In the latest free agency news, Jurickson Profar — a competent big league outfielder — has signed with the Atlanta Braves, where he'll presumably take over left field. What that means for the Kansas City Royals, of course, is that he won't be available to help them cure their biggest ill — a dreadfully weak-hitting outfield capable of preventing the club from progressing further in the offseason than it did last year.
That the Royals have one of the worst offensive outfields in baseball is well-worn, well-traveled, and well-plowed ground. Painful recitation of the woeful stats of Kansas City's primary outfielders — MJ Melendez, Kyle Isbel, and Hunter Renfroe — is simply unnecessary. Everyone knows they just didn't hit in 2024, and that the Royals made it back to the playoffs in spite of their bats.
KC brought Joey Wiemer to Kansas City as part of November's Brady Singer-Jonathan India trade, but he alone isn't the answer, leaving general manager J.J. Picollo with work to do if improvement is to come before the regular season starts on March 27.
But why, with spring training just around the corner, haven't the Royals addressed the situation?
Perhaps the KC Royals can't find the right fit
This may be the likeliest answer. Kansas City isn't a franchise known to meddle with or risk team chemistry, a commodity that seems to have contributed much to last year's shocking club resurgence. But don't expect the historically close-to-the-vest Royals to specifically say any potential addition threatened club chemistry.
Then there's the matter of financial fits. While many clamored for Picollo to go after slugger Anthony Santander, who recently signed with the Toronto Blue Jays, or Profar, whose up-and-down season-to-season numbers rendered him less than the long-term solution Kansas City needs, both simply didn't make financial sense. Santander is set to make at least $92.5 million with Toronto, and Profar will earn $42 million from the Braves.
Those amounts just don't figure neatly or nicely into Kansas City's equation. Going into 2025, Picollo and principal owner John Sherman still have to make a decision about Salvador Perez's 2026 season, starter Seth Lugo could force the club's hand at the end of the year by declining his player 2026 player option, and an extension is due for Vinnie Pasquantino. Those situations take financial priority right now.
Is it the new stadium issue?
Solving Kansas City's outfield problem will require big moves. There has been some social media speculation — though not a lot — that the Royals aren't making the kind of major deals they did last offseason because their first drive for a new ballpark failed, but those who ascribe some retaliatory motive to Sherman are simply wrong.
Sherman didn't invest the kind of resources necessary to purchase the franchise just to wreck it. Those who believe he won't let Picollo spend big because he plans to move the team out of the Kansas City area don't appreciate just how difficult it is and how long it can take to convince MLB to permit uprooting and relocating franchises, especially one as well-established in its present locale as Sherman's.
They also forget what happened when baseball allowed Kansas City Athletics owner Charles O. Finley to take his club to Oakland after the 1967 season. It didn't take long at all for MLB to award KC a replacement after Missouri Senator Stuart Symington strongly suggested KC's loss of baseball could imperil baseball's questionable anti-trust exemption.
No, the stadium issue has nothing to do with the Royals' outfield. Perish the thought.
Maybe the KC Royals are simply biding their time
As unsatisfying as this answer might be for fans anxiously awaiting an outfield fix, this might be the correct one. The Royal way isn't to act rashly, or to make moves simply to appease a hungry base. The club typically moves deliberately and cautiously. Big risks aren't part of the general culture.
So it is that Picollo, certainly with Sherman's blessing, won't make a deal just to make one. Kansas City won't play a game that matters until late March — plenty of time remains for Picollo to reach and make a fitting and sound decision. And as written in this space before, perhaps the Royals are satisfied to proceed to spring training with their roster status quo and continue searching for a solution.
Much could happen, though, and at any moment. Time will tell.