Kansas City Royals news: 12 Days of Royals baseball

MLB.com’s Anne Rogers has the latest on the Kansas City Royals stadium situation from CEO/chairman John Sherman.

Sherman confirmed again that the Royals are discussing site options in downtown Kansas City (Jackson County), North Kansas City (Clay County) and on the Kansas side of the state line, where the Kansas City Chiefs, whose Arrowhead Stadium is in the same lot as Kauffman Stadium, are set to move for the start of the 2031 NFL season.

Sherman said the Royals would want to have the site control and public financing in place before announcing where their new home would be. He also maintained that they are looking for a public-private partnership, which hasn’t changed since the team first launched its search efforts years ago.

“At the end of the day, the team will put a substantial amount of capital into the stadium and the development around it, but there will be a meaningful portion from – expected to be a meaningful portion – the public as well,” Sherman said.

The Royals want to build a new ballpark and a surrounding ballpark district, not unlike The Battery in Atlanta, where the Royals just opened the ‘26 season. Sherman and several business operations officials were there over the weekend and witnessed what it’s like to have approximately 40,000 people in and around the stadium with retail and restaurants booming with business.

Kansas City Star’s Rashad Alexander experienced their first Opening Day at The K, and had plenty of positive points.

I’m still loyal to my take that Wrigley Field is the best MLB stadium, but I feel like Kauffman can definitely be up there as well. Considering how pretty the ballpark is, its accessibility, and its activities to keep the fans engaged, I can see why people rave about this stadium and why there’s debate on what to do with it. Part of the aura of Kauffman did come from the fans, however, as the sold-out crowd created a great Opening Day energy for the team. We’ll see how well this crowd lasts from now until October. But for a crowd to show out like that for a team that missed the postseason last year, Kauffman Stadium will definitely see me again this summer.

David Lesky talks about Kansas City kicking off their home slate with a win.

To me, the story of the game was how the Royals won it. If you’re new to Inside the Crown this year, and maybe even well before that, oddities were sort of the thing I wanted to focus on. Back when I wrote for Baseball Prospectus, I wrote a weekly article where I’d pick out one thing from one game and expand on it in a way that I would be surprised if anyone else did. So here’s the oddity from this one. The Royals got home runs from Isaac Collins and Kyle Isbel, their eighth and ninth hitters.

They didn’t have a game at all in 2025 when both of those lineup spots homered. They didn’t have a game in 2024 when it happened. The last time it happened was May 4, 2023 when Freddy Fermin and Isbel homered. Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for a list of the 22 times the Royals had both their eight and nine hitters homer. It’s a long looking list because 22 times seems like a lot, but for a team in their 58th season, I’d say it’s a pretty rare list. What makes it even more interesting is it’s the first time that all the runs were accounted for in a game by the home runs from the bottom of the order.

How hot are the Royals in the World Series picture, according to ESPN?

Franchise temperature: 57 degrees. This feels like a good temperature for the Royals, who went into a period of rapid cooling after their contending rosters from the mid-2010s broke up. To the credit of J.J. Picollo and his staff, the Royals have curbed that decline and managed to settle in tepid waters. With a contention-worthy 26-man roster heading into 2026, they hope to wade a little closer to the warm sands of the shoreline ahead.

ESPN says fantasy owners should not give up on Carlos Estevez this season.

Regardless, it isn’t even April yet and Estevez, fifth among relief pitchers in fantasy points last season and a mid-round pick in most leagues, is already down to 51% rostered in ESPN. For shallow ESPN daily leagues, in which there are only seven active pitchers (and where holds figure into the scoring), sure, there may be little reason to wait for Estevez because free agency is littered with so many relief options. However, in standard industry formats, particularly roto/category-based ones in which saves are the key — and especially in AL-only formats — aim to be patient.

Royals Keep has some takeaways from the Royals home opener, including a closer look at starter Kris Bubic.

His whiff rate was excellent at 35.3%, and his chase rate and xwOBACON were above-average at 30.8% and .339, respectively. His zone rate was a little below average at 48%, but that likely was due to his lackluster control on the changeup and slider, which had zone rates of 25% and 20%, respectively. Despite those paltry zone rates, he still did generate a 66.7% whiff rate on the changeup and a 100% whiff rate on the slider.

It wasn’t the prettiest start, but it was the kind of grind-it-out affair that Bubic was known for in 2025, when he made the AL All-Star team. I also wonder if there were some nerves for Bubic, especially with him starting in his first career home opener. He talked about how different it was for him, especially when comparing it to his first career start at Kauffman during the 2020 COVID season when fans weren’t allowed.

What cameras make ABS possible? That and more in a closer look at the new wrinkle in MLB.

Twelve Hawk-Eye technology cameras installed throughout the ballpark track player and ball movement, feeding data into Statcast.

Seven cameras track player movement, while five are dedicated solely to the baseball’s movements. Those ball-tracking cameras capture up to 300 frames per second, allowing the system to precisely locate each pitch within the strike zone and reconstruct its path.

The Royals’ pitching wives were out in force on Monday.

Memo to the Royals: You’re missing a great opportunity if you haven’t signed Doona as a team sponsor. Doona makes trendy, high-end baby strollers and car seats and appears to be the $650 stroller of choice among Royals moms. As players’ wives reunited at The K Monday for the 2026 home opener, they shared photos of the kiddos they brought along for the big day. One picture in particular reflected how young this team is: a gaggle of black baby strollers parked outside the private UMB Diamond Club.

Town Village of Leawood made a lively scene for its residents, hosting an Opening Day even for more than 200 participants. Some fans recount their memories of the Royals’ first home in the city.

Kniepfel remembers her first Royals game when the team still played at Municipal Stadium near East 22nd Street and Brooklyn Avenue.

“It was so much fun, the atmosphere was something else,” Kniepfel said. “Finding a place to park was something else. You had to find a place sometimes in someone’s driveway.”

Years later, Kniepfel would step onto the field at Kauffman Stadium.

“Presidents and all kinds of famous people, and here I, little old me, got to throw the first pitch,” Kniepfel said. “I threw that ball, and it landed straight in the secretary’s glove. We just lived in that excitement for hours, maybe the next day, too. I still think about that.”

The latest episode of SportsBeat KC from the Kansas City Star.

What current and former Royals hail from the Kansas City area? Rogers has the list.

Vinnie Pasquantino needs to keep pulling the ball, namely over right field fences.

Sports Illustrated has the swings and misses from the first four starts of the Royals season.

Just how important is the bullpen for an October run?

The human element becomes entertainment thanks to ABS.

ESPN names the most polarizing teams right now in MLB.

The Seattle Mariners reportedly ink a historic extension with yet-to-debut prospect Colt Emerson.

Lance Brozdowski has his latest profile on four high-profile MLB starters.

Jos Posnanski has his take on ABS so far.

Toronto Blue Jays starter Cody Ponce will be sidelined after a knee ligament sprain.

Shane Baz’s five-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles has majoe escalators for Cy Young wins.