Five ugly statistics that highlight the Royals’ early-season struggles
As I noted last month, the Major League Baseball schedule-makers gave the Royals a rough stretch of games to open the season.
Seven of the Royals’ first eight series were against 2024 playoff teams, including five series against teams that won a division title last year.
That can partially explain the Royals’ 9-14 record.
The good news is the Royals’ next 16 games are all against teams that don’t have a winning record, so the schedule gets a bit easier. That includes a three-game series starting Tuesday against the Rockies, who have the worst record in baseball.
But the Royals’ sub-.500 record isn’t just a matter of who they’ve played. The offense has struggled big-time, as the Royals are tied with Texas for the fewest runs scored (67) in the majors.
Here are five reasons for the Royals’ slow start this season:
1. Runners In Scoring Position
The Royals rank 26th in Major League Baseball in batting average with runners in scoring position (.211), and they are one of just three teams to hit only one home run in those situations. Last season, the Royals had the second-best average with runners in scoring position (.282) in all of baseball.
That’s a drop of 71 points when runners are in scoring position.
Shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. led the majors with a .388 average when runners in scoring position in 2024, while first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino was third (.360) and catcher Salvador Perez was 13th (.329).
This season, the Royals don’t have anyone ranked in the top 50. Second baseman Michael Massey leads the team with a .300 average.
Pasquantino is batting .234 in those situations, while Perez has a .194 average with runners in scoring position and Witt is hitting .190.
That is the biggest change from last season to this year.
2. Right fielders
One of the Royals’ offseason goals was finding an outfield bat, but they never pulled the trigger on a trade or a free-agent signing.
So far, no MLB team has gotten less production from its right fielders than the Royals. Their right fielders are batting .117. No. 29 on the list is Atlanta (.162), which is 45 points better than the Royals.
Royals right fielders have just one double, no triples and no home runs. Their .130 slugging percentage is far and away worse than the team just above them, the Guardians (.244).
Six Royals have played in right field: Hunter Renfroe, MJ Melendez, Drew Waters, Cavan Biggio, Maikel Garcia and Tyler Tolbert.
3. Right-handed pitchers
The Royals are batting just .204 against right-handers, the second-lowest average in the majors, ahead of just the White Sox (.198).
KC has the lowest slugging percentage (.302) and OPS (.573) when facing a right-handed pitcher. By comparison, the Arizona Diamondbacks have an .829 OPS against righties.
4. On the bases
The Royals rely less on power and more on being aggressive on the basepaths, but they’ve struggled in this area, too.
Only one team has a worse success rate on stolen bases than the Royals, who have swiped 15 bases but have also been thrown out eight times. That 65% stolen-base percentage is ahead of only the A’s.
Baseball Reference’s Extra Bases Taken statistic also shows the Royals (42%) are just below league average (43%).
5. Late-inning struggles
Only batters for the Minnesota Twins (.161) have a worse average in the seventh inning or later of games this season than the Royals (.188).
The Royals’ slugging percentage (.264) is one point better than Minnesota’s and nearly 30 points worse than 28th-ranked Toronto.
It’s not only the batters. Royals relievers have allowed 39% of inherited runners to score, the seventh-highest rate in the majors this season, per Baseball Reference.
This story was originally published April 22, 2025 at 10:29 AM.
