By Adam Gardner / March 23, 2026
Baseball Christmas is almost here as Opening Day is quickly approaching.
Friday’s opener couldn’t come at a better time because, if you’re like me, the college basketball season officially died when Kansas was eliminated on a buzzer-beater. The NCAA Tournament is cooked, just like my bracket.
The Royals have been trimming their Major League roster the past few days and will have to have the 26-man Opening Day roster set on Wednesday, prior to the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants officially starting the season.
The bulk of the Royals lineup is set – there hasn’t been many questions on who will start. That’s generally a positive. Rex Hudler said something leading up to the 2014 season that’s stuck with me over a decade later. Hudler can say some wild things at times, but this one always made sense to me.
He was talking about how the team didn’t have many position battles going on and said that’s a good thing because we already know the good players are in the right spots. He said it’s a bad sign if there are a lot of position battles because nobody is playing good enough to outright take the starting job.
There’s a saying in football when it comes to teams who have a competition for starting quarterback, “If you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have any quarterbacks.” This is generally what Hudler was saying. The 2026 Royals don’t have a lot of question marks up and down the lineup; now they just need to produce.
Massey dealing with an injury
One of the questions unfortunately relates to health: will Michael Massey be able to start the season as a reserve player? Massey has had a bad run of luck with injuries, playing in just 77 games in 2025. He is dealing with a calf strain and didn’t travel with the team to Texas for the Royals final two tuneups before the season starts in Atlanta. He’ll play in Minor League spring training games in Arizona to get more at bats and test his leg.
Anne Rogers of MLB.com quoted Royals General Manager JJ Picollo who said Massey will make the big league club if he’s healthy enough. Massey can play second base or in the outfield, so he would be a useful bench player.
He’s also a left-handed bat with some pop. In his solid 2024 season, Massey hit 14 home runs in 100 games. The right-handed hitting Jonathan India has even splits against righties and lefties and the Royals plan to have him start at second base regularly, but Massey could be a solid option against righties when India needs a break.
But that’s only if Massey is healthy. Hopefully he’s due for some good luck when it comes to injuries and this calf problem doesn’t linger long. If it does, the Royals will fill the bench with a familiar name like Drew Waters or Nick Loftin. Tyler Tolbert would be an interesting option as well, since he would be a great speed threat off the bench. Tolbert stole 21 bases in 23 attempts in 2025. We’ll have an answer when the Royals announced their official roster on Wednesday.
Pitching staff takes shape
The Royals sent two quality relief pitchers to Triple A on Friday in Luinder Avila and Steven Cruz. According to Rogers, this means the bullpen will likely be made up of Carlos Estévez, Lucas Erceg, Matt Strahm, John Schreiber, Nick Mears, Alex Lange, Bailey Falter and Daniel Lynch IV.
Avila appeared in 13 games for the Royals in 2025 and gave up just 2 earned runs in 14 innings. He pitched well for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic and could eventually be a starting pitcher. He’ll turn 24 in August and I’ve got a feeling he’ll be in Kansas City again by the end of the season.
Cruz pitched 45.2 innings for KC last season, logging a 3.74 ERA. He’ll turn 27 in June and is a strong option if someone in the bullpen gets hurt or isn’t performing.
Since Cruz still had a minor league option remaining, he made the most sense to make the move to Omaha. Lange, Mears and Falter are all out of options and the Royals didn’t want to lose someone if they didn’t have to.
If you’re unsure what it means to have “options,” it’s just the number of times a player can be sent to the minors and still be controlled by a club. Once you’re added to the 40-man roster, you have three option years.
If you are sent to the minors in 2022, 2023 and 2025, for example, you’re out of options. So if your club wants to send you back to the minors in 2026, they would have to Designate you for Assignment – DFA for short – which sends you through waivers and other clubs can claim you.
There is more to it all and understanding all the possible roster rules can be a bit much at times. But optioning Cruz allows the Royals to keep control of everyone at this time.
Ragans ready for Atlanta
Cole Ragans made his final Spring Training start on Saturday. He threw 86 pitches and struck out 8 batters in 5.1 innings of work. The next time we see him, he’ll take on the Braves in a game that counts.
Friday will be a battle of tough lefties as Ragans will square off against Chris Sale for the Braves. Sale was the National League Cy Young winner in 2024 and is still considered one of the best pitchers in the game just days away from turning 37. Expect several strikeouts with Ragans and Sale on the mound.
Royals announce rotation
Michael Wacha will follow up Ragans, then the rest of the rotation is Seth Lugo, Kris Bubic and Noah Cameron.
I really like the look of the Royals starting pitchers and the pitching staff as a whole. Even if there are injuries or someone struggles – or both – KC has competent options who can step in. We’re a long way from the nightmare pitching staffs of the past.
Just for fun, I randomly looked up the 2005 team. I think they might have given up a couple runs just from me opening the Baseball Reference page.
Compare that to last year and it’s a wonderful palate cleanser.
The 2005 starters combined to be worth 2.3 WAR. Wacha, Bubic and Cameron each surpassed that mark by themselves last year. I hope I’m not throwing a huge jinx on the Royals pitchers this year. I don’t believe in jinxes anyway … until I do.
I’m ready for the season to start. I’m ready to see everyone wearing Royals gear and I’m ready to hear everyone talk about how the season’s going to go. I’m ready to walk into stores with my wife and look at all the different merchandise, find a pullover I really like and then tell myself I don’t need to spend $150 on something I won’t wear very often.
I’ll take a deeper dive into everything that comes with Opening Day, including memories and the general feeling of hope, in Thursday’s post.
