Royals' Opening Day lineup vs. Braves features bold decision nobody saw coming

The Kansas City Royals are just hours away from finally opening their 2026 regular season.

Royals fans already knew who would be taking the mound for them, as Cole Ragans looks to get his bounce-back campaign started on the right note, but now they also know which nine hitters will form their first lineup of the season.

While some predictable decisions were made such as Maikel Garcia occupying the lead-off spot, Bobby Witt Jr. remaining in his rightful two-whole and Carter Jensen opening his season in the team's DH there was one decision that stood out from the rest.

Lane Thomas is hitting third?!

No that's not a typo, the bounce-back flier signed in the offseason finds himself in the heart of the Royals' first batting order of the year.

Royals' bold choice to hit Lane Thomas third in the Opening Day lineup is definitely shocking

Now, as our Jacob Milham correctly predicted, Thomas does appear to be utilized as the right-handed platoon partner for Kyle Isbel in center field with the lefty Chris Sale taking the mound for the Braves tonight. His inclusion is not the shocking aspect of this lineup.

The fact that they have four Silver Slugger Award finalists from a year ago in this lineup and they opt to place Thomas smack in the middle of them is.

Don't get me wrong, Thomas has made a career off hitting lefties with a career .292/.359/.500 slash line, a sub-20.0% K-rate and a 135 wRC+. However, apart from maybe his 28 HR and .783 OPS season in 2023, his hitting profile doesn't necessarily scream "heart of the order".

However, there could be a method to manager Matt Quatraro's supposed madness here, as Jack Johnson of Locked on Royals pointed out.

"My opinion, Thomas hits third so he gets multiple ABs while Sale is in the game," Johnson wrote on X.

And it's not as if Thomas is coming into the season cold like some of his other fellow Royals outfielders are.

Thomas looked good in spring training this year. In 51 plate appearances across 16 games, he posted an .803 OPS and 105 wRC+ with 12 RBI.

That being said though, whether he warrants it or not, hitting him third is an extremely bold move with the likes of Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez staring them square in the face.

Only time will tell if this is a stroke of genius or an instance where Quatraro got too cute with the lineup card right off the bat.