Anne Rogers writes about the Royals landing Lane Thomas.
After that uneven 2024, Thomas was limited to 39 games and 125 at-bats for the Guardians in 2025, mostly due to a lingering case of plantar fasciitis in his right foot, which required surgery in September. And before that, Thomas missed a month with a right wrist bone bruise after he was hit by a pitch on the right wrist in Cleveland’s home opener. When healthy enough to play, Thomas batted just .160 with a .518 OPS and six extra-base hits.
The biggest question is if Thomas can recapture the form he showed in 2023, when he hit 28 homers and stole 20 bases for Washington, to go with a .783 OPS and 3.3 WAR (per Baseball Reference). Even if not, he can still provide value against left-handed pitchers, against whom he has a career .292/.359/.500 slash line.
Jaylon Thompson writes about what the Royals accomplished at the Winter Meetings.
Picollo confirmed the Royals have offers on the table. Now, they will wait to see if there are any takers.
“I’ll say that we are in a good spot in the sense that we’ve not lost out on anybody we had really great interest in,” Picollo said. “It’s just a matter of hanging in especially on the free-agent side.”
It’s also clear the Royals are unlikely to trade All-Star starting pitcher Cole Ragans. His name has appeared in potential trade rumors as KC continues its hunt for an impact bat.
David Lesky writes about the Royals moving up in the draft, courtesy of the draft lottery.
So the Royals will pick sixth and then 31, 57, 87 and every 30 picks after that, giving them four top-100 picks. That’s a nice haul. I haven’t even begun to really dig into the draft, but it does seem like outside of Roch Cholowsky, who feels like a lock to go number one already to the White Sox, the Royals have a lot of players they could be heavy after. I will say that the season isn’t even beginning to think about starting. Sometimes the guys ranked at the top stay there, sometimes they don’t. Jace LaViolette was a candidate to go at the top of the draft in 2025 before the season started last year. He ended up going 27th. Brady Singer was ranked at the top of the 2018 draft before the season. He went 18th. So keep that in mind.
The JCC Association of North America (JCCA) asks the Royals to avoid putting a ballpark in Overland Park that would displace the Jewish Community Center.
Josh Valdez at Roundtable Sports has his ideas on the ideal Royals’ offseason.
The Braves sign reliever Robert Suarez to a three-year, $45 million deal.
Reliever Mark Leiter Jr. signs a one-year deal with the Athletics.
The Cubs sign reliever Hoby Milner.
The Brewers sign outfielder Akil Baddoo to a major league deal.
AJ Preller says Fernando Tatis Jr. is not available.
The winners and losers from the Winter Meetings.
The Rays have talked to the Diamondbacks about Ketel Marte.
Mets owner Steve Cohen feels pain after losing Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz.
Will the Mets make a move for Tarik Skubal?
Will Driveline make Jordan Walker the next hitting star?
The Padres and Diamondbacks will play a series in Mexico City next year.
What we know about the bizarre firing and arrest of Michigan coach Sherrone Moore.
The NWSL will pay select star players above the current salary cap.
Fewer people are moving these days.
McDonald’s pulls an AI-generated ad after negative backlash.
Australia bans social media for teenagers.
Your song of the day is The Rare Occasions with Notion.
