Royals Opening Day roster sees utility battle end with 1 obvious decision, 1 surprise

The Kansas City Royals wrapped up their preseason campaign on Tuesday after playing a pair of games against the Texas Rangers in Arlington.

Now, with spring training firmly in the rearview, the focus shifts towards Opening Day and who managed to crack the season's first 26-man roster.

With a few key positional battles still afoot entering Wednesday, the Royals provided answers when they announced their Opening Day roster ahead of Friday's season opener against the Braves.

Arguably the biggest of those positional battles that needed to be resolved was determining who would land the final utility spot on the bench.

As it turns out, as Anne Rogers of MLB.com alluded to earlier this week, that one spot turned out to be two, with Michael Massey landing on the shelf to start the season.

Still though, with several names in the mix and more opportunities to get things right, the Royals managed to make one obvious decision in selecting Nick Loftin, but also one eyebrow-raising choice in rolling with Tyler Tolbert over seemingly more deserving names, such as non-roster invitee Josh Rojas.

Royals appeared to take the easiest logistical route when selecting final Opening Day bench spot recipients

Now, I want to preface right off the top, I understand the logic behind these two decisions from an internal logistics perspective. Both Loftin and Tolbert are already on the 40-man roster and both have recent big league experience under their belt.

And you'll be hard-pressed to hear any qualms about Loftin making the roster after the excellent spring training he put together.

In 50 plate appearances across 18 games, the 27-year-old utility specialist slashed .295/.380/.523 with a pair of homers, 12 RBI, a 12.0% walk rate to just a 16.0% K-rate and a well above-average 139 wRC+.

In the process he moved around the diamond, which manager Matt Quatraro said early on in camp was going to be key for him if he wanted to land on the Opening Day roster like he eventually did.

This move also seemed like a forgone conclusion after Loftin was shown the most love out of any utility options in the Royals final exhibition on Tuesday, coming off the bench for three at-bats.

Tolbert on the other hand, was far less a guarantee.

Obviously, Tolbert's ability to play all around the diamond, including center field, while being a premier speed threat in baseball - he ranked in the 88th percentile in spring speed in 2025 - is likely the big reason as to why he grabbed one of those final two bench spots.

However, after just a 92 wRC+ showing in 57 big league plate appearances in 2025, Tolbert didn't blow anyone away remotely this spring, only mustering a .226/.273/.290 slash line and 52 wRC+.

While his speed and versatility bring value, it's hard to say the Royals have 26 competent hitters that can step into the batters box and produce with him on the roster.

That feeling could've been captured more had they gone with Rojas instead.

While he's more secluded to a utility infield role, Rojas was one of the better Royals hitters in camp this spring.

In 48 plate appearances across 18 games, he belted a pair of homers, drove in eight runs and posted an .842 OPS and 122 wRC+.

Given his prior major league track record, primarily with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2021 and 2022, there was plenty of reason to think that the Royals may've had a diamond in the rough here.

At the end of the day, we're arguing about an occasional role on this roster. This is certainly a good position to be in compared to some of the bleak Opening Day roster announcements the Royals faithful have had to suffer through in the past.

However, when in the contending place that the Royals are in at the moment, every roster spot matters and you cannot afford to sacrifice any margin, no matter how small.

While all of this could be rendered moot once Massey comes of the injured list in the hopefully near future, for the time being it appears the Royals may not have filled their final two bench spots in the most effective manner possible.