Five things we’ve learned about the Royals through two weeks of the 2025 season
The Royals were a playoff team last year for the first time in nine seasons.
By one game.
That’s not to short-change their remarkable one-year turnaround, but rather to make this point: The 2025 season might only be two weeks old, with nearly six months to go, but they all matter. And they could really matter by year’s end.
The Royals are 6-6 after Wednesday’s loss to the Twins. And 12 games in, there are some things to glean from the opening two weeks of the season.
We’re talking Bobby Witt Jr., Kris Bubic, Jac Caglianone and the early returns on the 2025 Royals.
Emphasis on early.
1. The Royals’ ‘clutch’ numbers
The Royals didn’t exactly get on base at an elite clip a year ago, but they still managed to consistently score runs.
How?
They thrived in situational hitting.
The heart of their order — Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez — were all among the best 15 hitters in baseball with runners in scoring position. That defined their lineup.
It has not defined this one.
Those three hitters in the middle of the order combined for a 1.025 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) with runners in scoring position in 2024. Witt was second in baseball at 1.183, Pasquantino 14th and Perez 15th.
A year later, that trio has combined for a .695 OPS in those same spots. They’ve totaled just one home run with a runner on second or third, and it came off that bat of Pasquantino on opening day.
Wonder how the Royals rank in the bottom third of the league in runs over a 12-game stretch? That’s how.
Look, some regression was to be expected — there was just no way they were getting three players to post at least a .950 OPS with runners in scoring position.
A prediction, even if obvious: The final numbers will fall somewhere in between.
Witt isn’t even scuffling, but he’s going to heat up. Pasquantino will improve. And for all of the noise about this team’s supporting cast, this is the quickest path for KC’s lineup to start scoring more runs.
2. Kris Bubic: Top of the rotation?
The Royals took a pretty significant risk when they traded Brady Singer in the offseason — even if that netted them leadoff man Jonathan India, who has been on base at nearly a 40% clip.
There’s a reason they felt comfortable making that deal: pitcher Kris Bubic.
His first two outings have been phenomenal — 12 2/3 innings, 1 run and 16 strikeouts across two wins.
His revival in the rotation is a great story after he missed more than a year following Tommy John surgery in 2023.
But the story is bigger than Bubic. He is the best evidence yet of the difference in the way the Royals have coached their pitchers over the past couple of seasons.
Bubic long wanted to add a slider to his arsenal, an idea met with resistance early in his career. When Brian Sweeney came on board as the Royals’ pitching coach, he not only permitted the addition but outright encouraged it. Then Bubic added a sweeper, too.
Those two pitches — the sweeper and slider — have comprised a combined 34.5% of Bubic’s arsenal in his first two starts, per Statcast. And he’s allowed just three singles off those pitches.
Bubic isn’t going to post a sub-1.00 earned run average all year — that should be safe to say — but his new five-pitch mix is a reason to believe his resurgence will outlast early April.
3. Is the Royals’ bullpen back?
Another bright spot? It’s a collective effort.
The bullpen.
Well, it’s actually one specific part of the bullpen: the back end.
Hunter Harvey has thrown as well as anyone on the staff, allowing one baserunner in 5 1/3 innings. Lucas Erceg has allowed just three runners in the same workload. Closer Carlos Estevez has allowed just one earned run while serving as the closer.
Daniel Lynch hasn’t worked in the same high leverage situations — though he did get a save Tuesday — but he’s in the midst of one of the 10 best scoreless streaks in Royals history.
Really.
This is the spot in which the Royals are most improved from a year ago.
4. Jac Caglianone: The next big thing?
The spot where the Royals are least improved? Corner outfield.
The Royals spent the offseason searching for another bat, preferably someone capable of playing right or left field. When that search came up empty, they turned to Estevez as a bullpen arm instead.
The bullpen benefits.
The outfield struggles endure.
The Royals’ corner outfielders have produced a .501 OPS this year, worst in the American League. And that’s even with India seeing some time out there.
The fact that Hunter Renfroe has been just as bad in the field doesn’t help matters — he has the second worst defensive Fangraphs WAR through two weeks of any player in baseball.
I know what you’re thinking. There’s an obvious way to improve, right?
Just call up Jac Caglianone, the top organizational prospect who already has two homers with Double-A Northwest Arkansas.
I get it. But a couple of things on that. First, Caglianone is only starting to take some practice reps in the outfield. They’re still a ways from trying him in the outfield in an actual game.
Second, while there’s a scenario in which he skips Triple-A, it’s unlikely, barring an injury forcing their hand. The Royals knew the home runs would come. They see them.
They’d also like to see how he develops full plate appearances, particularly when pitchers start throwing him heavy doses of breaking pitches or attempt to find and then attack his weaknesses.
That’s not a bad thing.
For now.
5. The Royals’ schedule
These initial two weeks need to be put into the perspective of the schedule.
And not only that it’s early.
It’s the opponents, too. All 12 of the Royals’ games have come against teams that finished with a winning record a year ago. That’s tough, and it doesn’t let up soon. The Royals are set to make a three-city trip to Cleveland, New York and Detroit.
So, the perspective: The Royals were only 45-54 against teams above .500 a year ago, and that’s a year in which they still did enough to qualify for the playoffs. They were 41-22 against teams with a losing record, fourth best in baseball.
They beat up on the weak teams. Who cares? They all count the same.
The point here, though, is that the count looks better, so far, than it did a year ago.
Even at 6-6.
Even just 12 games in.
Some 150 to go.
This story was originally published April 10, 2025 at 5:30 AM.