Royals' 2025-26 offseason mistakes are now impossible to ignore

Coming off an 82-win season in in 2025, one in which they missed the playoffs by five games, the Kansas City Royals should have been aggressive during the offseason. Kansas City had ended their eight-year playoff drought the season prior, but couldn't build on it. The 2025-26 offseason should have been a big push to make it back to October.

Instead, Royals GM J.J. Picollo made moves for role players and added around the margins. It resulted in the team tumbling down the standings to the basement of the AL Central. What did Picollo do last offseason that went so wrong?

Reviewing the Royal disastrous 2025-26 offseason

On the free agent market, Picollo attacked the outfield. He signed Lane Thomas and Starling Marte to one-year deals. He also added reliever Alex Lange on a one-year deal. Thomas was the "big splash" of their offseason, receiving a $5 million salary, but ultimately, Picollo only spent $7.15 million on the open market.

The Royals were active on the trade market. The headline deal was for Matt Strahm, who'd been one of the better relief pitchers in baseball from 2023-2025. KC also went out and acquired outfielder Issac Collins, who finished fourth in the NL Rookie of the Year voting, and also added reliever Nick Mears from the Milwaukee Brewers. In return, the Royals traded away one of their better relievers, Angel Zerpa.

Kansas City made three other trades during the offseason, getting relievers Mitch Spence and Mason Black in separate deals, and outfielder Kameron Misner. A theme is starting to rise; the Royals went heavy on outfielders and bullpen arms.

Picollo's best moves were internal. He was able to sign Maikel Garcia to a five-year extension at great value. He inked Vinnie Pasquantino to a two-year deal, buying out his first two arbitration years. And he also re-signed Salvador Perez to a two-year contract.

The free agent additions Picollo made weren't very productive. Thomas struggled defensively and was traded away at the deadline. Marte played just 59 games before being DFA'd and released. Collins couldn't replicate his rookie season, hitting just .213 in 145 games with a .641 OPS. Misner played 18 games with Kansas City before being DFA'd and traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for cash.

The bullpen additions were worth a combined -3.1 fWAR this season. Strahm completely fell off a cliff. He had a 7.32 ERA with a 7.11 FIP in 41 appearances before being optioned to the minors. Lange had a 6.75 ERA across 60 innings. Black posted a 4.31 ERA with a 6.48 FIP in 30 innings. Mears made 20 appearances and had a 5.12 ERA. Spence pitched three times and had a 21.21 ERA.

Picollo went bargain hunting. Thomas was coming off a year where he had hit the IL three different times, but at least the Royals were able to flip him for prospects at the deadline. Marte had been on the decline for years and was also 37 years old when they signed him. Picollo can't afford to make those types of mistakes again.

One area Picollo failed to address last winter was the rotation, and that can't happen again this offseason. While the Royals had a lot of arms under contract and team control, they also were relying on oft-injured players to stay healthy, which they didn't. Picollo didn't add major league-ready depth, and that ended up hurting the team.

The biggest takeaway from last offseason was that the Royals tried to bargain hunt instead of using real capital (money or prospects) to upgrade the team. They need to go into this offseason and spend money on proven free agents, not players looking to bounce back. If they are going the trade route, do it for players with a track record, not players from the bargain bin.

Injuries hurt the 2026 Royals. A few key players were not healthy for chunks of the season, but that's sports sometimes. If Picollo had used last offseason to get proven players, then those injuries may not have hurt as bad. Because he didn't, the moves he made not panning out hurt the team a lot more than they could have.

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