|
 |
 |
I don’t even know where to start.
If you’ve been around DC for a while you know my complete and utter contempt for the Chicago White Sox and their general manager, former Royal Chris Getz. Watching the Sox lose an astounding 324 games over the last three seasons has been, well, fun.
Meanwhile the Royals have had back-to-back winning seasons, winning 22 out of 26 games against Chicago in the process.
Cue the worm turning…
After this week’s sweep of the Royals, the White Sox now have 5 wins in 7 tries against KC in 2026. That’s more victories over the boys in blue than they had in the previous two seasons combined.
AND…they are doing it with a payroll that is more than 50 million dollars less than the Colonel is spending on the roster put together by JJ Picollo.
Note - Don’t even get me started on the Tampa Bay Rays, 28-14 with a payroll even less than Chicago’s. Or Cleveland for crying out loud….in first place in the AL Central with the lowest payroll in baseball, less than half that of the Royals.
AND…they are younger than the Royals with an average age of 27.7 years, compared to 29.4 for Kansas City.
As you read this, the Chicago White Sox are a better organization than your Kansas City Royals. That’s intolerable and unacceptable. There has to be some accountability.
If you cruise X today you will see a lot of “fire Quatraro” sentiment from Royals fans, but there is no way that JJ is going to fire his first managerial hire after giving him a 3-year extension this past January. It’s going to be up to John Sherman to give this team the organizational enema that it needed at the end of the 2022 season.
I said hiring Dayton Moore’s right-hand man was a mistake at the time, and nothing that has happened since then has changed my mind. This how I described Picollo’s hiring at the time in the pages of DC…
This is like if the castaways finally got off the island, and the owner of the SS Minnow fired the Skipper and put Gilligan in charge of the next 3 hour tour
I get it, the Royals have had 2 consecutive winning seasons for the first time in a decade. That’s true, but it’s also true that over those two seasons they went 146-152 against teams that weren’t the White Sox.
And now the Sox have passed us up.
Enough about that for now, we’ll have all summer to debate the ultimate fate that awaits JJ, Q, Zumwalt and the rest of the current KC front office/staff. Let’s take a look at some of the individual performances from the series in Chicago…
THE GOOD
Bobby Witt Jr was 4-11 in the series with 2 HRs and 3 BBs. For the month of May he is hitting .346 with a 1.087 OPS. He’s the best player in the game, and with each frustrating loss he gets one day closer to being able to opt out of his contract with the Royals.
 |
Recently recalled RHP Luinder Avila tossed 3 1/1 innings of scoreless relief in two appearances against the White Sox. I would look for him to get more and more work as Q searches for a reliable bullpen arm other than Daniel Lynch IV.
THE BAD
Even though Salvador Perez had two 2-hit games in the series, he continues to be just ghastly with runners in scoring position. On the season Salvy is hitting .167 with RISP. That, combined with Matt Quatraro’s refusal to move him out of the cleanup spot, has drawn a lot of ire from the fans. We all love the guy, but good lord he has had some atrocious at bats. Saying Salvy isn’t good at plate discipline is like saying Adalberto Mondesi wasn’t good at staying healthy, but look at this strikeout in the first inning yesterday…
 |
Even though Jac Caglianone went 0-6 in the series, it’s probably a little unfair to have him in the '“BAD” section today. Cags did not start the last two games of the series as Matt Quatraro continues to bench him (and Carter Jensen) against left-handed starters.
With yesterday’s loss the Royals are now 2-10 against left-handed starters, maybe its time to just let Cags play. Has he been good against leftys? No he absolutely has not. But you did spend the 6th overall pick on him in 2024, hopefully that wasn’t with the intention of him being in a platoon his whole career.
Speaking of the 2024 draft, the Cardinals took the guy I wanted, INF JJ Wetherholt, at #7 right after Picollo chose Cags. We’ll get a good look at Wetherholt this weekend in St. Louis, he’s sporting a 128 OPS+ so far in 2026.
THE UGLY
All three starting pitchers the Royals used in Chicago were bad. First up was Stephen Kolek who threw 4 2/3 innings while allowing 5 hits and 5 earned runs. Seth Lugo started game 2 and authored a similar line, 5 runs on 8 hits in 5 innings of work. Kris Bubic finished off the series with 4 innings pitched and he yielded 5 earned run on 5 hits.
I’ll do the math for you, that’s 18 hits and 15 earned runs in 13 2/3 innings pitched by KC starters against the Sox. That’s a nice tidy 9.93 ERA. Throw in the 8 walks they gave up and you get a WHIP of 1.91.
Maybe it’s just a blip, but maybe it’s not. If the starting pitching goes south, this team is in a world of hurt.
UP NEXT
The Royals and Cardinals renew the I-70 Series this weekend in St. Louis. I view the Cards only slightly more charitable than I do the White Sox, so a couple wins would be good for my disposition. A sweep would salvage the road trip, but does anyone really see that happening after what took place in Chicago? At least the Cardinals won’t be starting any southpaws, let’s look at the matchups…
Tonight - RHP Michael Wacha (4-2, 2.63) vs RHP Dustin May (3-4, 4.85)
The Royals have only seen May twice, both of them last year. He made one start as a Dodger and one with Boston against KC, and was treated pretty poorly both times. In 7 2/3 innings against the Royals May has been touched up for 12 hits and 7 runs. CF Kyle Isbel (3-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI) has led the way against the veteran right-hander.
This game could be just what the doctor ordered for an ailing Royals club…they have their best starter going against a pitcher that they have really roughed up.
Saturday - LHP Noah Cameron (2-2, 5.55) vs RHP Kyle Leahy (4-3, 4.31)
The Royals haven’t seen a lot of Leahy. He made 3 relief appearances against KC last season, allowing 7 hits but only 1 earned run in 4 2/3 innings. He’s been a reliever all of his career until St. Louis added him to their rotation this season. His P/O isn’t great for a starter at 5.80, so it will be important for the Royals to not allow Leahy to get quick outs.
Sunday - RHP Stephen Kolek (1-0, 6.75) vs RHP Andre Pallante (4-3, 4.46)
Like May, the Royals have been unkind to Pallante racking up 26 hits and 16 earned runs in 25 1/3 innings. He’s allowed 4 HRs in that span, one each to Pasquantino, Witt Jr, Loftin, and Perez. Expect to see OF Starling Marte in the lineup Sunday, he is 5-7 in his career against Pallante.
After the three games on the other side of the state, the Royals come home for a 9 game homestand against Boston, Seattle, and New York. The AL Central is still there for the taking, but we can’t afford to dig the hole any deeper.
I went back and looked at the average runs scored and allowed by the AL Central winner over the last 5 seasons. Since 2021, the team that won the division scored an average of 725 runs and allowed an average of 640.
The 2026 Royals are currently on pace to score 666 (appropriately) and allow 740. That ain’t gonna get it done folks. The team needs to get better in every aspect of the game if they don’t want fans tuning out when the Chiefs open training camp later this summer.
| ||||||||||
