GM J.J. Picollo addresses Royals’ continuing baserunning mishaps this season
Royals manager Matt Quatraro may have been ejected in Monday night’s game because he thought the Giants’ Willy Adames was blocking second base.
Whether you agree with that or not, the larger problem for the Royals was why Blanco took off for second base. He had been picked off first.
That was one of multiple baserunning mistakes made by the Royals in the game, and that’s been an unfortunate theme this season.
The Royals are tied for the second-most outs on the bases in the majors (20), and they lead the league with seven outs made going to third base, per Baseball Reference.
Stealing bases has been another issue. The Royals have been caught stealing a whopping 18 times this season, the most in the majors. That includes a pair Tuesday in a loss to San Francisco.
Only the Astros have a worse stolen-base percentage in the American League.
While on the “Cody & Gold” Show on 96.5 The Fan, Royals general manager J.J. Picollo acknowledged fans are upset with the Royals’ baserunning issues.
“That’s frustrating,” Picollo said. “Fans have a right to be upset about that. We’ve made some poor decisions on the bases. We’re trying to be aggressive, because we’re trying to score more runs. Regardless of what anybody tells you, when an offense is struggling, guys feel it. So now you’re pressing to try to do more. And (Monday) night, we ran into three outs. We gave them an inning’s worth of outs on a line-drive double play, a pickoff and a first to third that really wasn’t a first to third.
“There was no way anybody was going to make it first to third on that play, so we gave them three outs.”
Outfielder Hunter Renfroe was caught off second base on Monday night after Kyle Isbel’s RBI single.
“But I think that’s a sign of an offense and, honestly, human beings pressing because they want to do more and they want to score more runs,” Picollo said. “We’ve always said if we’re gonna make mistakes on the bases, be aggressive. I’ll put those plays in a semi-aggressive (category) but they’re pretty easy reads in last night’s case, and we’ve got to be better than that. And those guys know that.
“And just one of those feelings when you come off the field you’re like, ‘What have I just done?’ There’s no question whether or not you should or shouldn’t have gone in those cases last night. It’s pretty cut and dried, but we’ve got to be better than that, to be very candid. We’ve got to be better.”
This story was originally published May 21, 2025 at 8:57 AM.
