Kansas City Royals 2026 Position Analysis: Shortstop

When the Kansas City Royals take a good, long look at the shortstop position, they've got a pretty good player in Bobby Witt Jr. holding that spot down. But there's a little depth at shortstop, too.

Royals manager Matt Quatraro, obviously, must smile as he watches Witt dive for balls in the infield. Witt, though, also has proven to be a stellar bat in the Royals' lineup, too.

In looking at the Royals' depth chart at shortstop, Witt is No. 1, followed by Maikel Garcia and Tyler Tolbert. Tolbert, though, is more of a utility player as he's also on the depth chart at second base, third base, and center field.

Let's take a big-lens look, though, at what Witt brings to the table at shortstop. In the 2025 MLB season, Witt had a slash line of .295/.351/.852 with 23 home runs, 88 RBIs, and 38 stolen bases. According to Baseball Savant, Witt's exit velocity at the plate was 93,3 MPH, which placed him among the top 6% in the majors. When looking at Witt's batted ball profile, he pulled pitches 33.3% of the time, hit pitches straightaway at 37.5% of the time, and had a 29.2% opposite field percentage.

As for Witt's defense, his fielding run value, which is Statcast's overall metric for capturing a player’s measurable defensive performance onto a run-based scale, converting various metrics like OAA, blocking, framing, etc., he had a run value of 20. Anyone who watches Witt play at shortstop knows that he has quite a range. He's able to go deep into the hole and make strong throws to first base.

Witt was the Royals' first-round pick (No. 2 overall) in the 2019 MLB Amateur Draft. Over and over again, Witt has proven that the Royals' faith in his abilities has paid off.

Now, let's take a look at Garcia and what he brings to the table for Kansas City. In the 2025 MLB season, Garcia put together a slash line of .263/.319/.701 with 16 home runs, 74 RBIs, and 23 stolen bases. He's another speedy player that can give the Royals range at shortstop if Witt needs a day off. Garcia played in 160 games for the Royals last season, proving that he's quite adept as a utilityman for Quatraro.

In Garcia's Baseball Savant profile, he's listed as a third baseman. So, according to the Royals' depth chart, it has him in the No. 2 slot at shortstop, too. This, again, shows that Garcia has the ability to provide a steady hand at any position he might play for the Royals. Garcia's spray chart indicates that he's able to hit the ball to all fields, but his power stroke is definitely to left and left-center field.

Garcia had a fielding run value of 13 in the 2025 season. Garcia's arm strength, which measures how hard a fielder throws the ball in miles per hour, ranked at 88.7 MPH. So, whether it's at shortstop or even third base, Garcia can get the ball out of his glove and fire it quickly to get an out.

Tolbert, who is listed as a second baseman in his MLB.com statistics profile, saw action in 64 games for Kansas City last season. He put together a slash line of .280/.380/.701 with one home run and six RBIs. Tolbert, who played his college ball at Alabama-Birmingham, was a 13-round draft pick by the Royals in the 2019 MLB Amateur Draft.

While Garcia and Tolbert might see some action at shortstop in the 2026 MLB season, don't be surprised if Witt is over there much of the time.

All in all, it looks like the Royals have some depth at shortstop, which will serve them well this season.