Congratulations to the Quad Cities River Bandits on an undefeated postseason run, ending woth a 2026 Midwest League Championship!
Blake Mitchell had the go-ahead blast for Quad Cities, giving them the lead late against the Dayton Dragons.
Royals President of Business Operations Brooks Sherman talked about some of the public’s concerns regarding funding for a downtown baseball and mixed-use development.
“Whether there is a vote or not for us, for this Royals stadium, that’s not up to us,” Sherman said. “We’re following the city’s process for an economic development project.”
Sherman pointed to elected leaders who have voted in favor of the project.
“We do have elected leaders who have overwhelmingly voted in favor of this project,” he said.
When asked whether a public vote would change the Royals’ position or its approach to the deal, Sherman again said the decision was not up to the team.
ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle named the biggest success and disappointment for all 30 MLB teams, and both facets for the Kansas City Royals should be familiar to fans.
Biggest success: The Royals aren’t far away from having a contention-level lineup in place. It starts with the progress made by young hitters Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen. Caglianone has become of the game’s more dangerous hitters even as he still has plenty of room to refine his pitch recognition. Jensen, a year from now, might be viewed as the AL’s best catcher. The Royals can reasonably bank on 2027 bounce-backs from injury-plagued Maikel Garcia and Vinnie Pasquantino, who had a down season after driving in 113 runs in 2025. Bobby Witt Jr. is the linchpin and the cornerstone player of the franchise. It didn’t quite come together in 2026, but the Royals’ offense isn’t far away.
Biggest disappointment: Even if the rotation had stayed healthy and the offense had come together, this season would have come apart because of a yawning chasm of a bullpen. On paper, it shouldn’t have been so bad. Then closer Carlos Estevez was hurt in spring training and got into just one regular-season game. Matt Strahm was a proven leverage lefty who collapsed this season. Lucas Erceg wound up in the minors. The group finishing the season in the Kansas City bullpen is completely different — and better — than the one that began it. Some of these things were hard to foresee, but if there is one area for the front office to examine, it’s here. Was there enough depth? Were the Royals too slow to cycle through different pitchers in different options? Building bullpens is tough, but things should never get as bad as they were for the Royals as they fell out of contention during the first half.
FanGraphs’ Ben Clemens looks at how the cutter has revitalized Royals pitcher Noah Cameron’s arsenal in 2026.
It seems to me that Cameron is instead creating deception with his changeup via horizontal separation. He pounds the low-away corner against righties, where the unexpected amount of horizontal movement plays at its best. Instead of making batters pick high vs. low, which they expect to do against someone with his release point (and against someone with the rest of his arsenal, which is very vertical), he makes them pick inside vs. outside the zone horizontally. He furthers the bind by tossing a ton of cutters to righties. If you’ll recall from earlier, his cutter and changeup live on a similar east/west plane; the low-away changeup and inside-edge cutter look very similar out of his hand. His changeup has accounted for 93 whiffs against righties this year; his cutter is the only other offering to hit even half of that amount.
As Corbin Young noted earlier this year, this increased focus on sliders, cutters, and changeups is an all-year trend for Cameron. He’s set a new monthly high in cutter usage in each of the past three months. Meanwhile, he’s down to around 20% four-seamers in the second half of the season, by far a career low. The cutter/slider and cutter/changeup pairings are ascendant, and they’re working so well for him that he’s cutting down on so-so fastballs to fit in more of the bendy stuff.
The Royals are once again in the bottom five of The Athletic’s latest power ranking, but there is no denying Johnny Flores Jr.‘s pick for the team’s best thing to happen this season.
A mid-season call-up in 2025, Caglianone had one of the worst debuts you could imagine, posting minus-1.6 fWAR in just 62 games. Of the 1,470 players to qualify, Caglianone had the second-worst season in 2025.
However, from the World Baseball Classic in March through the 2026 campaign, Caglianone has turned the conversation around. He’s posted 2.3 fWAR, with a 125 wRC+. Though strikeouts and swing-and-miss continue to be a concern, Caglianone’s batted-ball data ranks at or near the top in nearly every category — the hallmark of a slugger that can help extend a lineup alongside Bobby Witt Jr.
While it’s been a lost season in Kansas City, it’s been everything but that for the former No. 6 pick.
Baseball America’s Josh Norris breaks down the Surprise Saguaros’ roster for the fall, with plenty of Royals prospect power.
The clear highlight of Surprise’s roster is Zion Rose, the sixth overall pick from the 2026 draft who joins Jac Caglianone as recent Royals first-rounders who’ve spent part of their first pro seasons in the AFL. The Louisville slugger spent all of his official minor league time at High-A Quad Cities, where he hit his first professional home run and posted a .727 OPS over 19 games. Ranked by BA as the No. 23 prospect available in the 2026 class, Rose has a chance to be an above-average hitter with average defense and plus speed.
Rose’s fellow Royals on the Saguaros include righthander Justin Lamkin, who was on an upward trajectory this summer before an injury shelved him for the rest of the year. If he can show the same form from the regular year, he’ll jump right back into the Top 100 conversation this winter. Infielder Austin Charles is another rejuvenated Royal. After a tough 2025, he showed signs of life this season at High-A Quad Cities, where he smacked seven home runs in 45 games while striking out less than 20% of the time.
The Athletic’s Jim Bowden analyzes the current labor proposals ahead of MLB’s upcoming CBA expiration.
The current CBA works best for the owners, the biggest-market teams who have smart front offices, the highest-paid players and the agents who represent them. However, it really doesn’t work well for the teams in the bottom half of the league in revenue, first-year players and other players who are not-yet-arbitration (or free-agent) eligible, players who reach free agency in their 30s, and the bullpen and bench depth players who get shuttled back and forth to the minors all season.
MLB would argue they’re trying to remedy these issues, starting with the proposal of a salary floor and cap. Under a floor-and-cap system, small-market teams would be forced to carry a minimum payroll, which would bring them closer to the biggest spending teams, who would be capped on what they can spend. The NBA, NHL and NFL currently have floor-and-cap systems.
Sports Illustrated’s Brian Sparks checks the stock for Royals players heading into the Houston Astros series.
Outfielder Jac Caglianone is one of the premium players to hunt for in the 2026 Topps Update, dropping Oct. 14.
MLB Trade Rumors updates its Super Two cutoff estimate as the 2026 season winds down.
One of the Atlanta Braves’ largest shareholders believes the franchise should be sold after a pair of record-setting team sales on the West Coast.
The New York Mets packed Citi Field Monday not for the home team, but for the one that got away, Baltimore Orioles’ Pete Alonso.
ESPN’s Jorge Castillo marks Roberto Clemente Day bylooking at the dwindling number of Puerto Rican-born major leaguers.
From domination to dormancy, Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Edwin Diaz is in danger of not making the team’s postseason roster.
Former MLB slugger Yasiel Puig is still awaiting sentencing after a jury found him guilty of obstruction of justice and making false statements to investigators in February.
The Cincinnati Reds are expected to retain their front office leadership following a down 2026 season, and that brings comfort to veteran manager Terry Francona.
Former MLB closer and now Washington Nationals assistant pitching coach Sean Doolittle chats with FanGraphsabout pitching and the organization.
NFL players prefer playing on grass compared to turf. In other news, fork found in kitchen.
Seth Keysor analyzes a dominant team debut for Kansas City Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III.
NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, and NHL and their respective player associations sent a letter to gambling regulators regarding “protections for players and staff who face threats and harassment from sports bettors.”
Coming back to the PGA Tour is going to be hard for many LIV golfers after the latter filed for bankruptcy last week.
The Chicago Blackhawks make 21-year-old Connor Bedard their second-youngest captain in franchise history.
Here is where a $16.4 million infusion into Kansas City’s Housing Trust Fund is going to.
The Park at Forest Green neighborhood used homeowner association funds to save their ash trees from a devastating pest.
Today’s song of the day is I’m in a Hurry by Alabama.
