3 big differences between the 2025 KC Royals and 2024 club as spring training begins

Just four months after the New York Yankees dumped them out of the American League Division Series in four games, the Kansas City Royals get back to the work of baseball when spring training opens this week. And although not much will be different when full-squad workouts begin on February 17, important differences distinguish this year's club from last season's.

Kansas City fans will find some of those differences subtle. Three, however, will be obvious from the moment the gates to the Royals' Surprise, Arizona training complex swing open.

The KC Royals are now bona fide playoff contenders

Opinions may have differed, but it's hard to argue that many observers considered the 2024 Royals playoff-bound when spring training began a year ago. The club was coming off an awful 106-loss season and hadn't won more than half its games in a single campaign since the 2016 team finished 81-81. The pitching and offense were both suspect and, other than Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez, the club was woefully short on established stars.

But if what the 2024 Royals went on and did wasn't shocking, it was certainly surprising. They were good from the outset and, after battling for the AL Central division championship for much of the campaign, ended up settling for a Wild Card berth to secure their first postseason appearance since 2015.

Now, and despite a well-known projection system's dark prediction, the 2025 club merits strong playoff consideration. Most of the 2024 team is back, general manager J.J. Picollo engineered a key offseason trade that brought good leadoff hitter Jonathan India to town, the pitching may be better than it was last year, and the team should be well-positioned to strengthen itself at the trade deadline.

Unlike this time last year, expect the Royals to contend.

The back end of the bullpen could be excellent

Royals fans will never forget how "H-D-H" — the feared late-inning relief trio of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland — dominated baseball in 2014 and 2015. While the Royals may never again have such a formidable bullpen weapon, 2025's late-game corps should be tremendous. That's a welcome change from last spring, when little about KC's pen suggested it would be far stronger than the shaky and inconsistent 2023 unit.

The 2025 back-end strength begins with returnee Lucas Erceg and recent trade acquisition Carlos Estévez. Erceg's sudden emergence as KC's closer was one of the 2024 campaign's best storylines — after the surprise trade deadline deal that brought him to the Royals from the Oakland Athletics, he converted 11 of 13 save opportunities and posted a 2.88 ERA in 23 down-the-stretch appearances.

As good as Erceg was, however, watch for Estévez to push him for the closer's role. Estévez saved 26 games across stints with the Los Angeles Angels and Philadelphia Phillies last season. But no matter what happens in what should be one of the best position battles in spring training, the Royals will be in good stead with either Erceg or Estévez closing, and the other setting up.

And what of the third, probably seventh-inning, spot? If Kris Bubic, who went 1-1 with a 2.67 ERA in his first season as a reliever last year, ends up back in the rotation, Sam Long, Angel Zerpa, or even James McArthur could land the job.

Long was 3-3 with a 3.16 ERA for the Royals after they promoted him from Triple-A Omaha last May. Zerpa, who stuck with the big league club most of last season, went 2-0 with a 3.86 ERA in 60 games, and allowed only one-fourth of the runners he inherited to score. And despite some concerning second-half struggles and a late-season elbow issue, McArthur saved 18 games before Erceg displaced him as closer.

The KC Royals have rotation holes to fill

Kansas City's rotation was all but locked in when training camp opened last spring. Assured of spots were returnees Cole Ragans and Brady Singer and newcomers Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, and Alec Marsh was as close to a sure rotation thing as any other candidate for the fifth spot. And that's how the rotation looked for most of the season.

This spring is different — from the moment pitchers and catchers report, the competition for two rotation vacancies will be wide open. Lugo, Wacha, and Ragans are safe, but the hole left by Singer's departure to Cincinnati via the India trade, and the fifth spot, remain to be plugged.

The Royals are committed to working Bubic into the rotation (probably as Singer's replacement) but whether that move succeeds or fails only time and several starts will tell.

Other top rotation candidates are Marsh (9-9 last season in 25 starts) and Michael Lorenzen, who pitched nicely last year after coming over from the Texas Rangers in exchange for reliever Walter Pennington at the trade deadline but saw an injury cut his regular season short. Kyle Wright, a 21-game winner for the Atlanta Braves in 2022, is a good bet to win a starting role if he proves this spring he's recovered from the 2023 shoulder surgery that sidelined him all of 2024.