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THREE THINGS THE ROYALS SHOULD DO BEFORE FREE AGENCY
Plus, a bonus thing they should do

By artoodeetoo
10/01/2025

Overhaul the team's hitting philosophy: This one appears to be on the way to being realized as JJ Picollo made some interesting remarks in his post-season press conference, held along with manager Matt Quatraro on Tuesday.

“We’ve got to make some decisions on the hitting side,” Picollo said, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. “What I will say is, Alec Zumwalt is going to be our hitting coach. How do we support Alec in a way that allows him to have the most success with the roster that we have?

"Those decisions haven’t been made yet. We still have to work through that," he would go on to say. "It might just be tweaking our staff. How do we tweak the staff? What don’t we have? What can we do, from an analyst standpoint, from a holistic standpoint, to try to help our offense improve?

It's not quite the news that Royals fans wanted to hear, but the fact that the front office clearly identifies a problem is step one, and to me is a pretty clear indication that there will be a staff shake-up on the hitting side. Bringing in Brian Sweeney a few years ago from Cleveland has completely changed the outlook on the team's pitching development, especially with young pitchers who reach the majors from the Royals' system. The Guardians are a team you'd like to emulate when it comes to the pitching side of things.

Now they need to do that on the hitting side. If they truly plan to keep Zumwalt on as the lead hitting coach. Bring in voices from outside the organization, or heck, bring back Kevin Seitzer in some sort of advisory role. Teams that develop young hitting well, like the Cardinals, Yankees, and Rays would be good organizations to draw from. It can't be just promote Drew Saylor to be Zumwalt's right-hand man. It just can't.

Extend either Vinnie Pasquantino or Maikel Garcia to long-term deals: Or, both to be honest.

We finally had the chance to see a full season from Vinnie, and he puts up big numbers on his way to a 100-RBI season while hitting twenty-eight homers and doubles each. In a way, he's become the Robin to Bobby Witt Jr's Batman as one of the more fan-favorite names on the team, and likely becomes the team's 'jovial' player once Salvador Perez hangs up the gear.

I'd put the chances that Vinnie gets extended at better than 50/50 at this point. I'm less bullish on Garcia since he's coming off a career year after several seasons of beloe-average production, but a strong start to 2026 could get him an extension early in the season. I would put it at about a 10-20% chance prior to free agency, but you never know.

You might say, why not Perez? Well, he has a $13.5 million team option that is hanging out there. There is talk the Royals are entertaining ripping up that final year, but I don't think the organization is going to be as generous as they were with the previous extension.

To Dayton Moore's credit, it worked out fabulously, but this is a different front office with different leadership. I'd put money on an extension at some point, but my guess is that it will be close to spring training, and by then he'll be bound to the option year.

Provide an update (any update!) on the new stadium situation: This doesn't have to do with the day-to-day operations of the team, but in a solo interview with MLB.com's Rogers yesterday, owner John Sherman didn't make any comments or provide updates on how the new stadium situation. Whether that was by design, if the question wasn't asked, or if it was answered in such a way that the editor scrapped it, who knows.

The self-imposed July deadline to provide updates has long since passed, and there hasn't been anything meaningful since the spring. The 2031 season is still well down the road, but it's not so far that you can't at least visualize what a downtown (or even quasi-suburban) stadium may look like. I don't think it will happen (at least not in the imposed timeframe set forth in this piece), but I think the fans are owed some sort of update, and it has to be sooner rather than later.

The lease on the K runs out after the 2030 season, which is just five more years including the upcoming season next year. Most stadiums take three-to-four years to construct, so something is going to have to come to fruition in the next 12-18 months at a minimum

Additionally, Sherman also made some interesting comments in the interview regarding payroll, but that might be saved and better explained in a separate piece later in the month as free agency draws closer.

BONUS: Get Jac Caglianone some additional help: I think a pretty integral part of whether or not the Royals in 2026 are merely a decent team or a playoff-caliber team that can make a deep run is the development of Jac Caglianone. Not the whole reason, but a big one. This ties into the original point above regarding the team's hitting philosophy, but Jac deserves his own bit because of his immense potential and importance as a high pick who advanced quickly through the minors.

There were some real signs of life during his post-IL time with the Royals. He said that he had a chance to really look deeper at his at-bats while on the injured list, and came back with some ideas for Zumwalt on how to tweak his approach. He did tail off in the last week of the season, as he was just 1-for-12 with five strikeouts on the West Coast road trip.

Despite that, he still finished with an .818 OPS for September (129 OPS+), and hit .270 for the months of August and September with an OBP of .375. Yes, some of that OBP number was fueled by a half-dozen HBP's, but that didn't seem to affect his wOBA or xOBA that much, with slightly lower marks of .369 or .365, respectively, in that stretch.

On the other hand, you'd like to see a little bit better than a .478 SLG, but again, massive improvements over pre-IL Jac. To finish right at a .200 BA has to be a pretty big mental boost after the poor start he got off to, especially in terms of a very low BABIP amongst high exit velo's.

This, along with the development of Pasquantino and Garcia are the big reasons why Zumwalt isn't looking for work right now (to me), and really points more to a lack of talent around the big four of Garcia, Pasquantino, WItt, and Perez. Caglianone stepping up to be a middle-of-the-order hitter would be a huge development, but a big part of that will be how he works in the offseason. There's already talk that he may be working with the aforementioned Kevin Seitzer this offseason, and quite possibly with Driveline, as well.