By Adam Gardner | Aug. 7, 2026
The Kansas City Royals picked up a series win over the Minnesota Twins this week, but that’s not really what the rest of this season is about.
No, the rest of 2026 is more about 2027 and beyond. This year didn’t work out, but who’s going to prove themselves as a core piece for the future?
Before we get to that, though, we’ll talk about a player who is going to have his number retired and hanging with George Brett, Frank White and Dick Howser, once his playing days are over.
Celebrating Salvy
The Royals honored Salvador Perez prior to Tuesday night’s home game, the team’s first home game since Salvy set the new franchise record for home runs.
Salvy drove in the first run of the game, fittingly, bringing home Bobby Witt Jr. with a sacrifice fly in the first inning. Witt finished the game 3-for-5 in his first game back from the Injured List, and Randy Dobnak had his second-straight strong start against the Twins as the Royals won 8-2.
You gotta love the team getting a win on the night they celebrated their new home run king. If you haven’t seen it, here’s the video the Royals shared on social media:
Noah Cameron is shoving
Some might have called it a sophomore slump. Baseball people talk all the time about how pitchers and hitters are constantly making adjustments against each other, and Noah Cameron was dealing with the adjustments hitters made against him.
So he made his own adjustment and started calling his own pitches.
Cameron gave up 5 runs in 7 innings on July 11, then 7 runs in 5 innings on July 19. However, Cameron decided to take control of what he was throwing and in his last three starts, he’s pitched 23 innings and given up just 1 run.
It hasn’t been luck, either, because he’s dominating the opposition. In those three starts, he’s struck out 8, 7 and 9 batters. He’s lowered his ERA almost an entire run, from 5.27 to 4.37.
These are the exact types of things we hope to see over the course of the final couple months of the season.
Lynch returning to rotation
The Royals announced that Daniel Lynch IV will start Friday’s series opener against the Chicago Cubs. Lynch has been spectacular out of the bullpen this year, but the Royals want to see if he can translate that success in a return to the starting rotation.
Lynch began his career as a starter and has made 56 starts in his career.
“He’s obviously been really good out of the ‘pen, and hopefully he can keep that same mentality and same execution when he starts, and we’ll see how it goes,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said after Thursday’s game. “But for right now, that’s our plan.”
It makes a lot of sense to see how Lynch responds to another shot at the rotation. The Royals SP depth has crashed due to injuries. With wins in 2026 not meaning a whole lot, it’s a good time to test the waters as the team looks forward to 2027.
Kolek and Avila injuries
Speaking of injuries to starting pitchers, the Royals announced this week that both Stephen Kolek and Luinder Avila will require Tommy John surgeries. Add it to the list of reasons the 2026 season has been a complete disaster.
Cole Ragans underwent UCL repair in July. Kris Bubic missed ample time with injuries and has since been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ryan Bergert hasn’t pitched since 2025 and had elbow surgery in May.
All of this speaks volumes to why the Royals weren’t going to trade Michael Wacha or Seth Lugo just for kicks. They wanted deals that would net Major League ready pitchers and apparently nobody offered that.
Kansas City is now looking at a 2027 rotation that features Wacha, Lugo, Cameron and … fill in the blanks. Alec Marsh could make a return but he hasn’t pitched since 2024 because of shoulder issues. Ragans, Bergert, Kolek and Avila will all be coming off of surgeries and their timetables aren’t known yet.
The Royals will have to dip into free agency or trades, or likely both, in order to put together the requisite starting pitching depth heading into next season.
Re-tooling the bullpen
The Royals bullpen is going to look like the inside of your fridge after you get back from vacation. There are things in there but nothing that you can really put together to make a meal – especially with Lynch moving into the rotation.
There will be games like Thursday night when the Royals have a late lead but give it up and lose. That’s been happening all year, anyway, but don’t expect it to change. Injuries, changes in duties and simple regression have cursed the bullpen all season.
Kansas City designated Matt Strahm for assignment earlier this week, putting an end to what turned out to be a bad trade for the Royals. KC sent Jonathan Bowlan to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for Strahm in the offseason, looking to add left-handed help to the bullpen. Strahm lost some heat on his fastball and couldn’t produce outs like he used to, while Bowlan has been an incredibly effective reliever for the Phillies.
I understand why the trade happened, but it just didn’t work out for KC.
So what can the Royals do with their pen? It would be great if Steven Cruz continues showing improvement. He’s got a live arm and isn’t afraid to show it.
Cruz gave up 3 runs in 1.2 innings to raise his ERA to 6.55 back on June 21. He’s made 20 appearances since then, never giving up more than 1 run in an outing to slowly drop his ERA to 4.29.
He’s striking out more than 10 per nine innings, which is a solid number for a reliever. The Royals would do well to find more versions of Cruz to fill up the bullpen in order to better hold down leads.
I know Crash Davis said strikeouts are boring and fascist in “Bull Durham” but strikeouts also help keep leads. We need more of that.
That could be why the Royals picked up Luke Little off waivers from the Chicago Cubs this week. Little has touched triple-digits before, and regularly has his fastball and sinker in the mid- to upper-90s.
He didn’t hit his potential with the Cubs, but Little is the type of reliver that has shut-down stuff and it’s worth it for the Royals to see what he can do. KC sent him to Triple-A Omaha to begin with, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see him in Kansas City before the season comes to an end.
Looking toward the future
That’s pretty much the gist of what the rest of the 2026 season is for Royals fans. Let’s watch and analyze who is setting themselves up for a future with the club.
Keep watching Witt and Salvy. Let’s see if Cameron can keep up his hot streak, and if Lynch can extend his arm into 3-5 innings of good starting pitching. Can Cruz and the bullpen pieces step it up?
It’s worth watching for the curious baseball fan, and it’s fun to dream about the future. Particularly since we don’t have to dream about losses.
