By Adam Gardner | May 26, 2026
The 2026 Major League Baseball season is one-third completed and when searching for positives the best thing I can say about the Kansas City Royals is that at least they aren’t the Detroit Tigers.
The Tigers are the only thing standing between the Royals and the American League Central cellar. The Tigers are probably the only thing standing between the Royals being the most disappointing team in the American League.
So, thank you Detroit?
That’s about as positive as I can be after the Royals were looking directly at three-straight wins only to blow a ninth-inning lead at home against the Yankees on Monday.
KC had just finished off a series win against the Seattle Mariners – the Royals finish the season with a 5-1 record against Seattle, can we petition to play the Mariners more? – and had taken a 3-2 lead over the Yankees in the bottom of the eighth inning.
This is the same Yankees team that throttled the Royals by a combined 24-6 margin over three games in New York in April, so it was pretty nice to actually have a great chance to get a win. The game was on ESPN which meant a national audience got to witness Bobby Witt Jr. put the team on his back and the Royals in front with a solo home run in the eighth inning.
But it wasn’t meant to be as Lucas Erceg gave up a pair of runs in top of the ninth and the Royals lost the game, 4-3. All momentum from the Mariners series, gone in an instant.
So here we are, one-third of the way through the season, and the Royals are 10 games under .500, falling farther behind the pace of the Cleveland Guardians sitting in first place.
Let’s talk Lucas
I like to glance around different social media avenues from time to time to get reactions from various Royals fans. One I saw Monday afternoon was that Erceg sucked and that Daniel Lynch IV should be the Royals closer.
I’m not going to judge anyone for instant reactions right after a disappointing game, but I don’t think the argument really holds water. Lynch pitched a wonderful eighth inning against the Yankees, retiring the top three batters in their lineup, including Aaron Judge.
If you think Lynch is better than Erceg (and he absolutely has been this season), then that is the exact spot you want Lynch to be used. Those were high leverage at bats and Lynch was nails.
Erceg also didn’t give up any rockets in the ninth inning. Paul Goldschmidt was completely overmatched and Erceg shattered his bat with a pitch up and in, but the ball acted like a wedge shot in golf, checking on the infield grass in a way that kept Witt from throwing Goldschmidt out.
Then Jazz Chisholm hit a ball past Salvador Perez at first base that could have been an out two different ways. Maybe Vinnie Pasquantino is able to get his glove on hit since he’s left-handed and Salvy is right-handed, but Vinnie was pulled for a pinch-runner the previous inning.
It’s also an easier play to make if the first baseman is playing at normal depth instead of holding a runner on, so if the previous lucky hit was actually an out, Perez would have been playing back and the inning is likely over.
If this, if that … if my mother had wheels she’d be a bicycle. None of those things happened, the Yankees did get runners on and scored and Erceg blew the save. That’s reality and I’m not trying to change it, just pointing out that luck, both good and bad, play a large role in the sport.
Matters aren’t helped by Erceg’s outing on Sunday afternoon. He hadn’t pitched in a week so the Royals brought Erceg in with an 8-3 lead on the Mariners only to watch him give up 4 hits and 3 runs.
Erceg hadn’t allowed a single run in the month of May and then in the span of two days, he gave up 5 runs and earned a blown save.
Bullpen issues
The Royals need Erceg to be better than that, but I don’t know we can expect the reliever that sparked the Royals bullpen in 2024. In that season, Erceg struck out 11.2 batters per nine innings and walked just 1.1 batters per nine innings.
That strikeout mark dipped to 7.0 last season and sits at 7.6 right now. He walked 2.6 per nine last season and is at a terrible 5.5 walks per nine innings this season. He’s not eliminating batters at the plate like he did in 2024 and he’s putting more runners on base.
More runners + fewer strikeouts = runs.
But there are only so many options the Royals can roll with. Lynch has been splendid this season and I wish the Royals had about three more of him.
Outside of Lynch, there hasn’t been anyone super reliable. John Schreiber and Nick Mears haven’t been bad, and Luinder Avila has shown some good signs, but none of them have been lights out. Matt Strahm has been OK when healthy, but he’s currently on the Injured List.
Alex Lange and Steven Cruz haven’t been effective and should only pitch when the Royals are already losing – at least until they prove they can be trusted in more important situations.
So what is Matt Quatraro supposed to do differently? You could argue that Lynch should have gone another inning on Monday. That move would likely make him unavailable Tuesday against the Yankees, but then he’d be available again on Wednesday and the Royals have Thursday off.
But we haven’t seen Lynch finish an inning and start a new one very often as a reliever. His background as a starting pitcher tells me he could probably handle that fine and I’d love to see it.
The Royals still need to be able to go to Erceg for big outs, though. They really don’t have any other choices right now.
Hat tip to Kolek
Kansas City is going through it with their pitching staff right now. Kris Bubic is on the IL, as is Cole Ragans. The latter made a rehab start for Omaha on Saturday and things looked good … until they didn’t.
The Royals said Ragans “did not recover well” after the start and he’s shut back down for a few days. Ragans said he woke up the next day with a stiff elbow. For a pitcher who has already had a pair of Tommy John surgeries (which repair the UCL in the elbow), this is worrying.
However, on the same day Ragans made his rehab start, Stephen Kolek made a start in Kansas City against the Mariners and threw an old school complete game shutout.
Starting pitchers and MLB organizations have shifted more and more into focusing on fewer innings, throwing harder and getting more strikeouts. But Kolek went the distance in the Royals 5-0 win, throwing 108 pitches and striking out just two batters while giving up 4 hits and 1 walk.
Kolek induced 10 ground balls and 12 fly balls, and threw a first-pitch strike to 18/29 batters. That’s a pitching line that fits in 1986 more than 2026, but I’ll take it every night if we could get it. KC gave the righty a fancy social media graphic, too.
Kolek has started four games for the Royals this season and has a 2.77 ERA in 26 innings of work. We’ll see if he can remain this effective while striking out just 4.8/nine innings, but it might behoove him to get another punchout or two per game.
If Kolek can keep up this productivity then he’s definitely earned a continued rotation spot when Bubic and Ragans return. Having plenty of starting pitchers isn’t a bad thing, especially since the Royals will play 10-straight days after their off day on Thursday.
Bobby and Salvy
Even when I get negative about how the season is going so far, I still have to remind myself the Royals employ Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez.
Witt had the ESPN broadcast crew positing that he’s the second-best all-around baseball player behind Shohei Ohtani, and he turned in solid defense and timely hitting on Monday. That’s par for the course for Witt who is everything you could want and more in a homegrown superstar.
Perez homered on Monday as well, which ties George Brett for most home runs at Kauffman Stadium (136). It also pulls Perez to just five fewer than Brett for the all-time Royals franchise record (317).
Salvy will eventually be KC’s all-time home run king and will someday have his number retired at the stadium. He’ll be enshrined in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, the second player to get a plaque wearing a Kansas City hat.
We’ll look back at his time with the Royals full of memories with Eric Hosmer, Alex Gordon and Wade Davis, and then more memories with Witt, Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, plus all the smiles anyone could want.
I hope he can get at least one more postseason run before it’s all over. And it will be a damn shame if we don’t get Bobby several more postseason opportunities, otherwise he might search for them elsewhere.
