The good news is the Royals are ahead of the Tigers in the standings. The bad news is they're in fourth.
It's clear, a couple years removed from the season where the Royals nearly chased the Yankees and went all in, that the infrastructure for this Royals team was imperfect. Relying on a bunch of pitchers that weren't always reliable shouldn't have been the plan. Obviously Ragans, Lugo, Wacha, Cameron and Bubic could come together in spurts, or on their own, for greatness but getting them all to be healthy and thriving at the same time has been a challenge. Right now, Wacha's pitching well, Lugo's pitching well, Cameron's getting hit a lot [he was good last night though], and Bubic and Ragans are hurt. And it's not like Stephen Kolek and Luinder Avila are doing badly per se in covering for them, but the strength of the compact unit is not there. The weight is on Wacha right now and it shouldn't be. It should really be on Cameron but apparently a year in the majors has done damage on his throwing arm. Meanwhile, Lucas Erceg is still covering the ninth for Carlos Estevez, and while he's got 11 saves I still think he's just better off as a setup man.
The lineup infrastructure is marginally better but I think everyone assumed Vinnie Pasquantino, Michael Massey, Isaac Collins and Jonathan India would mean more to this team than they have. You have a guy like the Pasquatch, being the character that he is, and you expect some modicum of success. The dude's hitting .184. I root for the guy, because you can't not, but he only seems to succeed when the pressure's off. Massey still hasn't put together a solid enough full season effort, he's hitting .217. Isaac Collins's sophomore effort, yes he's only a sophomore, is a .215 season with middling defense. All of these guys are 28, by the way. Not that the window's completely closed, as Bobby Witt is 26 after all, but it's closING.
And yes, this team does have some youth, but it hasn't locked all the way in yet. Carter Jensen is a solid power hitter but the team is afraid to let him catch. This team has SALVADOR PEREZ, who is 36 and not his old self, and they're afraid to let Jensen catch. Cause Perez is at least a solid enough framer who can call out the umps' BS in the age of the ABS. He's only hitting .211, but he's got 8 home runs, which leads the team. I still hope this team can eventually bring up a catcher who's good at defense AND can hit, and isn't just one or the other. M.J. Melendez was not the guy, I worry Jensen isn't either. Jac Caglianone does seem like he's on the right track though, with 5 homers and 10 RBIs, plus a .750 OPS, which is the second-highest on this team. That's...frightening. But Cags is still looking like the exact kind of piece the Royals hoped he was. This adds to the already strong Maikel Garcia, trying to build off his 2025, hitting .255 and trying to get hotter. He and Witt are doing what they can to ensure this isn't completely forgettable.
I can't completely count the Royals out, because I can't completely count the Tigers out and if I counted the Royals out too it'd be hypocritical. It's just looking very uninspired right now. But the way this division is looking, it's still not completely decided.
Coming Tomorrow- A big, beefy power bat for a team already surprising a lot of people.
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