MLB.com’s Anne Rogers talks to the Kansas City Royals leadership following a terrible start to the 2026 season.
“You look back two months ago, month ago, no one in here would believe we’re technically the worst team in baseball,” Bobby Witt Jr. said. “We believe in each and every one in here. And that’s how we got to go about it. We got to get better every day and try to just improve.”
This is the answer the Royals continue to state no matter how bad things look on the field. General manager J.J. Picollo
expressed outward confidence in his club Monday afternoon in his usual homestand-opening scrum with local media, acknowledging that the group is pressing some but that the only way out of it is to keep moving forward and trust the process just 23 games into the year.
“We all know how long the season is,” Picollo said. “If you break the season up in bunches, short bunches, it doesn’t take much to turn something around. But if we get too focused and caught up in what’s happened over the last couple of weeks, we’re not going to be able to move forward. You get one big hit, the energy changes. The excitement changes. That may lead into the next night, and now all of a sudden the mentality changes. That’s something that we need to have happen.”
That was not all Picollo had to say, especially when it came to sticking with manager Matt Quatraro.
Once again, the Royals find themselves stumbling out of the gate in the first full month of the season. The Royals have lost eight straight games following Monday night’s 7-5 defeat to the Orioles in 12 innings, and they have the worst record in baseball at 7-16. Some fans have called for a change, but Royals general manager J.J. Picollo on Monday met with the media and expressed confidence in manager Matt Quatraro. The reason for Picollo’s faith? He looked back at Quatraro’s first year as Royals manager in 2023 when the team lost 106 games. But the following season, they were in the playoffs. “That’s ultimately going back to ‘23 when you go through a really tough year, and the composure that he kept through ‘23, the positivity, the way we played in August and September of that year, where we played a lot better, led into ‘24,” Picollo said of Quatraro. “I think his steadiness is what allows us to do things well and right the ship.” That ship is currently taking on water.
Where is the Royals’ new stadium actually going to be located? Probably not Washington Square Park, apparently.
Johnathan Duncan, city councilman for the 6th District, told The Star the stadium footprint “that will be briefed tomorrow is not Washington Square Park.” The city has notably been referring to the project location as a combination of Washington Square Park and neighboring Crown Center. While the Royals have not publicly unveiled their vision for the area, Duncan’s suggestion would illustrate a remarkable shift in at least the public perception of the stadium plan. The City Council passed an ordinance Thursday authorizing City Manager Mario Vasquez to negotiate with the Royals a stadium deal up to $600 million. The financial framework has occupied the conversation over the ensuing week, but Duncan said, “there’s a lack of clarity about the site.” The Royals could provide that clarity during a planned Wednesday morning announcement at a Crown Center restaurant.
Win or lose, the Royals have a big announcement Wednesday.
The Kansas City Royals are scheduled to announce an “important update” about the team’s future in Kansas City on Wednesday, a long-awaited decision that could mark the culmination of the team’s stadium hunt. Royals Chairman and CEO John Sherman will make the announcement alongside Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas at 10 a.m. Wednesday, according to a release from the team on Tuesday. TOP VIDEOS The video player is currently playing an ad. The announcement is expected to center on a new Royals downtown stadium, according to two officials scheduled to attend the press conference and an email invitation sent to City Council members on Tuesday. That invitation references a “Bring the Crown Downtown Ballpark Celebration.”
David Lesky did not mince words after the Royals’ Monday night loss.
At some point, the hole is just too deep to get out of, but that point generally doesn’t come quite so early in the season. And yet, here we are after another Royals loss, their eighth in a row. The Royals had a gut-punch loss in the second game of the season when they blew a 2-0 lead in the ninth. They had another gut-punch loss just a few days ago when they came back from five down to take a lead into the ninth, but blew that. Last night may be worse than either of those. But having three examples to choose from in 23 games might be the bigger problem than any single game. The fact that I would have been shocked if they didn’t blow it last night is just sad.
There were 18 players who appeared for the Royals last night. Four of them carry zero blame of an ugly, ugly loss.
Lesky was not the only one who felt this way, after Royals fans made their feelings heard during Monday’s loss.
There were boos throughout the night. The Royals (7-16) own the worst record in Major League Baseball and have lost eight consecutive games. TOP VIDEOS The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. addressed the situation postgame. He felt the Royals’ fan base deserved a better product on the field. “Yeah, it sucks,” Witt said. “But if you’re the worst team in baseball, you might deserve to get booed every once in a while. It should motivate us to get better. Just motivate us to go out there and just lay it all on the field each and every night. Give it all every night, and so just go from there.”
Just in case you forgot the pain that was Monday’s loss, here is a good reminder from Vahe Gregorian.
Somehow, though, the Royals outdid themselves Monday night with a nauseating defeat — one that conjured the immortal wisdom of former Royals manager Buddy Bell. Following a 10th straight loss in 2006, he alertly said, “I never say it can’t get worse.” At least that losing streak ended after one more L. These Royals should only be so fortunate after the 7-5 loss in 12 innings against Baltimore extended the losing streak to eight — their longest since a 10-game string in 2023 on the way to a 56-106 season. Instead of being the fresh start they desperately need, this game was somewhere between a microcosm and fusion of all that’s been going awry all season: Again with the stupefying inability to produce with runners in scoring position, underscored by leaving 16 men on base. Fresh evidence that the bullpen that was such an asset last season no longer is slamming the door but … a trap door; in this case, it squandered Seth Lugo’s seven innings of one-hit, scoreless work into the eighth loss of the season by relievers after Alex Lange gave up five runs in the 12th.
Royals Keep says it is time to hit reset on our expectations for the 2026 Royals.
Is it Time to Rethink the 2026 Royals?
Yes. No big league team is or can be perfect, but Kansas City’s imperfections are glaring. Perhaps general manager J.J. Picollo found the offseason price of a new big bat too high and settled for less than he wanted and his club needed. Perhaps Perez is running out of gas. Maybe some of the club’s talent is overrated, and was from the start.Improvement is needed. And sooner, not later; the club can’t wait for the midsummer trade deadline. But the history of this typically conservative franchise suggests no new, truly impactful major league hitter will arrive this season, and hoping the rotation and bullpen pick up the slack all season is too much to ask.
Although it’s still early, this club is in trouble.
The Royals minor-league affiliates are staying competitive to start the season, and one Omaha reliever is standing out from his peers.
On the pitching end, Chazz Martinez had a solid week, allowing no runs on two hits and three walks while striking out six in three innings of work. For the season, Martinez is posting a 41.7% K% and 20.8% K-BB% in six innings of work. While the TJ Stuff+ metrics aren’t great (98 overall), he’s done an excellent job limiting hard contact while generating solid whiff and chase rates, as seen below.
The four-seamer is an interesting pitch with crazy horizontal break (18.3 HB), and it generates a decent amount of chase (26.9%) and whiff (31.8%) as well as weak contact (.241 xwOBACON). As a result, the four-seamer has a 102 TJ Stuff+ and a 57 grade. Unfortunately, his other offerings don’t rate as well stuff-wise, with his sweeper having a 30 grade and changeup sporting a 47 grade.
Still, Martinez could be an Evan Sisk type who simply can generate chase and whiff effectively due to his arm angles, even if he may not have the most overpowering stuff profile.
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