Kyle Isbel is silencing the doubters in the early stages of the season

It's safe to say that 2024 wasn't the most productive of years for the Kansas City Royals' outfield as a whole. As a unit, they sat tied for 27th in cumulative fWAR at 0.8, tied for 28th in wRC+ at 79, 25th in AVG at .222, 27th in OPS at .648, 26th in home runs at 47, and tied for 28th in RBI at 175.

Among those disappointing performances was Kyle Isbel, whose .229 AVG, .654 OPS and 81 wRC+ didn't do much to help boost the outfield's terrible metrics.

Fast forward to the early stages of 2025 and the Royals still have their fair share of issues in the outfield, but Isbel can confidently say he hasn't been one of them. A strong start to the season at the plate has made him not only a key piece in the bottom half of the order, but one of the best players in the Royals entirely lineup thus far.

Kyle Isbel is silencing the doubters in the early stages of the season

When you have a string seasons as lackluster as Isbel has had the last three years - with a 66 wRC+ in 2022, a 75 wRC+ in 2023 and the aforementioned 81 wRC+ in 2024 - then there's bound to be skepticism of whether a good campaign would ever be in the cards for the 28-year-old.

Take Dan Szymborski's FanGraphs ZiPS projection model for example. It had Kyle Isbel finishing at a 1.6 fWAR thanks in large part to strong defense, which is what propped his fWAR up last season. This ranked behind the likes of more bench or depth type options in the outfield like Dairon Blanco (1.5 fWAR) and Drew Waters (1.6 fWAR).

Overall, not a glowing review for a name that was a consistent starter in the Royals lineup last season, making 294 more plate appearances than Blanco and 407 more plate appearances than Waters.

And then when all was said and done after spring training this year, Isbel didn't do much to restore faith in those who doubted him. He only managed to slash .214/.292/.286 with a putrid 54 wRC+ in 48 plate appearances across 16 games.

However, through the opening 11 contests this season, Isbel looks like a whole new hitter. In 29 plate appearances he's hitting .296 with a .741 OPS and a 106 wRC+.

He's doing the small things that you hope for from a nine-hole hitter. He's primarily putting the ball in play and trusting his plus speed to get on base and create opportunities for the top of the order when the lineup turns over.

And when he can give you a night like the one he had on Monday versus the Twins - where he went above-and-beyond going 3-for-4 with a homer and a pair of RBIs - then that's a welcomed bonus.

Isbel's not the type of household name that will garner national media attention like Bobby Witt Jr. does, but that's not who the Royals need him to be. If he can somewhat continue to keep up with this offensive pace, while still being a plus baserunner and an excellent defender in center he'll definitely pull his weight as a key "glue guy" on this contending roster.