Kansas City Royals Having Difficulty Recapturing Their Magic From 2024

The Kansas City Royals were the trendy pick to win the American League West at the start of the season.

There were plenty of reasons to like the Royals’ chances of capturing their first division title since 2015 and second since 1985. Chief among them was their surprising run to the postseason last year as they improved by 30 wins to an 86-76 record after losing 106 games the previous season.

The Royals also have one of the most dynamic young players in the game in shortstop Bobby Witt, Jr., who finished second in the AL MVP voting last season behind the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge. Right-hander Seth Lugo was runner-up in the AL Cy Young balloting in 2024 and left-hander Cole Ragans finished fourth.

Yet the Royals have failed to build off last year’s momentum. They are 9-14 and five games off the first-place Detroit Tigers’ pace less than a month into the season.

While it is still early in the season, the Royals’ lack of offense has been alarming. They are last among the 30 MLB teams in runs scored with 2.91 a game and their .583 OPS ranks 29th.

The Royals have also scored five runs or more in just two games. They have scored four runs or less in their last 16 games as they get set to open a three-game home series against the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.

Witt is batting .307/.370/.477 in 23 games and hit the game-winning sacrifice fly in the 10th inning on Sunday as the Royals broke a six-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory over the Tigers in Detroit. However, he has hit just two home runs after going deep 32 times last season and the Royals have an MLB-low 11 homers.

Witt is one of just two regulars with an OPS over .600. Infielder Maikel Garcia has a .770 mark while slashing .278/.354/.417 in 22 games.

So, what’s wrong with the Royals’ offense? Manager Matt Quatraro and his coach staff are having a hard time putting a finger on the problem.

“The weather has been cold and maybe that’s a factor because some balls haven’t carries as much as usual, but I don’t think it’s a big factor,” Quatraro said. “We’ve hit some ball hard and haven’t had anything to show for it. But we’re just not hitting and it’s pretty much everyone in the lineup.”

The Royals are trying to find an answer, perhaps trying too hard to solve the riddle.

‘This is a game of routines,” Quatraro said. “It’s a game of consistency. If there was something glaring that we thought we could do, I think we would do that. But I think we have to trust our guys. We believe in this team. These guys are all competitors. They’re all working like crazy to get better, and at some point, the results are going to come.”

Expectations were low for the Royals going into last season. They had improved their staring rotation by signing Lugo and right-hander Michael Wacha in free agency and it seemed likely they would avoid 100 losses.

Yet the Royals fooled the experts by making the playoffs and sweeping the Baltimore Orioles in a best-of-three AL Wild Card Series on the road. Kansas City gave the eventual AL champion New York Yankees a battle in an AL Division Series before falling in four games in the best-of-five affair.

An assumption could be made that the Royals are pressing during a season in which they are expected to win. However, Quatraro shoots down complacency theories.

“When you’re in this game everyday year after year, I think you’ve got to be able, regardless of what happened yesterday, show up the next day like it’s a brand-new day,” Quatraro said. “If we beat somebody yesterday, they don’t care the next day. It’s not like they’re rolling over. And we do the same when we lose, and everybody has to do that, but just embracing that, I think it is important. I think our guys do a great job of that.”