Yes, it is the offseason so offseason-y, the Kansas City Royals announcing their new food and beverage providerat Kauffman Stadium is the headline news.
The partnership will begin at Kauffman Stadium in 2028, allowing the team and company to build staff, systems, and relationships with local restaurants and vendors ahead of the move.
“Our new ballpark will be a reflection of Kansas City and our fans, and this partnership is a critical piece of bringing that vision to life,” Royals President of Business
Operations Cullen Maxey said.
Sportservice, Delaware North, currently partners with 10 Major League Baseball clubs, including but not limited to the Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Chicago White Sox, and Atlanta Braves.
The Athletic’s Elise Devlin interviews former Royals manager Ned Yost on his managerial experience in relation to the World Series, including some parallels the Milwaukee Brewers have with Kansas City’s 2015 squad.
When you get to that point where you all of a sudden go from thinking you’re good to knowing in your heart that you’re good, that’s a huge difference right there.
We think we’re good. We think we’re good. We think we’re good, but there’s a little something in the back of your mind that says, Are we really good?
Once it gets into that heart and you’re convinced, and you know in your heart that you’re good, then that confidence takes over and it creates a lot of freedom for you to go out and just play your game like your hair’s on fire and to give it your very best effort.
Royals Keep’s Sam Caulder makes the case for Kansas City to retain reliever Nick Mears as arbitration looms.
Mears posted a 5.9% walk rate in 2025 and finished in the 93rd percentile for chase rate. Those are encouraging numbers for a reliever, as his ability to limit free passes and get hitters to chase pitches outside the strike zone gives him a solid foundation to build on. Even in 2024, when his surface-level numbers suggested he struggled, his underlying metrics were outstanding. There’s reason to believe Mears can be a quality major league reliever when he’s healthy, and the Royals could certainly use more arms with that kind of potential.
His stuff is also interesting. Mears has a steep 55-degree arm angle that helps him generate plenty of vertical movement on his pitches. His four-seam fastball, slider, and curveball all produced at least three more inches of vertical movement than the league average this season. That makes his 2026 velocity drop particularly noteworthy. Both his four-seam fastball and slider were at career-low velocities, suggesting something wasn’t right before he was eventually shut down.
Sports Illustrated’s Trey Donovan celebrates starter Michael Wacha’s 2026 season, but points out the Royals pitcher’s flaw from last year.
One key stat I left out in the intro was Wacha’s 1.35 HR/9, because this section was going to discuss it. The one major change in Wacha’s Royals tenure was that in 2026, the hard hits came out in bunches. He had a hard-hit rate of 36.9%, which is solid but quite a few ticks below 2025 and 2024’s total, and that saw his average exit velocity spike to 88.3 mph.
The increase in hard hits and the fact that he wasn’t getting a ton of grounders led to an obvious conclusion. He had a flyball rate of 44.7% this season, with his HR/FB rate sitting at 11.5%, a high in his Royals tenure. That led to him giving up a career-high 30 home runs in 2026. The best thing about this for Wacha was that a good chunk of these were solo shots, but it also shows why his fWAR tally is lower than Noah Cameron’s.
Former Royals pitcher James Shields might have it out for a Tampa Bay Rays mascot.
It was former Royals (Shop Royals Fan Gear) pitcher James Shields. Unfortunately for “Big Game James,” who broke into the majors with the Rays in 2006, his pitch nearly beaned Raymond, one of Tampa Bay’s mascots, who was standing near home plate. Hey, it’s always possible that Shields was paying homage to late Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker. While playing Cleveland’s radio announcer in the movie, “Major League,” Uecker charitably noted that Ricky Vaughn (actor Charlie Sheen) had thrown a pitch that was “juuuuust a bit outside.”
Royals Keep’s Eli Nitz asks (and answers) if the Royals entered this past season with enough starting pitching depth.
Picollo had nine starters he thought could get through the season with. He was able to pull off a trade and turn a bullpen piece into a last-ditch starting rotation. There were other names at Omaha that were insurance pieces that never returned to form in Aaron Sanchez and Vince Velazquez. It looks like there were enough options. They just didn’t pan out.
Famously, John Gruden and Ron Jaworski visited the Indianapolis Colts ahead of a Monday Night Football matchup and noticed the backup quarterback wasn’t getting any reps. Peyton Manning was the quarterback at that time. When Gruden asked long-time Indianapolis offensive coordinator Tom Moore why that was, Moore famously answered, “Fellas, if 18 goes down we’re f*****. And we don’t practice f*****.”
In a season when four of your top nine options were done for 2026 by mid-May, I think Tom Moore summed up where the Royals stood regarding starting pitching.
The Athletic’s latest MLB free agent big board lists three players as best fits in Kansas City.
The Houston Astros release former Royals outfielder Nelson Velazquez.
The Philadelphia Phillies name former Boston Red Sox coach Peter Fatse as their hitting coach.
Former New York Yankees player Jorge Posada says he does not feel welcome by the organization.
The Chicago White Sox will not retain John Schriffen as their lead play-by-play voice.
New Baltimore Orioles general manager Jared Banner knows he has work to do in his new organization.
The Utah Talons, the winners of back-to-back Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) titles, appeared at Tropicana Field ahead of Game 4.
Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards set to miss multiple months following a knee procedure.
The Indianapolis Colts begin their presumed selling trade stance with two veterans dealt to NFC.
Former NBA player Malik Beasley will reportedly plead guilty in his federal betting bribery and conspiracy case.
Jerry Jones opens the door for hiring Troy Aikman to a role within the Dallas Cowboys.
Medieval combat competitions are on the rise in China.
Kansas City, Kansas, could be hosting one of the 2032-2036 Final Fours.
Ticket-buying bots derailed Garth Brooks upcoming Kansas City concert, while alawsuit shows the same afflicted Beyoncé’s 2023 Renaissance Tour at Arrowhead Stadium.
The St. James Academy Thunder won Kansas’ inaugural state title in girls flag football
JuneteethKC is helping Kansas City-area children suit up for Halloween.
ChopMore! By Price Chopper opens near Raytown to offer shoppers goods “priced at cost, plus 10 percent added at checkout to cover overhead.”
Today’s song of the day is Follow You to Virgie by Tyler Childers.
