Surging Royals prospect's early success is more enticing amid KC's offensive struggles

It's no secret that the Kansas City Royals' are struggling at the plate to start the season. Through 16 games this year, the Royals are just 7-9 and sit tied for 27th in baseball in runs per game. And it's been the some unusual suspects who've been the most disappointing, particularly a few key players in the heart of the order.

However, while many major league bats are struggling, there's a lot to be excited about in the minor leagues, including the hot start that Carson Roccaforte is off to in Double-A Northwest Arkansas. In fact, he's been so impressive that his recent efforts he just earned him Texas League Player of the Week honors on Monday.

His 3-homer week while going 8-for-22 has lifted his overall Double-A stat line to .281/.395/.719 with an 18.6% walk rate and 183 wRC+. This comes off the backs of lighting Northwest Arkansas up after his later season call-up in 2025, where he posted an .862 OPS and 141 wRC+ in 45 games.

Simply put he's acclimating to the upper minors admirably in his first 50+ games there.

Could Carson Roccaforte be a Royals call-up candidate in 2026?

As touched upon already, the Royals' offensive struggles are fairly overarching right now, but one place in particular that continues to be a problem area is the outfield. This is nothing new for Royals fans to digest after having one of the worst offensive outfield units a year ago. However, the hope was that they'd take strides to really address this in the offseason.

While they didn't ignore it by any means, the additions of Isaac Collins, Lane Thomas and Starling Marte haven't exactly paid off to this point with all three being below average hitters to start the season. What makes matters worse is that Jac Caglianone appears to carrying some if his 2025 rookie struggles into his sophomore year as well, leaving the left-handed platoon bat of Kyle Isbel as Kansas City's only above average outfielder at the dish.

Names like International League Player of the Week John Rave, as well as other major league capable names on the 40-man like Kameron Misner or utility man Nick Loftin, give the Royals logistically easier options to call-up first should they desire some immediate change.

However, it's hard not to dream on what Roccaforte is doing right off the hop in his early tastes of the higher levels of the minors. He's hitting for power, which the Royals desperately need at the big league level as a bottom five team in SLG and bottom 10 team in homers. He's also demonstrating excellent plate discipline, with very high walk rates which, if translated to the major league level, would add to the Royals near-180-degree shift they're experiencing in that department in 2026.

This doesn't appear to be a move that would be made overnight, just like it wasn't for the likes of Caglianone and Carter Jensen a year ago. However, both of those names got their season started in Double-A a year ago and ended up on the Royals' 26-man roster when the season came to a close, so there's certainly precedent for the Royals to quickly buy into a surging prospect.

And it's not as if the Royals sphere hasn't been tuned in to what Roccaforte's been doing for some time now. The Royals' brass seem to believe in his potential by not only pushing him through the system at a strong rate, but also giving him extra competitive looks in both the Arizona Fall League and major league Spring Training this year.

Time will tell if the Royals eventually call-up Roccaforte this season. But in the early stages of the new campaign, not only is he doing all the right things, the outfield environment in the major leagues looks ripe for a change to be made.

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