Kansas City Royals news: Reflecting on the season

Despite missing the postseason, 2025 was still a successful year for the Royals, writes Vahe Gregorian at the Star ($):

Yes, a barely winning record (82-80) might seem like a hollow token. Except for it’s in the recent wake of averaging 99.6 losses over the previous five full seasons (not including the pandemic-shortened slate) before 2024. And that it’s just the franchise’s sixth winning season this century. And it represents only the second sequence since 1994 (2013-2015 was the other) in which the club has mustered multiple winning seasons in a row. Look, there’s no champagne to pop open for this. And it wouldn’t have any fizz, anyway. It’s just that there’s plenty more reason to think this year will become a link in a chain of stability and upward mobility than that it represents the abrupt end of a reset. At least as long as the Royals indeed shore up the maddening things they can control but too often failed to this season.

Craig Brown at Into the Fountains reviews J.J. Picollo’s end-of-season press conference:

Look, we’ve been over this several times this season…I just cannot get hung up on Alec Zumwalt as an issue. I couldn’t tell you if he’s a good hitting coach, a great hitting coach or the worst hitting coach in the history of hitting coaches. What I do believe is that Picollo and Quatraro don’t have the kind of blind loyalty that was a hallmark of the Dayton Moore Era. The platitudes about passion and desire and all of that may sound familiar, but I truly believe that if Picollo and Quatraro didn’t think Zumwalt could get the maximum out of these hitters, he would not be here. I realize I veer close to being a shill for management, but I think that they deserve a little leeway with how the organization has turned around in what was a very short period of time.

Mike Sweeney tried to convert Pope Leo XIV… into a Royals fan. ($)

The Cleveland Guardians rallied past the Detroit Tigers in the eighth to force a Game 3.

Chase DeLauter made his big league debut for Cleveland in the win.

The San Diego Padres did the same, shutting out the Chicago Cubs to stay alive.

Mason Miller threw the fastest pitch in postseason history in the win.

Following suit, the New York Yankees squeaked past the Boston Red Sox thanks to a late run.

The Cincinnati Reds were unable to complete the quadfecta as the Los Angeles Dodgers handily defeated them to advance to the NLDS.

Brian Snitker is stepping down as Atlanta’s manager.

Bill Schmidt is stepping down as Colorado’s GM.

San Francisco is not considering Bruce Bochy for their managerial vacancy.

Executives weigh in on how they’d try to save those hapless Rockies. ($)

The recent spate of managerial firings shows how tough it is to find a good one.