This season was an interesting year for Kyle Isbel. The Royals’ primary center fielder since the 2023 season, he took a step back at the plate after a career year in 2025. The defense was still borderline elite.
Kyle Isbel lost nearly two months of the season when he suffered a left plantar fasciitis injury in early June. He didn’t get back to the big-league squad until early August. I think that is a somewhat important caveat before grading his season in totality.
We will start where Isbel has always
seemed to shine, with his glove. Despite missing nearly two months of the season, Isbel still had a +7 in Outs Above Average, which indicates elite range. His arm value is still subpar at -2. His jumps on balls are also still elite, so his first steps are great. Isbel did have an uncharacteristic four errors this season.
OK, Isbel is awesome in the field. We’ve known that. Let’s move to the offensive side of things. Through 100 games and 294 at-bats this season, Isbel’s final slash line was .224/.268/.323. He hit nine doubles, a triple, and six homers. Isbel struck out the same number of times this season as last season, 74, but in 74 fewer at-bats. He also walked just 15 times, which was down by eight from the previous season. He was 6-for-6 stealing bases this season.
After having a career year at the plate in 2025, when Isbel slashed .255/.301/.353 with 16 doubles, four triples, and four homers while driving in 33 runs, the soon-to-be 30-year-old outfielder took a step back. It was Isbel’s worst batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage since the 2022 season.
His sacrifice numbers were down, and he hit into a career-high eight double plays. For the first time in his career, Kyle Isbel was a negative-WAR player. He finished at -0.4, whereas in each of the last three seasons, Isbel had been worth 1.6 WAR or more. Again, he missed a lot of time with a painful injury, but it wasn’t a good output.
Isbel, who has been a platoon-type bat in his career, slashed .248/.296/.356 against righties in 222 at-bats. Against lefties, his slash line was .153/.176/.222 in 72 at-bats. Going back to the injury, Isbel slashed .244/.298/.354 in 56 games in the first half. In the 44 games he played after returning from injury, he slashed .200/.228/.285.
With the 2018 third-round pick aging and his production down last season, do the Royals move on? Do they try to flip him, sending him somewhere else to be a fourth outfielder? Or do they keep him as the fourth outfielder here in Kansas City and give guys like Tyler Tolbert or Carson Roccaforte the keys?
I could see the Royals doing either of those things. Heck, I won’t be surprised if Isbel is pretty much the everyday starting center fielder for the first couple of months. I’ll always like Kyle Isbel, but his time in Kansas City might be over.
How would you grade Kyle Isbel’s 2026 season?
