At The Star, Jaylon Thompson writes that we shouldn’t sleep on Nick Mears, the other player acquired in the Angel Zerpa trade:
Mears has great analytical numbers. Per Statcast, he recorded a 33.5% chase rate — ranking in the 93rd percentile among qualified major-league pitchers. He also demonstrated good command, with just 2.1 walks allowed per nine innings.
Mears is effective with his fastball and slider. The heater averaged 95.4 mph while the slider— which registered a 38.4% whiff rate last year
— is his put-away pitch.
Pete Grathoff collected some Sopranos memes concerning Vinnie’s three-homer game at the WBC.
Need more Vinnie (and Bobby) goofiness? Dino nuggets? Mac-n-cheese? Vinnie wearing the apron for cooking that? Shut the box?
Here’s the whole video. About 6 minutes in is the clip they released a couple of weeks ago where Vinnie tries to guess the type of pitch. He’s wrong almost every time. For being a student of hitting and a really enjoyable one to listen to, he’s awful at guessing them.
Dillon Seckington at Fox 4 KC tracks how well the Royals are doing at the WBC.
AT MLB.com, Brian Murphy and Thomas Harrigan make a (dubious) list of their Top 10 WBC moments (so far). Somehow an Aaron Judge groundout is on the list, but nothing from the Netherlands v Nicaragua list is on it. If you didn’t see it, NIC led NED 3-1 with 2 outs in the 9th when Ozzie Albies hit the first walkoff homer in WBC history.
We don’t have a lot of feature stories. Aside from the reliable Jaylon Thompson, you can probably tell I was reaching a bit. How about some listicles?
Matt Synder at CBS Sports lists two Royals in his ace tiers:
Looking to return to ace form – Cole Ragans, Royals – After a 3.14 ERA and 223 strikeouts in 186 ⅓ innings in 2024, I threw Ragans all the way up to the top tier. He was ravaged by injury and poor fortune last season. He also struck out 98 in just 61 ⅔ innings.
Possibly an ace, possibly not – Kris Bubic, Royals – He looked every bit an ace last season with a 2.55 ERA and essentially a strikeout per inning. A shoulder injury ended his season in July, though. He only made 20 starts.
At MLB.com, Bradford Doolittle looks at what teams has busy winters and which had more boring ones and what it says about the team:
Tier 2: Middle of the pack teams –
Passive offseason with no major splashes
Description: We believe in our squad, based either on a longer-term track record or the progress of a young group that’s maturing. Despite a so-so season, we’re riding with these guys.
2026 teams: Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Guardians, Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals
What it means: The most successful teams from this group have been clubs that have knocked on the door for several seasons before breaking through. This includes the 1979 Pirates, 1980 Phillies, 1985 Royals and, to a lesser extent, the 2010 Giants…
At Fangraphs, Michael Baumann looks at “When Chases and Whiffs Don’t Lead to Outs” and a 2025 Royal made the list:
What was wrong with Ragans might be even more simple; he tweaked his groin early in 2025, then strained his rotator cuff in his first start after coming back from the first injury. That shoulder issue kept him out until mid-September, leaving the Royals’ presumptive no. 1 starter with a highly disjointed and injury-plagued record. Assuming his shoulder and groin remain in working order, he should be just fine in 2026.
Blog time!
At Inside the Crown ($), David Lesky mailbags.
Do you have any concerns about the outfield given the lackluster performances of Lane Thomas and Isaac Collins this Spring? -Hokius
…But, honestly, to have watched a team have the worst outfield offense in baseball last year and then not bring in someone who was more of a sure thing had me concerned the whole time. The reality is what I wrote a few weeks ago. The outfield being anything more than fine depends on Jac Caglianone a whole lot more than it depends on any of their acquisitions. It’s both a scary spot to be because relying on young players is risky and relying on a guy who looked so bad last year is scary, but also an exciting spot because of the upside Caglianone has. So yes, I’d say concerns is the right word. I’m not exactly worried, but I have concerns.
Hokius, you say? Most of the questions are about the outfield. Then again, that could be the title of any Royals offensive preview this year: “Most of the questions are about the outfield”.
This was from a couple of days ago, but I didn’t see a link to it. Craig Brown looks at a potential rotation battle:
With Noah Cameron’s struggles this spring (7.2 IP, 10 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 5 SO), there’s an opportunity for Bergert to push his way into a conversation for the fifth starter role. There’s obviously still some work to do on his part and if Cameron gets right over his next couple of outings it’s a moot competition anyway, but there’s a scenario that’s not so far-fetched where a battle for that final rotation start gets hot.
Royals Data Dugout with a new hitting model: Lumber+
Lumber+ is my new Statcast-based hitter skill model that’s free to use — just click the image above. Designed to measure talent rather than production, it’s scaled so 100 = league average and each standard deviation roughly = 5.
…The big question you might (or should) ask — does it work and does it mean anything?
The answer: Yes, or at least I believe so. In backtesting 2023 and 2024 data, Lumber+ proved to be quite predictive of next-season success, using wRC+ as the end target.
At Royals Keep, Kevin O’Brien looks at Pasquantino’s big night at the WBC:
Pasquantino has traditionally been known to be a slow starter at the plate. Last season, he hit .177 with a 49 wRC+ in 124 plate appearances in March/April, according to Fangraphs splits. That said, he was fine for the remainder of the year, as evidenced by his 116 wRC+ in 2025. It was the same story in 2024 to a degree. His 96 wRC+ in March/April was the worst monthly wRC+ of the 2024 season (his overall wRC+ was 109).
Perhaps the World Baseball Classic has allowed Pasquantino to knock off the rust earlier in the spring (he has more at-bats to go in the knockout round, as they play Puerto Rico in the first round). Hopefully, with this experience and historic surge at the plate, he will be more ready to produce in the first month of play for the Royals, which would be atypical of his career norms.
Blog Roundup:
- Kevin O’Brien at Royals Keep: Royals Position Players Standing Out in Various Ways in World Baseball Classic
- Cory Sparks at Royals Keep: Royals Top 20 Prospects Breakdown, 16-20 (video)
- Caleb Moody at KOK: Vinnie Pasquantino put poor spring training start behind him with massive WBC night
- Jacob Milham at KOK: Royals farm system currently defined by intriguing wave of teenaged prospects
Unfortunately, I’m punting on OT this week. I looked at the calendar and realized I’m just going to be watching basketball for 12 hours next Thursday. My current OT was still only about half done and there’s going to be little time to work on a new one next week so it’s just getting delayed. Here’s our potential schedule for the next few weeks:
- 2026.03.20 Movie reviews
- 2026.03.27 Opening Day Recap around MLB
- 2026.04.03 Asian Baseball I: CPBL
- 2026.04.10 Asian Baseball I: KBO
- 2026.04.17 Asian Baseball I: NPB
- 2026.04.24 (working on a couple of ideas – I’ve been wanting to do an art-themed one for a while, but it’s nowhere near finished)
- 2026.05.01 Movie reviews
- 2026.05.08 (OUT)
Let’s revisit Star Fox as we haven’t in a while. We listed all previous levels used back in 2024.
How about Sector X?
