By Adam Gardner | June 18, 2026
This week brought another lost series for the Kansas City Royals.
KC dropped the first two games of the series at the Washington Nationals before bouncing back with a win on Wednesday afternoon.
Even Daniel Lynch IV isn’t immune to the struggles the team as a whole is dealing with – the Royals most reliable reliver this season had a rare bad outing on Tuesday. He gave up 2 hits, 2 walks and 3 runs to pick up the loss.
The Royals are 15 games under .500 a week away from the halfway point of the season. It’s not mathematically impossible for Kansas City to make a run and get back in contention, but if they haven’t played well through 75 games, we shouldn’t expect them to change course in the final 87 games.
KC is 9.5 games back in a still-mediocre American League Central. All five teams in the division have a negative run differential, so it’s pretty disappointing that the Royals haven’t been able to hang in there better with the rest of the Central.
So let’s focus on some other things with the 2026 team (and beyond).
Carter Jensen: Leadoff man
Carter Jensen hit a leadoff home run in Wednesday’s win, his second leadoff homer of the season.
Jensen has hit in the leadoff spot in 14 games this season and he’s settling in pretty well. He’s got a .262/.303/.508 slash line in that spot for a nice .811 OPS. All of those numbers, except for his on-base percentage (.302), are well above his season averages.
It seems Jensen likes hitting in front of Bobby Witt Jr. and so would I. When opposing teams game plan for the Royals, their No. 1 priority is probably, “Don’t let Witt beat us.” Pitchers don’t want to fill up the base paths with runners ahead of Witt, so Jensen can look for pitches in the zone to hit hard.
I’m sure the Royals and Jensen would love to see that OBP go up, though. During his fantastic 2025 season split across Double-A and Triple-A, he had a .377 OBP. It’s not fair to expect the same numbers at the Major League level considering the tougher pitchers, but Jensen has certainly been capable of reaching base more often than just 3-out-of-10 times.
With the situation the Royals are in at this point in the season, it makes perfect sense to leave Jensen in the leadoff spot to see how he handles it over an extended period of time. They need to get as many answers for 2027 as they can, because 2026 is almost certainly a lost cause.
Same thing for Jac Caglianone batting in the No. 3 spot. Vinnie Pasquantino is out with an injury, so there is no real reason to not let Jac bat behind Bobby for as many games as possible.
Jensen – Witt – Caglianone. That’s a 1-2-3 I’m excited to see.
Avila bounces back
Luinder Avila couldn’t even get out of the first inning in his start a week ago against the Houston Astros. That’s a tough pill to swallow for any competitor, let alone a 24-year-old.
But the Royals told Avila there was no need to panic, flush it away and move on. That’s one of my favorite lessons I’ve learned while working in a collegiate athletic department and talking to all sorts of coaches throughout the course of the year. Sometimes things go so badly that you just need to move past it.
That doesn’t mean you can’t learn from bad outings. Avila and the Royals had played with his positioning on the pitching rubber in previous starts but he returned to the middle of the rubber against Washington on Wednesday. Sometimes simplifying things can free the mind and Avila was able to let his stuff work for him against the Nationals.
He went 5.2 innings, gave up 3 hits and 1 run, and struck out 5 batters. With the Royals struggling, Avila stepped up big and trusted his arm.
“My goal is to throw the two-seam in the middle and allow it to move a lot,” Avila said after the game. “When I’m on the third-base side, it misses too much when it moves.”
I compare this sort of thing to my own golf game. All of us amateur golfers are on our own journey but I bet this sounds familiar. I’ll tweak my stance a little, my grip a little, I’ll focus on my weight shifting a little more and all of a sudden I’ve made all these little adjustments and I can’t hit the ball to save my life.
Then I take a mental step back, simplify everything and just hold the club and stand how it feels natural, and all of a sudden I can hit the ball again.
Luinder Avila’s pitching ability far exceeds my golfing ability, but the point is the same – sometimes you just have to go be yourself. Avila did that Wednesday and he excelled.
Injury Bug keeps biting
The Injury Bug is hungry and it appears the Royals are high on the bitin’ list. If you don’t get that reference, I highly suggest listening to Tyler Childers more often.
We talked about all the injuries the Royals are facing in Monday’s post and it’s not getting any better. Maikel Garcia left Tuesday’s game with a flare up of the hand injury he’s been dealing with lately.
Royals manager Matt Quatraro said it’s pain that Garcia only feels sometimes. He definitely felt it Tuesday as he grimaced on a couple swings and dropped the bat in pain.
KC held Garcia out of Wednesday’s game and the plan is to rest him at least the next couple days, too. There’s no IL stint, yet, for Garcia. However, this lingering issue must be frustrating for him.
Garcia’s continued issues – he had a hamstring strain in late May, too – is added to the pile of injuries the Royals are facing this season. Vinnie Pasquantino and Kyle Isbel are out for extended periods, and KC pitchers have been hit hard by injuries.
Cole Ragans continues to have soreness in his elbow, which is very concerning considering he’s already had two surgeries on it in his career. Kris Bubic, Nick Mears and Carlos Estevez are all out, as well.
Bobby Witt Jr. summed it up pretty well after Tuesday’s loss. “It’s one of those things where we’re in a bad spot right now,” Witt said. “It sucks, that’s all there is to it.”
The good news is Seth Lugo is expected to return and start on Friday after leaving his last outing when he was hit in the head by a line drive. It’s good to hear that his headaches have subsided and he’s ready to make another start.
A name to know
Your level of Royals fandom will dictate if the name Kendry Chourio means anything to you. And I don’t mean that in a negative way, nor am I making an “I’m a better fan than you” argument if you don’t know of Chourio.
After all, he’s an 18-year-old pitcher in the lower minor leagues. There are hundreds of prospects in the Royals minor league system and I won’t hold it against anyone for not knowing all their names. We’re all busy and it can be a chore to keep up with the daily grind of Major League Baseball, let alone what’s happening at all levels of the minor leagues.
But let me tell you about Kendry Chourio. Like I said, he’s just 18 and won’t turn 19 until Oct. 1. The Venezuelan has been pitching at Low-A Columbia where he is 4 years younger than the average player.
Let me revise that – he’s been dominating at Low-A Columbia. Chourio has made 11 starts and pitched 48 innings with a 1.88 ERA. He has 44 strikeouts to just 9 walks on the season.
The Royals have made the decision to call Chourio up to their High-A affiliate, the Quad Cities River Bandits. Speaking of the River Bandits, they play in a beautiful ballpark (the cover image for this post) and check out this fantastic logo:
Chourio will be the first 18-year-old to appear at the High-A level since 2021. It’s a rare feat to get this promotion so early.
There are questions about Chourio, as there are for any pitcher that young. He’s not a big guy, listed at 6’0” and 160 pounds. How much weight will he put on as he continues to mature? Will it matter? Bigger pitchers get hurt just like smaller pitchers, but it usually takes some mass to endure being a starting pitcher.
How will his stuff play at a higher level? He relies on a good fastball (95-97 mph), curve ball and changeup, with good location on all of them. But will better hitters be able to punish him for hanging around the strike zone?
Or what about this more positive-thinking question: if Chourio keeps dominating, how fast can he rise up the minor leagues and reach Kansas City? Can he replicate Zack Greinke and make his first big league start by age 20? Is it premature to wonder if he could move so fast that he’s in KC next year, starting at 19?
This is the fun with prospects – our imagination can run wild. In the meantime, check out Chourio’s highlights so far this season.
Cards coming to town
The second half of the I-70 series is this weekend, with a weird schedule. The Royals host the St. Louis Cardinals for three games – today, Friday and Sunday, with an off day on Saturday.
I was really confused why the teams have Saturday off. Then I remembered there’s this little international contest going on that I believe is known as the World Cup? Have you heard of it?
Ecuador takes on Curacao at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday and I can’t imagine the madness there would be if there was a baseball game on the same day in the Truman Sports Complex.
Yes, I know, FIFA wants me to call it “Kansas City Stadium.” They are nuts about sponsorships and even put tape over Heinz condiments labels inside stadiums because Heinz isn’t an official sponsor.
Even with my dislike for FIFA as an organization, I’m a sucker for international competition and I’ve been watching a lot of soccer the past week and will continue to do so.
This weekend will be a lot of fun as the Royals host the Cardinals, the USA Men’s Soccer Team takes on Australia on Friday afternoon, and the U.S. Open is on a tough course. Enjoy the competitions, friends!
