Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic writes the Royals are still pursuing an outfielder. [$]
Even after signing free agent Lane Thomas and trading for Isaac Collins, the Kansas City Royals are open to adding another outfielder – most notably Jarren Duran, if the Boston Red Sox lower their asking price.
The Royals are under the impression Duran would cost them left-hander Cole Ragans, though the Red Sox view the initial talks as more informal and exploratory, according to people briefed on the conversations.
Both Ragans, 28, and Duran, 29, are under club control for three more seasons, with Ragans under contract for a combined $12 million in 2026-27 and Duran for $7.75 million in ’26. The Royals, though, see Ragans as a player with greater value, a potential Game 1 starter in a postseason series.
David Lesky breaks down the trade with the Brewers for Isaac Collins.
The thing he does pretty well is swing hard. Bat speed isn’t always the best thing for a player, but it works for Collins. He swings hard and that helps him get to the ball. In some ways, it’s easy to look at his xBA of .247 and his xSLG of .349 and see a guy who should regress in a big way. I think he will regress from a 122 wRC+, though it is in line with what he did in 2021, 2023 and 2024 in the minors. But I also think there’s a higher floor, and that’s because of the trait that he does exceptionally well and that’s not swing at pitches he shouldn’t be swinging at.
Collins chased just 18.4 percent of pitches outside the strike zone. If you think that’s low, you’d be right. It’s in the 98th percentile. But it’s not even that he doesn’t chase. He doesn’t swing at pitches that are strikes but aren’t in the part of the plate he wants to hit. He saw 321 pitches that were in the zone, but in the shadow zone (so not in the heart of the plate) in 2022. He swung at 134 of them. That’s 10 percent below the league average. I’ve written this before, but swinging at strikes and taking balls isn’t the only thing that is part of good swing decisions. Swinging at the right strikes is the most important thing, particularly with two strikes. Out of 170 hitters who saw at least 300 non-two strike pitches in the zone, but not in the middle, Collins swung than all but 15 players. Maikel Garcia was the player right ahead of him.
Keith Law at The Athletic doesn’t get the trade from Milwaukee’s perspective. [$]
Collins is also a plus defender in left, with a below-average arm that keeps him from playing somewhere else. The Royals got absolutely nothing from their outfield last year, and particularly from left field, where Drew Waters and a few others combined for a .224/.291/.348 line Collins could easily top even if there’s some regression in his second big-league season — not that I think there’s a specific reason to expect it in his case. I wish he hit the ball harder, but if he had, he would have been in the majors some time before 2024. A left fielder who gets on base and plays plus defense without power is an unusual profile, but it was enough for Collins to accumulate a 2.6 fWAR/2.1 bWAR in 441 plate appearances last season.
Kiri Oler at Fangraphs writes about the Brewers trade as well as the Maikel Garcia extension.
Back in August, Davy Andrews detailed the factors fueling Garcia’s surge at the plate. The TLDR is that Garcia paired his already excellent plate discipline with a light re-vamp of his swing mechanics that improved his body control and timing in a way that allowed him to both pull and lift the ball more. He also got stronger, which amped up his bat speed. His harder and more refined swing improved his contact quality across the board, allowing him to do damage on a broader range of pitch velocities and movement profiles.
Those skeptical of Garcia’s offensive turnaround might note that he does most of his damage over the heart of the plate, and that pitchers pounded the zone against him in 2025. His Zone% was 14th highest among qualified hitters. So what if pitchers adjust and stop throwing him quite so many cookies? Well, here’s the thing: They can’t. Because Garcia ranked 11th in O-Swing%. They can throw him more pitches out of the zone, but he’s probably not going to swing at them. Then they’ll have to throw him a strike. And, moreover, he’ll know they have to throw him a strike. Meaning the adjustment for pitchers isn’t as simple as throwing fewer strikes, it’s throwing more pitches that can fool a batter with an exceedingly sharp eye — a much taller task.
J.J. Picollo discusses Jac Caglianone on MLB Network.
Opening Day in Atlanta has been pushed back one day to Friday, March 27.
The writers at Royals Keep discuss the Royals Hall of Fame ballot.
The Phillies sign outfielder Adolis García to a one-year, $10 million deal.
The Twins sign first baseman Josh Bell to a one-year, $7 million deal.
The Rangers sign catcher Danny Jansen, and pitchers Alexis Diaz and Tyler Alexander.
The Yankees are open to trading Jazz Chisholm Jr.
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Yu Darvish is mulling retirement after UCL surgery.
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The Dodgers now owe over a billion dollars to players through 2047.
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The makers of the Roomba file for bankruptcy.
The 100 best TV episodes of the century.
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