When the Kansas City Royals need a guy who packs a punch at the plate, they can turn their eyes toward first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino. Looking at data and analytics from Pasquantino’s 2025 season should give Royals fans something to feel good about entering this season.

Pasquantino stepped away from spring training to take part in the World Baseball Classic. In four games for Team Italy, Pasquantino was 4-for-22 with three home runs, four RBIs, seven walks, and six runs scored. He was making contact regularly for Team Italy, getting in gear for the Royals’ season.

One thing that he’s improved upon is his Pull AIR percentage. According to Baseball Savant, Pasquantino’s percentage ticked up from 21.9% in 2024 to 25.0% last season. The data indicate that he’s getting more comfortable in pulling the ball during his at-bats.

What about the quality of contact, which measures the effectiveness of a batter’s swing and how he hits the ball? At the plate in the 2025 season, Pasquantino had 1.8% weak contact, 30.5% topped contact, 24.3% under contact, 26.5% flare/burner contact, 7.5% solid contact, and 8.8% barrel contact. 

His run value numbers in 2025 against a four-seam fastball, changeup, slider, sinker, curveball, and cutter were all in the positive areas. Pasquantino’s sweeper run value last season was zero. So, the lone pitch that seemed to cause him trouble in the run value category was a split-finger fastball.

Pasquantino provides a productive bat right in the middle of the Royals’ lineup. Last season for the Royals, he hit 32 home runs and had 113 RBIs.

In 2025, Pasquantino’s rising Pull Air percentage was 25%, meaning he was pulling up 25% of the pitches he saw. He pulled 20% of the pitches he saw on the ground, 14.1% up the middle on the ground, and 4% grounded the opposite way. Pasquantino hit 18.9% of the pitches he saw straight up in the air, and 17..9% the opposite way in the air. 

He might find himself in a challenging at-bat if he’s seeing a steady diet of pitches low in the strike zone. So, that’s something Pasquantino might want to work on this season. Pasquantino has proven to be an effective first baseman for Royals manager Matt Quantraro. In 2025, he finished with a .506 slugging percentage and a .342 on-base percentage.

When Pasquantino was in spring training with the Royals, he put together a .422 OPS and a .160 batting average in 25 at-bats. It might take him some time to settle into the lineup after splitting time between spring training and the WBC. But Kansas City should feel confident that Pasquantino will, once again, be able to anchor the Royals’ offense in the middle of the lineup in 2026.