Five things the Royals need to accomplish this offseason — and how they can do it

Ten minutes after baseball’s most unlikely playoff team vanished from the postseason, its manager, Matt Quatraro, didn’t have much interest in recognizing or appreciating the surprise of it.

The Royals won 30 more games this season than the previous one, a stunning single-year turnaround that prompted their first playoff appearance in nearly a decade.

But after they lost their last game?

“I think it’s OK that it sucks right now,” Quatraro said afterward.

Sure, but four days later, Quatraro returned to same room inside Kauffman Stadium — after some time to reflect and step away from the emotions of losing to the Yankees in the AL Division Series.

So maybe his perspective changed, right?

Not quite.

“What I struggle with, to be honest, is what external expectations are versus what they are in that room,” he said. “... I think that’s where I struggle to say, ‘Yeah, I’ve already put this in perspective.’ Because, quite frankly, I’m somewhat disappointed that we didn’t win more games in the regular season. I think we have the talent in there. I think we have the staff in there.”

Let’s delve into that. After the Royals improved by 30 games in one season, how can they improve by a few more the next?

1. Improve the walk rate ... or something similar

The Royals played 168 games, postseason included, but there’s a lesson that could come from the last four. The Yankees drew 27 walks in the four-game AL Division Series.

The lesson, though, isn’t directed to the Royals pitchers.

It’s their hitters.

The Royals pitching staff, after all, rated above average in throwing strikes during the regular season, making significant strides from 2023. Their walk percentage decreased from 9% to 7.9%.

Some work to be done at the plate, though. The Royals are intent on finding a leadoff hitter this winter, whether that’s through internal or external means.

They should be. Bobby Witt Jr. is one of the most feared hitters on the planet. But he stepped to the plate 433 times with the bases empty, the most of any non-leadoff hitter in baseball. He’s a little less fearsome when the most damage he can provide is a single run.

The Royals need a leadoff man who gets on base at a higher clip, but much of the lineup could stand to take more of the old-school leadoff man approach.

Work a deep count. Provide a quality plate appearance.

That will sometimes lead to walks. It will also more simply put the hitter in a better spot to do some damage.

The Royals saw only 3.8 pitches per plate appearance, fourth fewest in MLB. The goal of a plate appearance is not to extend it as long as possible, I understand, but there’s an effect of taking some pitches. You might see more more hittable pitches later in the count.

The Royals ranked 28th in baseball in 3-1 counts as a team and 22nd in 2-0 counts. Those are damage counts, and the Royals got to them too infrequently.

Salvador Perez is who he is at this point. You live with the chase. He’s 130th among 131 qualified hitters in the frequency of getting to a 3-1 count.

But it wasn’t just him. As a team, the Royals had the sixth-highest chase percentage in the league in 2024.

The Royals have a relatively young lineup otherwise, and there’s change that can still be made. It’s something the hitting coaches have been emphasizing for a while now.

2. The power positions

The Royals generate a lot of slug from two positions in which the rest of the league is willing to live without it.

Shortstop.

Catcher.

Combined, the Royals had an .867 on-base plus slugging (OPS) at those two spots, 57 points higher than any other team. (And Perez started 44 games at first base and another 23 at designated hitter.)

The problem, however, is they generated very little power from three positions in which most other teams get it — left field, right field and third base.

They are power spots in most lineups, particularly corner outfield, but the Royals had just a .647 OPS form those three combined, which ranked 28th in baseball.

General manager J.J. Picollo said during a season-wrap news conference that while he hasn’t had a detailed conversation with owner John Sherman about payroll, the assumption is Sherman will provide similarly flexibility. It’s clear Sherman wants to win.

The top of the Royals’ shopping list should be looking at the corner outfield. MJ Melendez will be back, and Hunter Renfroe has a player option, but if they have to platoon or fight for a job in order to make room for an addition, so be it.

3. How about a trade?

To summarize the top-two items on this list, the Royals need to add on-base percentage and power to the lineup. Great. So does every team.

How do the Royals go about it?

They might need to make an uncomfortable trade. The reason that adjective — uncomfortable — is included is because is might require parting with major-league talent. They aren’t really in a spot with their farm system to unload prospects, particularly since their current top prospects might be long-term solutions for both areas.

Could they trade a pitcher for a high-quality corner outfielder, for example? Brady Singer is entering a more expensive year of arbitration, and this offseason presents an ideal time for the Royals to determine whether he is part of their long-term plans. He certainly has value, finishing 17th in the AL in earned run average. Hence the term uncomfortable.

I asked Picollo this week, more vaguely, about a trade possibility and it resulted in his most encouraging reply of the news conference — because it’s an answer not reserved for this offseason but rather a long-term blueprint.

“I think we have to be very open-minded to it,” he said. “If we’re going to sustain success over a number of years, it’s unrealistic to think that every player that puts on a Royals uniform (and) came out of our minor-league system is going to play all six years and become a free agent.

‘That doesn’t mean we’re necessarily wanting to (make a trade). It just may be out of necessity. A lot of that will just be dictated by interest other clubs have, because you don’t do it just to do it. You do it because you can add to your system (or) add to your major league team. So the value of the player and the interest that other teams have in the players is really going to dictate if and when and how that will happen.”

4. Some solutions need to come from within

For as much as we talked about the Royals’ additions last winter, the most significant lineup and fielding contributions came from the players they drafted or signed internationally and then developed.

Bobby Witt Jr., Salvador Perez and Vinnie Pasquantino, sure. But also Michael Massey and Freddy Fermin. And center fielder Kyle Isbel and third baseman Maikel Garcia were among the top-graded fielders at their respective positions.

None of those are free-agent wins.

They are homegrown.

So while the Royals might have struck gold on a handful of free-agent signings a year ago, that can’t suddenly be the preferred method. Rather, it needs to supplement the growth from within.

Here’s looking at you, MJ Melendez and Maikel Garcia.

Neither has reached their full potential, but they’re mentioned here because of that word — potential.

We’ve seen them both embrace big moments and the big stage. We’ve not seen them provide the level of consistent plate appearances required in the bigs.

“We shouldn’t be writing guys off because they’re in their third year in the major leagues,” Picollo said. “It takes some years to become good major league hitters.”

5. Pitching, pitching, pitching

It shouldn’t be construed as the least important because it’s No. 5 on this list.

Pitching is baseball’s greatest currency, and the Royals’ single-year turnaround is a pretty good example of that. They had four starting pitcher rank among the AL’s top 17 in ERA.

That’ll do.

But that’ll also be tough to repeat.

Seth Lugo (sixth in AL ERA), Cole Ragans (eighth), Michael Wacha (10th) and Singer (17th) combined for 126 starts in 2024. (Wacha has a looming player option that will dictate what the rotation looks like — though the team has already discussed avenues toward locking him up beyond a one-year pact in 2025.)

The success of the rotation is not a reason to consider it solved, though. Instead, it’s proof that putting it atop the list of importance worked.

Picollo and Quatraro have been honest about the Royals’ remarkable fortune to stay healthy in their starting rotation. It’s an important recognition, because the Royals can’t enter 2025 assuming the encore.

They have to acquire insurance. Or develop it. Kris Bubic and Daniel Lynch supplied meaningful innings out of the bullpen, but both will be stretched out in spring training as potential options for the rotation.

It gives the Royals something they might need, even if they didn’t in 2024.

Options.