At The Star, Jaylon Thompson helps outline Royals priorities for the offseason:
“The bullpen, I think, is clearly the one we have the most work to do,” Royals general manager J.J. Picollo said recently. “(It’s) followed by starting pitchers, getting the depth we need to get through a season.”
The Royals will also pursue adding a starter. The club intends to add depth alongside 2026 All-Star Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo and Noah Cameron. The trio is slated to be in the starting rotation with multiple guys
in contention for the final spots.
Those in contention will include Daniel Lynch IV, Randy Dobnak and Tony Gonsolin ($2.5 million club option). The Royals also hope to get back Cole Ragans, Luinder Avila, Stephen Kolek, Ryan Bergert and Ben Kudrna — from various injuries — at some point during the 2027 campaign.
Pete Grathoff writes that Mike Sweeney fondly remembers Todd Benzinger, who passed away on Wednesday:
Royals Hall of Famer Mike Sweeney was heartbroken to learn of Benzinger’s passing.
“I’m saddened, you know, truly saddened by his loss,” Sweeney said in a phone interview. “He lived a life full of joy, though. Every room he walked in, I never met a teammate of his that didn’t love him.
“And I think as a major-league player, that’s the greatest compliment you can have. Not that you were a Gold Glove first baseman, or you couldn’t catch, or you could hit well. But it’s that he was a great teammate, and Todd Benzinger was certainly that.”
Ed note: Sorry guys, there aren’t any Royals Todd Benginzer pictures in the image archive so you get Mike Sweeney instead.
I’m not entirely sure what this press release means:
The Kansas City Royals announced Thursday the selection of Legends Global as the owner’s representative for the Royals’ new downtown ballpark in the heart of Kansas City…
“Legends is the best in the business with baseball stadium expertise and diligence that will help provide our fans the world-class experience they deserve,” Royals president of real estate and development Brooks Sherman said. “There is no precedent for a sports-anchored project of this size in any city’s downtown, and we’re thrilled to have Legends on our side to maximize what this project can do for Kansas City.”
…An expert in venue development and commercialization, Legends Global currently serves as owner’s representative on new venue projects in professional sports for the Tampa Bay Rays, the Dallas Mavericks, the recently opened Buffalo Bills’ Highmark Stadium, the multi-year renovation of the Toronto Blue Jays’ Rogers Centre, as well as the Starlight Theater in Kansas City and David Booth Memorial Stadium at the University of Kansas.
No MLB baseball highlights today, but how about an Arizona Fall League one?
Blog Time? You Bet! And we have quite a few for October (bailing me out because I didn’t have much time to write an OT).
At Inside the Crown, David Lesky ($) continues his offseason journey through the Royals roster. This time, he looks at “the in-house options for the Royals pitching staff”:
LAST SEASON’S DEPTH – Randy Dobnak, Tony Gonsolin and Daniel Lynch IV
If Dobnak and Lynch are in the Opening Day rotation, this Royals team might lose 100 games. It’s hard not to appreciate what Dobnak did for the Royals for a few weeks in the second half of this past season, but he is not someone you can count on to be a core part of a rotation. The 7.15 ERA he put up in September with just 15 strikeouts in 22.2 innings was far more the real Dobnak based on location and stuff. I have no issue if he’s on the staff as a long reliever and if he’s around to make a spot start here and there, but he simply can’t be in the rotation if they’re going to talk about competing with a straight face.
Lynch had his moments as a starter, but was far more bad than good. He had a 6.53 ERA in 40 innings with 21 strikeouts and 14 walks. Even if you only look at his last six starts when he was throwing 70+ pitches, he had a 6.51 ERA in 27.2 innings with 13 strikeouts and nine walks. He’s a reliever. The Royals needed someone to make starts, and it was something he wanted to do, so he did it. That’s fine. And they learned that he didn’t figure out something in the bullpen that would allow him to return to the rotation. There’s value in that. But, like Dobnak, if Lynch is in the rotation, they’re toast already.
I’m not entirely sure that Gonsolin is different from Dobnak and Lynch other than the fact that he’s been a legitimate mid-rotation starter in the past. Though the last time that was true was 2022. He threw one game and gave a pretty different look with his splitter getting whiffs, but even so, he’s made just eight appearances since 2023. And they haven’t been good. I like that Gonsolin is reasonable depth, but they’re probably in trouble if they’re counting on him.
It’s Awards season at Royals Keep.
Kevin O’Brien crowned the best players for the Columbia Fireflies:
Pitcher of the Year: Michael Lombardi, RHP
A second-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft out of Tulane, Lombardi made the transition to full-time pitching for the first time in his baseball career. The 22-year-old Green Wave product was a two-way player in college and only pitched 42 innings in his final season at Tulane in 2024.
Lombardi thrived after moving to full-time pitching.
He led all Fireflies pitchers with 124 strikeouts despite pitching only 88 innings. For context, Darwin Rodriguez, Jose Gutierrez, and Shane Van Dam all threw more innings than Lombardi, but they didn’t come close to the Tulane product’s strikeout total. In swing-and-miss, Lombardi was Columbia’s best pitcher. His 68th-percentile O-Swing%, 93rd-percentile K%, and 59th-percentile whiff% only confirmed that. In addition to leading the Fireflies, Lombardi led all the Carolina League in strikeouts, despite not hitting the 100-inning mark this season.
While up at the major league level, Yirsandy Rodriguez named the Royals pitcher of the year:
#1: Michael Wacha, RHP
This was the problem all the time: Wacha received an average of 3.36 runs of offensive support in his 32 starts, the lowest figure for a starter in the major leagues. It was the second consecutive year in which he had the lowest average offensive run support among starters. Then, when you see Wacha’s dominance and success as a rotation starter, I think you appreciate the effort and consistency even more, offering the opportunity to win almost every day. Among starters with at least 20 starts, only Yoshinobu Yamamoto (22/28, 78.6%), Chris Sale (19/27, 70.4%), Sonny Gray (20/29, 69.0%), and Cristopher Sanchez (22/33, 66.7%) surpassed Wacha (21/32, 65.6%) in quality start percentage. We can see a lot of run prevention and dominance numbers, but baseball is as complicated as it is simple, so often what teams need most is for their starters to be able to get a quality start.
And hitter:
#1: Bobby Witt Jr., SS
Season Stats: .281/.359/.441, 18 HR, 54 RBI, 10.6 BB%, 17.2 K%, .159 ISO, .320 BABIP, 119 wRC+, 9.3 BsR, 7.0 fWAR
Bobby was somewhat below the superstar level he showed in the previous two seasons. His slugging percentage fell below his .500 standard, and he finished with the lowest numbers of his career in home runs (18), RBI (54), and ISO (.159). Even so, he made a difference with his ability to contribute offensively, stay on base —he finished with the best walk rate of his career (10.6%)— and stand out thanks to his skill at running the bases. Even below several of his usual standards, that combination led him to record 7.0 fWAR and remain among the game’s elite.
There’s not much to discuss: Witt Jr. remains one of the most complete players in baseball. He finished second in the major leagues with 7.0 fWAR, trailing only the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong (10.6). In the American League, he finished among the 2026 leaders in stolen bases (second, 45), doubles (tied for sixth, 33), hits (ninth, 157), runs scored (ninth, 94), and batting average (tied for ninth, .281).
Blog Roundup:
- Matthew Swigonski at KOK: Grading the Royals’ 2026 bullpen exposes a major concern
- Also, Matthew Swigonski at KOK: Zion Rose’s Arizona Fall League surge gives Royals plenty to look forward to
- I know this is a week old, but it probably wasn’t linked to and was the end of this season’s project by Darin Watson over at U.L.‘s Toothpick: This Date In Royals History–1976 Edition: October 15 – The Royals return home, and tears are shed. And a thank you note to all of you
The World Series starts tonight! I’m pretty excited about that. (I’m also quite annoyed that I have parental activities that will conflict with significant parts of the first two games.) How about you?
I’m excited for Brewers/Rays. We’re going to get a first-time winner! I’m good with whoever wins, but I have a slight lean in my rooting interest.
Depending on your definition, we’re going to get only the second small-market team to win a World Series in a long time (who was the other one?). I’d really like to get a good series and both of these teams seem capable of delivering on that promise.
I thought of ending on this note, but let’s get this bummer out of the way early. It would be really nice to have a great World Series before baseball gets all the bad headlines for all the wrong reasons as soon as the owners lock out the players. Just a reminder to everyone: this will be, once again, a lockout and not a strike. It’s the owners doing this, not the players. As Ronald Blum at AP reminds us: “the World Series could be Major League Baseball’s last games for a while”.
How about a World Series link dump for OT today?
Umpire assignments for the series come to us, courtesy of USA Today’s Mark Giannotto.
David Schoenfield of ESPN has a great article about some of the oddities and rarities from this World Series matchup. This might be my favorite article in this section.
Also at ESPN, Bradford Doolittle proclaims that the “Brewers, Rays [are] more different than you think”
Similarly (pun half-intended), Ben Clemens of Fangraphs ($) previews the series with the headline “The Same, but Also Different”.
Over at CBS Sports, Matt Snyder profiles emerging stars Junior Caminero and Jackson Chourio.
Snyder also draws the “three reasons why the Brewers will win the World Series” while Dayn Perry writes the companion piece of “three reasons why the Rays will win the World Series”.
Sean Leahy previews Game 1 for Yahoo.
Over at The Athletic ($), the Milwaukee Brewers are the overwhelming favorite in the staff picks.
This is also true at MLB.com.
Mike Petriello compares the team position-by-position.
Finally, Awful Announcing’s Drew Lerner says that the TV ratings may not be as bad as feared.
Let’s get to the games!
I’m not entirely sure why I did this to myself, but I started a new playthough of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for the NES. It’s a mixed bag, a Zelda in Metroidvania clothing, with a brutal difficulty curve. I still have bad memories of playing Death Mountain as a kid, but I did beat it on one set of lives this time around. I am grateful for internet maps and walkthroughs as my copies of Nintendo Power are a bit dogeared at this point.
If you want to watch someone tell me how wrong I am for more than an hour, here’s a video doing exactly that.
Or, if you’d rather, here’s an entire game playthrough:
