3 Royals 2026 Opening Day roster decisions that they could soon come to regret

Wedensday was a bit of a whirlwind for the Kansas City Royals as teams around the league needed to finalize their Opening Day rosters.

With it came 26-man roster decions and resolutions to positional battles, choices for the 40-man roster and placements on the injured list. Even before Wednesday those decisions were starting to be made as spring training was wrapping up.

As many good decisions as the Royals made, such as not overthinking Opening Day and giving the ball to their ace Cole Ragans, rewarding Nick Loftin for his strong spring training efforts or adding non-roster standout Eli Morgan to the 40-man roster, there were also some questionable decisions that the Royals made in which they could come to regret in the near-future.

Royals made questionable decision to prioritize veteran arms without options over more-skilled bullpen arms

The biggest potentially regrettable decision on this list has to be the front office prioritizing multiple names in the bullpen without options over younger names with better numbers in a Royals uniform.

This of course is Bailey Falter and Alex Lange making the roster over the likes of Steven Cruz or Luinder Avila.

Now DFA'ing or simply outrighting both Falter and Lange seems far-fetched and unncessary, but carrying both of them seems just as inefficent.

Falter of course is coming off an over 11.00 ERA showing in four outings split between the rotation and the bullpen after he joined the Royals at the trade deadline.

He'd then only follow-up with, an albeit better, but still underwhelming 5.59 ERA and 1.45 WHIP effort in 9.2 innings of work in spring training.

Then there's Lange, who no longer seems like the once well-regarded closer he was once was with the Tigers, having spent the past two seasons primarily injured, but underwhelming when he was on the mound for just 19.2 innings across the last two seasons.

Lange would also look just mediocre at best in spring, despite his 10.00 K/9 total, sporting a 5.00 ERA and 1.56 WHIP in 9.0 innings of Cactus league action.

Both of these names seem like a gamble, when there's names like Cruz, who just crafted a respectable year out the Royals 'pen in 2025 and sported a sub-2.00 ERA this spring, and Avila, who looked excellent in his late-season cameo with Kansas City in 2025, with Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic and in spring training this year with a 1.29 ERA and 10.29 K/9.

Royals opted for limited skillset in Tyler Tolbert over better offensive bench bats

To say Tolbert has no value to major league lineup would be entirely false. His electric speed and ability to play a nearly every position around the diamond makes him someone who can be called upon in the late innings.

However, when all is said and done, the name of the game is run production and that starts at the plate. This is where Tolbert struggles.

Following a not terrible, but still below-average 92 wRC+ season in 57 plate appearances in 2025, Tolbert looked lost at the dish in spring training this season. In 16 games he slashed just .226/.273/.290 with an extremely poor 52 wRC+.

When names like Josh Rojas, who may not be as versatile or quick, are sitting right there coming off strong spring showings, it feels the Royals are sacrificing having a full slate of at least competent bats for Matt Quatraro to choose from.

And even if Rojas has a recent string of unsuccessful major league seasons since his peak years in 2021 and 2022 in Arizona, at the end of the day, Tolbert is just there to fill a bench spot until Michael Massey is fully healthy and able to return.

So why not give the veteran a shot in the interim? After all, if he doesn't work out, it's both easy enough and not financially taxing to issue him his walking papers and part ways after a few weeks.

This team struggled offensively beyond their core quartet of Bobby Witt Jr., Maikel Garcia, Vinnie Pasquantino and captian Salvador Perez. Why not be proactive from the get-go and give those cornerstone pieces the most compentent offensive group to complement them.

Royals could regret not giving Noah Cameron more time to gather his footing after rough spring training

Lastly, we move to probably the most controversial opinion of mine here and that's the decision to roll with Noah Cameron right off the hop.

I want to preface, I'm a firm believer in Cameron and the role he could play in this team's future. However, I also understand that everything appeared to go exactly right in his sensational rookie campaign and that lightning doesn't often strike twice.

Do I think Cameron is washed up? No, absolutely not.

But do I think Cameron is a sub-3.00 ERA arm? I tend to lean towards no here as well, especially when you look at his 4.18 FIP in comparison to that 2.99 ERA.

For a fifth starter though, which is what he's currently serving as in this starting staff, somewhere between those two realities is fine to be. However, his 6.19 ERA, 6.84 FIP, 1.75 WHIP, .343 BAA and 14.9% K-rate effort in spring training this year did not instill confidence in me personally that he was ready to be part of a major league rotation at all to start 2026.

Someone like Ryan Bergert, who could also play an important role himself in the future of this Royals rotation, could've easily been a better fit.

He came in and looked the part last season after arriving at the trade deadline. And he had just one poor outing in spring training this year that spoiled his stat line, otherwise he looked like a strong option to dethrone Cameron for that final rotation spot.

Sophomore slumps are a real thing and Cameron proved in 2025 that he may be someone to plan around. So, wouldn't it make sense to protect that and allow him to gather himself in some lower pressure outings in Omaha before rejoining the roster?