3 burning questions the KC Royals are nowhere close to answering

When looking at the start of the Kansas City Royals season as a whole, there’s some good news and there’s some bad news. The good news is that despite struggling in several facets of the game, Matt Quatraro’s squad is only 1.5 games out of first place in the AL Central.

The bad news is that the shaky start has generated some serious questions about where Kansas City is going this year. And because they have only played 16 games, answers to those questions aren’t here yet. In fact, they’re not really on the horizon. 

The Royals are going to need to find the answer to these questions sooner, rather than later. But that’s another piece of good news, as the old saying goes, the season is a marathon, not a sprint.

3 burning questions the KC Royals are nowhere close to answering 

Who will provide the pop?

The Royals currently sit tied for dead last in Major League Baseball in team home runs with seven. Only the Toronto Blue Jays are as bad as they are when it comes to power. And it’s not just home runs. 

The Royals are 28th in the league in slugging with a .319 percentage. They’re only above the Chicago White Sox (.300) and the Pittsburgh Pirates (.290). Kansas City generally doesn’t have a ton of sluggers but at the moment, they don’t have any. 

Vinnie Pasquantino, Salvador Perez and Maikel Garcia are tied for the team lead with 2 home runs each. Perez knocked his second out of the park on Sunday afternoon, Pasquantino’s second of the season came on Saturday night but Garcia hasn’t seen a ball leave the yard March 31. Garcia along with Mark Canha, who has played in just seven games and is currently on the IL, are their current leader's in SLG. Given the inconsistencies in power already touched upon with Garcia and Canha's limited sample size, fans shouldn’t count on them to continue to lead the team. So who will provide the pop the Royals need so badly? It’s not clear yet. The obvious answer is Bobby Witt Jr. but he’s not exactly tearing the cover off the ball either. And there’s going to need to be more than him.

Is the KC Royals rotation really this good?

While the offense is struggling and answers aren’t coming quickly, the starting pitching is having a heck of a start. It’s safe to say that staying within shouting distance of first place this early in the year wouldn’t be possible without a rotation that’s one of the best in baseball.

The Royals’ rotation is 3rd in all of Major League Baseball in ERA and only Michael Wacha has an individual ERA over 4.00 on the season. The staff is even better when looking at it’s 2.89 FIP that currently leads Majors.

Kansas City’s starting pitchers were among the best in the Majors last year as well. So the answer would seem to be that they are indeed this good, but the group has also had some changes. There’s also the argument to be made that the staff being as good as it was last year came out of nowhere. It’s clear though that once again, the starting rotation is going to need to be among the best for the Royals to contend.

When will the bullpen find its footing?

Quite a bit has been made already about Kansas City’s bullpen being inconsistent at best. While the Royals’ pen is middle of the road in ERA (3.78) they’re sporting one of the Majors’ worst FIPs at 4.47 that suggests the relievers have mostly gotten lucky so far.

Certainly, the group is not getting many swings and misses as they’re 22nd in baseball in strikeouts per nine innings at just 7.91 and that alone is going to have see their FIP rise quite quickly. 

The up and down season for the team’s relievers continued in their game on Saturday when they held onto a 3-1 lead into the 8th inning when Sam Long allowed 2 hits, 2 walks and 3 earned runs in just one inning of work. 

Those struggles were underlined when the Royals scored two in the top of the ninth that would have tied the game if not for Long’s meltdown. Can the bullpen find its footing? If it can, it’s not clear when that will happen. Either the bullpen or the offense is going to need to figure things out if the club wants to compete all season.