Things looked pretty dire after the game on July 2nd.
The Royals, in Seattle to take on the Mariners, lost 3-2 to fall to 40-47, the second time in a short span the team found itself seven games under .500. The offense couldn’t figure it out, June had been a disaster, and now the Royals dropped yet another one-run, low-scoring affair.
Nadir reached.
Now, if after that game, I’d told you that before playing on August 19 against the Rangers, the Royals would be riding a seven-game winning streak that left
them 64-61, I don’t think you would’ve believed me.
You definitely wouldn’t have believed me if I then added the 20 following things this team has gone through since Opening Day.
- Cole Ragans only made 10 starts to the tune of a 5.18 ERA.
- 26-year-old Noah Cameron has made seven more starts than Ragans.
- Bobby Witt Jr.’s OPS has dropped more than 130 points from 2024.
- The Royals traded Freddy Fermin at the deadline.
- Vinnie Pasquantino’s on-base percentage is .317.
- Acquired from the Reds for Brady Singer, Jonathan India’s OPS is down 83 points from 2024.
- Seth Lugo, in his last four starts over 18-and-1/3 innings, has surrendered 18 earned runs and six home runs.
- Mark Canha and Hunter Renfroe have both been let go.
- MJ Melendez has spent most of the year in Omaha.
- The team’s big bat acquisitions have been Randal Grichuk, Mike Yastrzemski, and…Adam Frazier.
- Michael Massey has been mostly hurt, and when he played, went from 1.9 bWAR in 2024 to 0.9 wins below replacement.
- Kris Bubic is out for the year.
- Jac Caglianone got called up, struggled to even a .485 OPS (66% below league-average), then got hurt.
- Hunter Harvey hasn’t even thrown 11 innings.
- 4/9 of the Opening Day lineup has been cut, demoted, or injured.
- 3/4 of the position players appearing that day have been traded, cut, or demoted.
- Salvador Perez’s OPS was as low as .566 in late May and only .656 at the end of June.
- Speaking of June: the Royals went 8-18 that month, getting outscored 116-85.
- The Royals have been shutout 11 times.
- The Royals are winless against only two opponents—the Yankees (0-6) and the Athletics (0-3).
But, as they say, that’s baseball.
Despite all of that, the Royals are in it. They’re competing for a playoff spot. They have life in them.
Really, what they’ve achieved in the face of such adversity is incredible.
