in a better place with the outfield, but there’s enough uncertainty that we may see platoons to some degree for all three outfield spots. While the Royals think that Collins is likely going to play a lot of left field, it sounds like there will be some healthy competition and enough plate appearances to go around.
“I want to retire here.”
During JJ’s interview, Salvador Perez’s loud voice could be heard from the hallway. When JJ referred to him as a Hall of Famer, Salvy quipped that he was glad to hear it. Perez’s smile and personality are as big as ever.
Salvy was asked about signing his most recent extension, and he was unequivocal in his happiness as a Royal. He wants to retire here, and he does not want to play for any other team. Will he make it to the Hall of Fame? It’ll be an interesting case. He could get to 350 home runs and 2,000 hits if he continues to play well. But make no mistake: Salvy is going to be a big part of the team this year.
“Last year was a failure.”
Vinnie Pasquantino is beloved by fans, teammates, and media alike because of his big personality, respectfulness, and honesty. It was the honesty that was on full display here.
When asked about how he felt about the season, he brought up last year and did not mince words, calling it a failure. They felt like they were good enough to make the playoffs, but they didn’t. To Vinnie, that wasn’t just an “aw shucks” situation, but a true failure. He brought up that Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia are on long-term deals and that the time to win is now.
New and returning Royals pitcher Matt Strahm later mentioned the same thing–that there is a drive and an expectation to win. “I was happy to hear how disappointed they were,” he said about his new teammates’ thoughts on the previous season. Strahm went on to say that he was tired of being a loser and wanted to win.
Somebody asked a clarifying question of Strahm about what would not constitute losing; he replied simply: the World Series. It’s clear that Royals players have their standards set high.
“We wanted to play in a more neutral setting more consistently.”
The Royals are in the process of moving in their fences, a decision that the team made after they crunched the numbers and determined it would help the team more than it would hurt them. During the event, you could clearly see that they were actively at work doing so, as you can see from a few photos I snapped of the snow-clad field:
Sherman put it in terms of a return on investment. Vinnie stated that he was excited about it and that he was looking forward to what it felt like in the regular season. Seth Lugo offered a measured response from a pitcher’s perspective, and said that as long as he does his job in limiting hard-hit fly balls and line drives, he won’t have to worry about where the walls are.
But Quatraro’s statement about playing in a neutral setting more consistently seems to be one of the core reasons for the change. It’s not that Kauffman was a hitter’s or pitcher’s park; it’s that it was so different from the rest of the league. We’ll see how it plays out in the regular season.
“We’re not going anywhere.”
It was during last year’s Royals Rally press conferences where Sherman said that the Royals would have an answer on where they wanted to play by the middle of the year. That didn’t happen, the latest in what has been more than one missed self-imposed deadline.
Since then, there has been very little official information from the club. But with John Sherman himself appearing before the media, Saturday was a rare opportunity to get some answers.
Perhaps taking some lessons from last year, though, those answers were mostly noncommittal. Sherman stated that they “feel good about where we are” and didn’t give a specific timeline. When asked if the team was trying to get a deal done without a public vote like in April 2024, Sherman did not directly answer, saying that those decisions weren’t up to the Royals and they were focused on what they could control.
However, Sherman did confirm that the team was no longer looking at the Aspiria campus in Overland Park. Additionally, he said that the team was still looking at sites “on both sides of the state line.” And for the first time that I can recall, Sherman said that extending the lease to stay at Kauffman Stadium was a possibility if necessary, though he preferred not to do that because that amounted to “kicking the can down the road.”
Sherman was also asked again if the Royals would move away from the metro. He responded, “We’re not going anywhere,” and that if somebody ever moved the team away from Kansas City, it wouldn’t be them.
