Anne Rogers gives a roster projection with two weeks to go
.If Massey is healthy enough to make the team, there’s just one spot really up for grabs here. Loftin has been a standout this spring, from his .308/.400/.654 slash line to getting a ton of defensive work all over the field, including a lot of first base in case he’s needed as a backup there. Plus, he’s a right-handed bat that could be useful against lefty starters or late in the game.
There are others still competing for the lone spot, though.
Tyler Tolbert brings a speed component to the table. The Royals could go with a more experienced bat for pinch-hit opportunities, like Rojas or Abraham Toro. If Massey isn’t healthy, there’s another spot for any of those players.
She also investigates if the Royals will adopt Team Italy’s espresso home run tradition.
We can’t get a clear answer right now because the main team leaders and decision-makers are at the WBC. Pasquantino is one of them, but he would have to get the all-clear from Royals captain Salvador Perez, along with Bobby Witt Jr., Maikel Garcia and some pitchers, too, like Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha.
But manager Matt Quatraro brings up a good point: “If it was a guarantee that someone or we as a team would hit three homers in a game, we would have as many as we could get,” he said.
Fair enough.
And an injury update.
Jeff Passan at ESPN has a season preview capsule for each team.
It wouldn’t surprise me if … Jac Caglianone hits 30 home runs this year. His rookie year was rough, with flashes of brilliance surrounded by fits of disappointment. The talent hasn’t gone anywhere, though, and Caglianone’s raw power is so supreme that anyone sleeping on it will be awoken by the sound it makes when his barrel strikes the ball. Maybe, at the end of the day, Caglianone is nothing more than an exit-velo monster who can’t put together the other elements to become a quality hitter. But that’s unlikely. Only a handful of players in the world can hit a ball 120 mph. That’s a skill worthy of faith.
David Lesky writes about the possibility raised by Passan on 810 that this could be a top-ten offense.
And what I keep coming back to is what the Royals did after the break with a 106 team wRC+ and the seventh-most runs in baseball. Then I think back to what they did for the first five months of the 2024 season when they had the fifth-most runs in baseball before Pasquantino got hurt. This offense flashing top-tier potential isn’t new. They actually started getting going immediately after the calendar flipped from that brutal June. They were 10th in the league in runs scored last year from July 1 on with a 106 wRC+ as a team. They were 10th in home runs too. In the last 12 months of baseball, this has been a top-10 offense in runs scored for eight of them.
Craig Brown profiles pitcher Mason Black.
Manager Matt Quatraro has said that the Royals see Black primarily as a reliever who can provide an occasional spot start. Yet if he can rediscover some of that prospect mojo, could those potential spot starts turn into something more? The only thing that is absolutely certain at this point is the Royals pitching lab continues to yield results. I’m not crazy enough to throw Black into the mix for that fifth spot in the rotation—hell, because of the makeup of the 40-man roster, he remains a longshot to break camp with the major league squad—but I’m intrigued enough by his pedigree and his brief time with the Royals to offer the idea that anything is possible.
Kevin O’Brien at Royals Keep wonders if Michael Massey’s injury opens up a spot for Josh Rojas.
The Royals traded pitcher Matthew Hoskins, a 12th-round pick in 2025 to the Rays to complete the Kameron Misner trade.
The Red Sox sign lefty reliever Danny Coulombe to a one-year deal.
The Rangers sign lefty reliever Jalen Beeks to a one-year deal.
Brewers pitcher Quinn Priester will miss the first month of the season.
Randal Grichuk’s lefty-mashing could earn him a roster spot on the Yankees.
The Padres narrow the bidders for the team to four groups.
The Mariners are not concerned about any beef between Cal Raleigh and Randy Arozarena.
What are the doomsday scenarios for top teams?
Which pitchers are aces?
Andre Dawson is getting his Hall of Fame cap changed to no logo.
The World Baseball Classic experience has already been a huge success this year.
The Hulu series Paradise gets in a Nick Castellanos joke as the world ends.
Kansas State hires Belmont coach Casey Alexander as its new basketball coach.
So…what happened with the Maxx Crosby non-trade to the Ravens?
The CIA once trained cats to be spies.
Two more missing episodes of Doctor Who have been found.
Why are the Academy Awards called “Oscars”?
Your song of the day is Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers with Runnin’ Down a Dream.
