The Royals announced organizational awards yesterday. Max had details here on Royals Review yesterday.
Royals left-handed pitching prospect David Shields (the club’s No. 4 prospect per MLB.com) was named the Paul Splittorff Pitcher of the Year. Meanwhile, Josh Hammond (No. 2) won the Alex Gordon Heart and Hustle Award.
Brett Squires was named the George Brett Hitter of the Year. The club also recognized Squires as the Mike Sweeney Community Impact Award recipient. He is the first player to win multiple
organization awards in the same season.
Other award winners include the LP Langevin (Dan Quisenberry Reliever of the Year), Carson Roccaforte (Frank White Defensive Player of the Year) and Asbel Gonzalez (Willie Wilson Baserunner of the Year).
MLB mothership staff also covered the organizational awards.
GEORGE BRETT HITTER OF THE YEAR
IF BRETT SQUIRES
Brett Squires was recognized as the George Brett Award winner, given annually to the top hitter in the Royals organization. Squires, 26, split the 2026 minor league campaign between Double-A Northwest Arkansas (32 G) and Triple-A Omaha (100 G) and slashed .277/.351/.549 (135-for-488) with 34 doubles, 31 home runs, 78 runs scored, 24 stolen bases and an organization-best 103 RBI in 132 games across both levels. He was one of nine minor leaguers to hit at least 30 home runs and record at least 100 RBI and became the first Royals farmhand to reach those marks in a season since MJ Melendez in 2021 (41 HR, 103 RBI). Despite not making his Storm Chasers debut until May 12, he ranked among the International League leaders in slugging percentage (2nd, .553), OPS (5th, .892), home runs (T-5th, 25) and extra-base hits (6th, 51). Squires was signed by Kansas City as an undrafted free agent on July 24, 2022 out of the University of Oklahoma by Royals scout Bobby Shore.
Dylan Lysen at the Kansas City Star writes that the petition to put the stadium deal to a vote advanced one step closer to the ballot.
The city’s Special Committee for Legal Review on Monday advanced an ordinance that would place the question on the April 6 ballot during the 2027 spring municipal election. The proposal now goes to the full City Council for consideration.
The council’s pending approval appears to be a formality. City staff previously told The Star that if the petitioners filed a request to send their proposed ordinance to voters, the city’s charter would require the council to place the initiative on the ballot at the earliest eligible election, which would be April 6.
Members of Missouri Workers Power, a coalition of progressive advocacy groups that oppose the city’s help in funding the stadium project, submitted a letter to the city clerk’s office on Sept. 1 to formally request that the petition be placed on the ballot.
The group aims to halt the city’s plans to contribute $600 million in bond financing to help construct a new $1.9 billion baseball stadium in Crown Center.
Later this week on Friday Denny Matthews will call his 8000th game on the radio.
Royals play-by-play broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre said the team realized the milestone was near because Matthews keeps all of his scorecards. Lefebvre said he and Curt Nelson, the director of the Royals Hall of Fame, rolled up their sleeves, with the help of Sam Mellinger, the Royals vice president of communications, and other employees.
“Curt Nelson and I had wondered for years: How many games has Denny done? Denny has saved all of his scorecards, and years ago he turned them over to Curt. Curt asked for them, and so they’ve been in the Royals’ possession for years,” Lefebvre said on the broadcast. “And he and I have been saying one of these days we’ve got to find out how many games he’s done. Call it divine inspiration, instinct, whatever. But Curt and I finally said, ‘We’re either going to do this or we’re not going to do this.’ …
“But he and I got a group of about 10 to 15 Royals employees, and the Royals paid for lunch. And here come all the boxes of scorecards going back to 1969, and we actually counted all of them in about an hour. It didn’t take that long, and I’m glad we did. Sam Mellinger was in charge of tallying up the numbers, so someone would say, ‘OK, in 1972, we did 161 games,’ and we’re adding them up, and we’re tallying them up, tallying them up, and all of a sudden it hit us: ‘Oh my gosh, he’s going to do his 8,000th game this year.’”
I think the recent bullpen meltdowns here at the end of a lost season broke David Lesky. Just a little.
I’m also struggling some with this particular edition because this is the first time since maybe 2022 where these games are just totally irrelevant. They were at least on the periphery of the race last year. They obviously made it to the dance two years ago. Even in 2023, we had Bobby Witt Jr.‘s ascent to stardom along with Cole Ragans, James McArthur (yes, his September was worthy of mention) and a bunch of other young guys trying like hell to make an impression. This year’s team is mostly guys we know are part of the future and have nothing to prove and guys we know aren’t part of the future and have nothing to prove.
Davy Andrews at FanGraphs went deep into the idea of an off-peak season for Bobby Witt Jr and his case for MVP.
This is Witt’s fifth major league season, and you could argue that it’s his fourth consecutive MVP-caliber campaign. Mind you, that argument would focus only on 2022, in which he put up 5.9 WAR, good for 10th in the majors. There’s no argument to be had about the 2024 and 2025 seasons. That said, along with Shohei Ohtani’s combined 9.2-WAR 2022 sesaon, they are the two most valuable seasons this decade for which a position player did not win an MVP. In 2024, Witt ran a 169 wRC+, stole 31 bases, and put up a Fielding Run Value of 11, fourth among all shortstops. That was good for 10.5 WAR, and it took the best season of Aaron Judge’s career – 58 home runs, a 19% walk rate, and a .322 batting average – to beat him. In 2025, Witt put up 8.0 WAR with a 130 wRC+, 38 steals, and 20 FRV, the best mark among all shortstops. Again, he was bested by a 10-win season from Judge and Cal Raleigh’s 60-homer campaign. Witt has never received a first place MVP vote.
Baseball America picked Kendry Chourio as the Royals minor league player of the year.
With the road slate of games completed this season, Kevin O’Brien at Royals Keep took a look at the struggles the Royals faced away from home.
Brian Burrows at Kings of Kauffman analyzes the bullpen through the lens of FanGraphs’ “Meltdowns” stat.
Old friend Michael Lorenzen is now a free agent after clearing waivers.
Alex Bregman has multiple facial fractures after being hit by a foul ball in the face on Sunday, but he could return for the postseason.
The Rays brought back their blue-green color gradient uniforms for their new road kit.
Jason Benetti made a reference to the Austro-Turkish War during the Tigers broadcast yesterday and got roasted for it.
Speaking of the Tigers, corporate goons are renaming their stadium after two fractions, or rankings, or a bank, or whatever, I don’t care. It’s dumb. At least have the temerity to name it “First” or something.
Paul Skenes thinks the WBC is to blame for his down season.
Somehow Xavier Worthy led the non-QB, non-OL offensive players in snap counts in the Chiefs Sunday night victory over the Colts.
The New York Giants ran up their healthcare bill in last night’s Monday Night Football game, which saw a slew of injuries for Big Blue. I saw “nightmare game” from…a lot of people on the internet.
The Atlanta Falcons are hilarious this year.
Soccer star Julie Ertz’s husband, erstwhile Eagles TE Zach, has rejoined the birds.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac bought a pub next to Wrexham’s stadium so they can apparently make a Welsh version of all those American entertainment districts that our billionaires want so badly.
Paramount reached a settlement in the antitrust lawsuit, which apparently clears the way for them to complete their giant acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery. Yakko, Wakko, and Dot need to drum up some chaos to put a stop to this corporate ghoulish behavior.
It’s a bit outdated, but your song of the day is Yakko with the world country sing-along.
