Under-the-radar players making noise in KC Royals’ spring training

Coming off of an 86-win campaign in 2024, the Kansas City Royals are in another contention window and just put together a busy offseason to help them make the postseason for a second straight year. The club added Jonathan India to the lineup, re-signed Michael Wacha and Michael Lorenzen, and brought in Carlos Estevez to help the back-end of their bullpen.

Entering Saturday's action, the AL Central hopefuls are 9-4-1 at spring training, which is an excellent start. So far, the usual suspects are the ones carrying the team. Cole Ragans leads the way in strikeouts, while Jac Caglianone, MJ Melendez, and Bobby Witt Jr. are the top offensive forces.

With Opening Day rapidly approaching, the vast majority of the club's roster is spoken for, but there are a few lesser-known players that are forcing the front office's hand and making some impending decisions a bit tougher.

Let's look around the roster and check out some of the players who are quietly taking care of business for the Royals. We know about the Witts and the Caglianones of the world, but what about the rest?

3 Royals players who are quietly lighting up spring training

Cavan Biggio

Anytime your father is an MLB Hall of Famer, there are immense expectations placed on your shoulders once your own professional career starts. Cavan Biggio broke into the league in 2019 and put together four solid seasons on the Toronto Blue Jays before the wheels fell off and he fell into quite a regression.

This past year, the utilityman spent time on the Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Atlanta Braves, combining to post a -0.4 bWAR with a .192 average, .621 OPS, and 78 OPS+ through 78 games. That marks his fourth straight year with an OPS+ below 100, which is league-average. Still, the Royals brought him aboard on a minor league contract.

With the presences of Michael Massey, Maikel Garcia, and Nick Loftin on the big league roster, there may not be a ton of room for Biggio to open the regular season. However, that doesn't seem to be bothering him any.

Through six games to this point, the six-year veteran is 3-for-12 (.250) with an OPS of 1.083, which is largely carried by five walks. Biggio's never been a major on-base machine, but he brings a solid eye and sense of pitch-recognition to the field, and his ability to bounce around the diamond only furthers his value. He's not going to be an All-Star at this point, but he's been standing out amongst other non-roster players so far.

Daniel Lynch IV

With the starting rotation of Ragans-Lugo-Wacha-Lorenzen-Bubic seemingly already set, it seems that Daniel Lynch has been pushed out of the picture. The 28-year-old has experience pitching out of the bullpen, too, but FanGraphs' Roster Resource doesn't even have him making the Opening Day 'pen this year.

Similarly to Biggio, Lynch is clearly using that as motivation. Most starting pitchers have fallen flat on their faces to kick off the spring, but this left-hander is sticking out above the rest. Through a pair of starts (and one relief appearance), Lynch has a 1.29 ERA (1 ER, 7 IP) with six strikeouts and no walks.

John Rave

MLB Pipeline's latest farm system rankings have the Royals all the way down in the No. 23 spot, which feels a bit low, but what's even more surprising is that John Rave is completely absent from the club's top-30 list.

The 26-year-old brings a bunch of different tools to the field and has quietly been solid in the minor leagues over the past few years. He's a consistent double-digit homer threat, can steal over 20 bases a year, and has posted an OPS north of .750 in three of the past four seasons.

Still, he has yet to make his big league debut. With all of the outfield uncertainty the 2025 club faces, there's a chance we finally see Rave make it to The Show. Through eight games, he's 7-for-14 (.500) with a triple, 4 RBI, a 1.254 OPS, and three stolen bases in as many attempts.

We're still at a point where any spring training sample sizes are too small to make any real judgements, but Rave's looked solid so far.