National MLB experts are (mostly) bullish on the Royals’ chances in the 2025 season
Royals CEO and chairman John Sherman was succinct about the team’s goal for the 2025 season.
“This group expects to be in the postseason,” Sherman said Wednesday, “which is a great thing.”
Many media members who cover Major League Baseball share the Royals’ optimism for the season, which begins Thursday when Kansas City faces the Cleveland Guardians at Kauffman Stadium.
Here is what the pundits are saying about the Royals’ chances of making the playoffs.
CBS Sports’ Matt Snyder sees the Royals winning the American League Central crown. His colleague Dayn Perry sees the Royals ending up second and being a Wild Card team. Mike Axisa and R.J. Anderson predicted a third-place finish, while Kate Feldman had the Royals in fourth place.
“I like the Royals a lot and think they are ready to win their first division title since 2015 (did anything cool happen that season?),” Snyder wrote. “The Tigers absolutely have a chance to win the division, but I see some backslide coming. Just some. Not a lot. I also don’t think the White Sox are going to have nearly as bad a season. Sure, they’re still gonna finish in last, but they won’t get beat up on to the extent that this division gets multiple wild cards again.”
ESPN had 28 writers make predictions for the 2025 season and a dozen have the Royals winning the Central. That’s the most of any team in the division.
“The Royals’ move to get Jonathan India will ripple through how their lineup is constructed,” Doug Glanville wrote. “It’s a case of a player’s collective impact being more valuable than his individual one. India could hit leadoff and his improvement in the walks category allows other players to be slotted correctly in the lineup — though Kansas City still needs Hunter Renfroe and others to anchor the back end of the lineup.
“Veteran pitchers Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo know the pace of the season, and the Royals could be bolstered by the young arm depth they have in their system. .... I see an organization that is backing up the contract it gave Bobby Witt Jr. to make sure he will not be a star in a vacuum and that the team will be competitive every year and build internally with good players. Why? Because they already have their franchise player.”
Buster Olney picked the Royals to win the Central and Jeff Passan sees KC as being a Wild Card team.
The Royals will miss the playoffs, says Yahoo Sports’ Russell Dorsey, Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman.
They wrote: “The few moves Kansas City made over the winter aren’t quite as impactful as hoped. The bottom of the lineup remains a severe weakness, and the rotation takes enough of a step back to leave the Royals hovering around .500 for much of the season — within shouting distance of the AL wild-card race but not close enough to qualify.”
Longtime baseball writer John Perrotto predicts a division crown for the Royals.
Bleacher Report’s Tim Kelly sees the Royals winning the Central with an 88-74 record.
“The Royals probably remain too reliant on the one-two punch of Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez offensively, but that’s one of the better duos in MLB. Ditto for their starting rotation pairing of Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo,” Kelly wrote.
“With the addition of Carlos Estévez to the back end of the bullpen with Lucas Erceg, the Royals have enough to win a division that has a lot of good-but-not-great teams. However, they need to add a big outfield bat in the summer to have a chance to make a deep run in October.”
The MLB Network’s Mark Feinsand sees the Royals winning the division.
Newsweek’s Noah Camras picks the Royals to win the Central and then beat the Astros in the Wild Card round before falling to the Red Sox in an ALDS series.
The Athletic’s Keith Law predicts the Royals will finish second in the Central with 85 wins.
“The Royals ... did try to get better this offseason, but they were working uphill to some degree as their 2024 season saw them get over 150 starts from five guys, four of whom were better than league average,” Law wrote. “They re-signed Michael Wacha, brought in some pitching depth, and traded for Jonathan India, who gives them a viable OBP threat to get on base in front of Bobby Witt Jr. The pitching depth — in the forms of Michael Lorenzen and Carlos Estévez — is a modest insurance policy against the inevitable starts some of their four returning starters will miss, but it’s not going to cover them if one of them misses half the season. At least they did something.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2025 at 8:43 AM.
