2 slow starts Royals fans should be concerned about, 2 they shouldn’t lose sleep over

The Royals are plodding out the gate this season, as they missed an opportunity to win a series at home against the last-place Chicago White Sox and then came out completely flat offensively in their series opener versus the Tigers. Remember when we were kids and we knew we were bringing home a bad report card? Your parents would take one look and say: I'm not mad, I'm disappointed. That's how the fan base feels about this Royals team, and at this point, I'm sure it trickles down to the manager and the coaching staff as well.

That's the beauty of baseball isn't it? No sport has a longer season than MLB, making mid-April crash-outs especially foolish. It's not fair to make widespread assumptions about certain players just yet. As a rule of thumb, always give your team two full months of games before putting Vinnie Pasquantino on the trade block (yes, we'll get to him). With that being said, there's nothing wrong with pointing out concerning trends that could spell disaster, based on underlying data and history.

The Royals have their fair share of guys who look lost at the plate and on the mound, but let's examine the guys who should shake it off versus the guys who could be in trouble.

Royals fans shouldn't too concerned with Vinnie Pasquantino

They call him undeniable for good reason. He's a one-of-a-kind personality and a heck of a baseball player when he's right. The problem with Pasquantino is that he's showing a pattern of showing up late to the season, about two months late every year. This was the case last season when he hit .177 in March and April with 24 strikeouts and only four home runs. It was also the case in 2024 when he hit .208 in April and March.

It was all fun and games last year when Vinnie snapped out of it by hitting a scorching .330 in the month of May on his way to a career season. While his numbers look horrendous and his at-bats are painful to watch, you have to believe in what the back of his baseball card tells you. Easier said than done, I know.

He looks like a man without a plan when he's at the plate. He's seen 284 pitches this season, and out of 45 batted balls, he's had one barrel. That's a 2.2% barrel rate. That's not going to cut it for your number three hitter. On the bright side, he normally is around a 9% barrel rate for his career, so I expect him to approach those numbers as the weather gets hotter.

His current 9.6% walk rate is his highest rate since 2023. It's all about making contact for Vinnie which comes down to timing. When he does make contact, he's getting under the ball more often than not. His pop-up rate is at 11.1%, the league average is 7.1%.

Vinnie has mentioned an increase in bat speed in 2025 and that he wasn't sure whether it was a good thing for his approach. Last year he sat at 72.5 mph, while so far this season he's only at 69.3 mph

He's disconnected right now for whatever reason, but I don't buy him being one of the worst position players in the sport for long. The patience and urgency for Vinnie to get things figured out is much different than someone like Perez (who will be discussed momentarily) because Salvy has a longer track record.

Vinnie hasn't shown enough in his Royals career for blind faith, but he deserves another month to get his stuff together. Move him down in the lineup, take some pressure off of him, and hope that his numbers will start to regulate back to the norm.

Concern Meter: 5.5/10

Salvador Perez has been too reliable throughout his career to be overly concerned about

Salvy is the heart and soul of the team, but right now, he looks soulless when he's at the plate. He's the Royals' cleanup hitter, but it's hard to call him that when he's 0-20 with RISP. The captain is weary at the moment, hitting a measly .159, but as mentioned, he's been useless when it's time to cash in and score runs.

Perez has always had high chase rates, but he's a .290 hitter for his career in RISP scenarios. This early-season skid is annoying and frustrating, but Salvy has shown us too many times not to count him out.

He may be 36, but he can still swing the bat with the best of them. His barrel rate is in the 77th percentile. He just needs to do it further away from the heart of the order right now. He should not be your cleanup hitter for 162 games of the season.

Like Vinnie Pasquantino, Perez is dealing with a timing issue, which is normal in this line of work. He will snap out of it eventually, it's just a matter of whether the Royals will still be in position to fight for the division when he does.

Concern Meter: 4.5/10

Jac Caglianone isn't hopeless, but isn't giving much reason to believe in him

Other than Vinnie and Salvy, there is no other player with more pressure to produce than Jac Caglianone. Cags was the 6th overall pick in 2024 and brought visions of Pete Alonso to Kansas City. His rookie season was a disaster and this year it hasn't looked that much better.

He's hitting .229 on the young season, and has yet to hit a home run or record an RBI. They've been playing baseball for over two weeks now.

That being said, there are reasons to be encouraged by Caglianone's start to the season despite the ugly batting average and traditional stats. His bat speed is still elite while his hard-hit rate and average exit velocity are both very strong.

The root of the problem seems much worse than on the surface. Cags is making contact, he's just not making the right kind of contact. According to Baseball Savant, Caglianone's has a 2.8 degree launch angle when he's striking the baseball. When put into context, that's fairly terrible for a power hitter like him.

Caglianone is hitting a ton of ground balls and not lifting the ball consistently. He's making hard contact, but not in a fashion that creates damage. He needs to retool his swing and rethink the way he wants to attack the baseball. Sounds like a job for hitting coach Alec Zumwalt, which for Royals fans, that probably doesn't inspire a ton of hope.

It seems like a daunting task and a disappointing development 16 games into the season, but this is where we are with Caglianone. His potential is hanging in the balance as he's young enough to still have faith in, but he's been in the majors long enough to warrant questions of if he can be a superstar type of player.

Don't completely give up on Cags yet. He's still young, and there are metrics to like with him, but the clock is ticking fast, especially with teammate and rookie Carter Jensen looking like the more complete and better hitter.

Concern Meter: 7.5/10

John Schreiber is proving he doesn't belong in this Royals' bullpen

We don't need to spend too much time discussing this one. Schreiber has been bad this season. His 6.00 ERA and 9.7% K-rate do not belong in any type of mid-high leverage situation. At this point, the only time Schreiber should be in a game is if the Royals are up by five or six runs. So essentially never with their putrid offense.

He's not striking anyone out and hitters are touching him up early and often. He's only inducing a 11.9% whiff rate on his pitches and has a 19.4% walk rate. His entire profile is the exact opposite of how you want to approach the art of pitching. He's only throwing 92 mph with his fastball, so guys are not having trouble timing him up.

He's a ground ball pitcher at heart, but when you're falling behind hitters and walking guys, it's difficult to get hitters to chase the pitches you want them to chase. Hitters are making contact in the zone at a 92.5% rate, but Schreiber has been below average at making "pitchers' pitches," meaning finding the edge of the zone. MLB average is 42.7%, Schreiber is at 39.7%.

Could his numbers get better as the season progresses? Possibly, but the Royals already have a problem with one of their best bullpen arms losing velocity in Carlos Estévez. They can't afford another one.

Concern Meter: 8/10

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