Joe Rutland

Image courtesy of © Thomas Shea-Imagn Images When the Kansas City Royals need a guy who packs a punch at the plate, they can turn their eyes toward first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino. Looking at data and analytics from Pasquantino's 2025 season should give Royals fans something to feel good about entering this season. Pasquantino stepped away from spring training to take part in the World Baseball Classic. In four games for Team Italy, Pasquantino was 4-for-22 with three home runs, four RBIs, seven walks, and six runs scored. He was making contact regularly for Team Italy, getting in gear for the Royals' season. One thing that he's improved upon is his Pull AIR percentage. According to Baseball Savant, Pasquantino's percentage ticked up from 21.9% in 2024 to 25.0% last season. The data indicate that he's getting more comfortable in pulling the ball during his at-bats. What about the quality of contact, which measures the effectiveness of a batter's swing and how he hits the ball? At the plate in the 2025 season, Pasquantino had 1.8% weak contact, 30.5% topped contact, 24.3% under contact, 26.5% flare/burner contact, 7.5% solid contact, and 8.8% barrel contact. His run value numbers in 2025 against a four-seam fastball, changeup, slider, sinker, curveball, and cutter were all in the positive areas. Pasquantino's sweeper run value last season was zero. So, the lone pitch that seemed to cause him trouble in the run value category was a split-finger fastball. Pasquantino provides a productive bat right in the middle of the Royals' lineup. Last season for the Royals, he hit 32 home runs and had 113 RBIs. In 2025, Pasquantino's rising Pull Air percentage was 25%, meaning he was pulling up 25% of the pitches he saw. He pulled 20% of the pitches he saw on the ground, 14.1% up the middle on the ground, and 4% grounded the opposite way. Pasquantino hit 18.9% of the pitches he saw straight up in the air, and 17..9% the opposite way in the air. He might find himself in a challenging at-bat if he's seeing a steady diet of pitches low in the strike zone. So, that's something Pasquantino might want to work on this season. Pasquantino has proven to be an effective first baseman for Royals manager Matt Quantraro. In 2025, he finished with a .506 slugging percentage and a .342 on-base percentage. When Pasquantino was in spring training with the Royals, he put together a .422 OPS and a .160 batting average in 25 at-bats. It might take him some time to settle into the lineup after splitting time between spring training and the WBC. But Kansas City should feel confident that Pasquantino will, once again, be able to anchor the Royals' offense in the middle of the lineup in 2026. View full article

Image courtesy of © Brett Davis-Imagn Images Any major-league starting pitcher wants to have a strong suit of pitches to select from when taking the mound. For the Royals' Kris Bubic, he's put together a strong suit to select from this season. Bubic, a left-hander, finished 2025 with a 2.89 FIP in 116 1/3 innings and 20 starts. He recorded 116 strikeouts, good for a 24.4% strikeout rate. He also finished a .277 wOBA, well below the baseball-wide average of .313. Now, entering the 2026 MLB season, Bubic wants to dig into his arsenal of pitches and make them all work together. But what does that arsenal look like? According to Baseball Savant, Bubic uses a four-seam fastball, a changeup, a sweeper, a slider, and a sinker to keep opposing hitters guessing. Per his Statcast Pitch Arsenal, Bubic uses his four-seamer the most at 38.1% of the time. Next is his changeup, which Bubic throws it 21.1% of the time. As for the sweeper and slider, he uses them 28.9% and 13.4% of the time, respectively. And the sinker? He's used that 6.5% of the time when he's on the mound. Let's break down how Bubic used his pitches against left-handed and right-handed hitters in 2025. Baseball Savant data indicate Bubic used his four-seamer 38% of the time, with 42% against right-handed hitters and 25% against left-handed hitters. Bubic used his changeup 21% of the time, with 27% against righties versus just 3% against lefties. Bubic saved his sweepers, sliders, and sinkers for left-handed hitters. His overall sweeper percentage was 21%, but against lefties, he threw it 26% of the time and 19% against right-handers. He used his slider 13% of the time in the 2025 MLB season, with 27% usage against lefties and 9% usage against righties. And the sinker? Bubic used it 7% of the time in 2025, with 19% versus lefties and 3% against righties. With these percentage breakdowns, Bubic has a chance to evaluate which pitches will prove effective in different situations. Ever since Bubic entered the majors back in 2020, he's shown a willingness to adjust his arm angle, too. When he first arrived for the Royals, he was throwing at a 45-degree arm angle. That dropped to a 37-degree angle in 2023, rose to a 41-degree angle in 2024, and dropped back to a 38-degree angle last season. Can Bubic put all of this data together for even better results in 2026? Royals manager Matt Quatraro and pitching coach Brian Sweeney sure hope so. And they really hope that Bubic can stay healthy, especially since he missed a chunk of the 2025 MLB season after dealing with his left rotator cuff strain. View full article

Image courtesy of © David Richard-Imagn Images 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. View full article

Image courtesy of © Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. has been making inroads toward earning even more respect around the major leagues for his hitting efforts. He’s been able to put together some very good seasons, too. Heading into next season, though, Witt needs to focus on a few pain points. His numbers in some areas showed marked improvement, reflecting a growing sense of maturity and ability to grasp the finer points of hitting big-league pitching. According to Witt’s spray chart on Baseball Savant, he pulled a majority of his home runs to left or left-center field. The same can be said for extra-base hits beyond homers as well. When it comes to singles, though, Witt had a knack for connecting all over the field. His exit velocity has improved season over season between 2024 and 2025, going from 92.7 in 2024 to 93.3 last season. Opposing pitchers challenged him with more fastballs in the previous season, while his offspeed offerings dipped a little bit. Witt’s chase percentage also moved downward in the previous season, going from 32.1% in 2024 to 30.7% last season. Entering next season, what steps can Witt take to be even better? First off, keep on improving his slash line. Last season’s numbers were not too kind to Witt. His 2025 slash line ended up being .290/.340/.504/.844; a large step back from 2024, when he posted a slash line of .332/.389/.588/.977. Across the board, his hitting numbers were all down from his 2024 season. While the data indicates this is taking place, Witt was in the 90+ percentile in the MLB Percentile Rankings. These areas included xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, and Average Exit Velocity categories. Witt needs to learn to control his power and push balls more toward right- and right-center field. Does he have the power stroke to make this happen? Of course he does. The statistics reveal that Witt can hit doubles, triples, and home runs to the far reaches of any MLB ballpark. This ability helped him earn Silver Slugger and All-MLB honors in 2025, despite his slight regression (which shows his value as a shortstop). Yet the power surge that Royals fans were looking for from Witt in the 2025 season just wasn’t there. He’ll be entering his fourth MLB season with Kansas City in 2026, too. Don’t be surprised, though, if Witt gets off to a hot start next season and puts himself again in the AL MVP discussion. He’s shown a willingness to learn and grow from one year to the next. View full article