Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
A couple years ago, the Kansas City Royals were in the playoffs as a wild card and won a round. With Bobby Witt Jr. signed to a lengthy contract, their future looked pretty interesting.
Then the Royals slid back in 2025 — but only slightly, to 82 wins. This year's start is more concerning.
Witt remains an MVP-caliber player. In fact, he's hit .395 with four homers over his last 10 games. Problem is, Kansas City lost seven of them. With the AL Central looking as winnable as ever, the Royals still can't get any traction. They're tied with Detroit for last place. That's a crisis for the Tigers, with Tarik Skubal due to hit free agency after this season, but Kansas City has its own problems.
It's mostly the offense, which right now is Witt and a lot of mediocrity. Vinnie Pasquantino is batting .202. Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone have been OK, but neither is having a major breakout and the jury remains out on whether those two — age 22 and 23 — will provide what Kansas City needs alongside Witt over the next several years. Maikel Garcia has only three homers in 200 plate appearances.
Meanwhile, veteran Salvador Perez is batting .205.
The pitching has been a little better, but after spending over a month alternating good outings and bad ones, Cole Ragans left the game on May 6 with elbow soreness and ended up on the injured list.
The Royals can afford to be patient — to a point. Witt's contract could actually go all the way through 2037 if both sides pick up various options. But he has player options beginning with the 2031 season, meaning he could actually become a free agent then.
Right now, Kansas City has only three prospects ranked in Baseball Pipeline's top 100. All are outside the top 50 and all are in Class A at the moment. So the pressure is on players like Caglianone and Jensen to step up. That's the easiest path for the Royals to get better.
The Milwaukee Brewers are dead last in the majors in home runs, yet they rank sixth with 4.95 runs per game. How are they pulling that off? Well, clutch hitting is part of it. Milwaukee is fourth in baseball in batting average with runners in scoring position, hitting .281. And the Brewers are fourth in steals with 49.
Another big factor is walks. Milwaukee ranks fourth in bases on balls and third in on-base percentage. It's unusual for a team that's shown such little power to have such a high walk rate, but the Brewers are doing it. Their 7-1 win over San Diego on Thursday was a good example. Milwaukee drew seven walks — including four in a row in the first inning — but didn't hit any homers.
The Brewers are one of five teams in the majors with more steals (49) than home runs (30). Who are the others?
Philadelphia's Christopher Sánchez went the distance Saturday, striking out 13 in a 6-0 win over Pittsburgh. His now has a scoreless streak of 29 2/3 innings.
Sánchez was the third pitcher to throw a shutout this year. Minnesota's Bailey Ober did it earlier in the week, and Miami's Sandy Alcantara did it April 1.
The Mets had a big one Sunday against the Yankees, but Philadelphia's was even more impressive Friday in Pittsburgh. The Phillies trailed 6-0 in the fourth and 8-3 in the seventh. They were still down 8-5 in the ninth when Kyle Schwarber — who had already homered twice — drew a bases-loaded walk with one out. Then Bryce Harper's drive off the top of the wall tied the game.
Philadelphia scored three times in the 10th and won 11-9. Pittsburgh's win probability was 97.9% in the seventh, according to Baseball Savant.
Cleveland (51 steals and 50 homers), Tampa Bay (51-38). Miami (57-36) and Boston (35-33).
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
