When the 2026 Kansas City Royals season came to a close on Sunday, there were only three words bouncing around in my head: “Well, that sucked.”
Objectively, this year’s Royals squad was awful. They lost 93 games and were bad in pretty much all facets of the game. Though they improved from last year at the plate, they still only ranked 22nd in the league in runs scored per game. Their baserunning was largely miserable, as they ran into the third-most outs on the bases in the league. And the less we can
talk about the pitching the better, especially the bullpen, which had a frankly stunning 6.65 ERA in the ninth inning or later.
But not all bad seasons are the same; 95 losses is not necessarily more painful than 93 losses, which is not necessarily more painful than 91 losses. How you lose games, when you lose games, and what you expected to do in the first place all contribute.
All three factors contributed to making this season feel so bad. Regarding how: there are a lot of bad ways to lose baseball games, but your bullpen crumbling under any semblance of pressure every day is one of the worst. Regarding when: the Royals lost early and were never, ever in the running. Forget Memorial Day—the Royals were out of it four weeks into the season, when they had an eight-game losing streak and lost 16 of their first 23 games. Was there at least a resurgence at the end of the year? Also no; the team’s worst month was September.
And regarding expectations, well, that’s probably the biggest part of it all. I remember sitting in one of the conference rooms in Kauffman Stadium back in January during Royals Rally and hearing pretty much every player, coach, and executive talk about how the team’s expectations this year were to go to the playoffs. Even though the team finished 82-80 last year, they were not pleased. Matt Strahm even said that he was happy to see how disappointed the team was based on that result.
The result of all this nonsense is that I have to go pretty far back to find a season where I was this frustrated immediately afterwards. It wasn’t 2023; nobody thought the Royals would be good, and there were some clear building blocks happening, like Bobby Witt Jr.‘s breakout. While 2022 was often maddening during the season, Dayton Moore got the boot before the end of the season and it felt like some progress was going to be made. Meanwhile, 2021 was a modest improvement over 2020, which was a weird season itself for obvious reasons. The dual-100-loss campaigns of 2018 and 2019 stunk but everyone knew those were rebuilding years, and the Royals were a plenty competent team from 2013 through 2017, so none of those were nearly as disappointing.
It is clear that the Royals have a lot of work to do. But, crucially, I’m not sure if the Royals are prepared to do it. It’s true that JJ Picollo and the front office turned the team around from losing 106 losses to winning 86 games and making the playoffs in one season, and this team is better than that terrible 2023 squad for sure. It is also true that the 2024 Royals only won that many games because future Hall of Famer Bobby Witt Jr. turned in what is almost assuredly going to be the crown jewel campaign of his entire career. You can’t expect that every season, and I just don’t see where the Royals are going to come up with nearly 15-20 wins in the offseason to turn this into a legitimate playoff contender.
The 2026 Royals were not without joy. Seeing Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone blossom at the same time has been delightful, and with Maikel Garcia and Witt, the Royals now have one of the most dynamic young position player cores in baseball.
It’s just, man, I don’t want to squint to look at the bright side. I’ve been doing that my whole damn life as a Royals fan. I would like there to be some actual light somewhere in the season results themselves. Some playoff fun. Some knowledge that, when I go to the ballpark or turn on my TV, I am more likely to see a win than a loss.
So good riddance, 2026 Royals season. It was bad from the beginning and only got worse. Next year, maybe it’ll be a little more pleasant.
