Royals lose Dairon Blanco to playoff contender that could make it hurt

Amidst several roster moves already made to whittle down the roster before Opening Day in roughly two-and-half weeks time, the Royals made somewhat of an unexpected decision.

After making a late offseason splash for veteran All-Star outfielder Starling Marte, the Royals had to make room of the 40-man roster for his arrival, which they opted to designate Dairon Blanco for assignment in order to do so.

Now, based on his 2025 season - where he made just eight plate appearances across nine games to the tune of a 25 wRC+, it shouldn't come as a shock to see someone like this on the chopping block.

However, there was more than meets the eye with a name like Blanco and on Sunday, the Texas Rangers jumped at the chance to discover that, claiming the 32-year-old speedster off waivers from Kansas City.

Rangers claiming Dairon Blanco could be a thorn in the Royals' side in 2026

As touched upon already, while Blanco may not have been able to live up to his peak at the plate in 2023 or his prime baserunning skill displayed in 2024, he still has the makings of a valuable bench piece.

His 109 wRC+ season in 2023, while potentially not replicable, proves there's a capable big league bat in there on his best days, and a .253 AVG and .737 OPS in Triple-A Omaha in 2025 shows that he's still productive at the dish in some capacity in the upper levels today.

Then there's the speed, that trademark speed. The same speed that saw him swipe 24 bags in the majors in 2023 and rack up a career-high 31 steals in 2024.

Even in nine games with Kansas City in 2025, he still stole three bases and in his time in Triple-A, swiped 32 bags.

This speed also didn't come overnight, as he stole 40+ bases in the upper minors each season between 2021 and 2023.

Now, there's obviously some work to be done with the bat to make him a completely reliable bench bat, but a 109 wRC+ and 96 wRC+ in his last healthy big league seasons aren't too shabby for a bench piece whatsoever.

And for a team with contending ambitions like both the Royals and Blanco's new team in the Rangers, late-inning baserunning specialists are important, especially down the stretch and in the postseason.

The American League is as tightly contested as ever and just like last season, the Royals and the Rangers could in fact be in the thick of playoff race once again, where every little advantage, like a late-inning speedster, could be the difference.