The 2026 Kansas City Royals season has been nothing short of disastrous. I thought they’d be in the running in a wide-open AL Central, but they went on an eight-game losing streak in April and never got close to the .500 mark after that. They’ve been as many as 24 games under .500 and enter Thursday’s action with a 67-85 record, good for last place in the AL Central. They’ve already been eliminated from postseason contention with another week and a half to go in the regular season.
That’s now two disappointing seasons in a row for a Royals team that missed the playoffs in 2025 as well. They have a solid core, led by Bobby Witt Jr., but as the past two seasons have shown, Witt can only do so much. The Royals need a major shake-up, and that starts with letting these players leave after the season.
RHP Carlos Estevez
Carlos Estevez was an All-Star last season and led the American League with 42 saves. He was expected to play a major role in the late innings for Kansas City again, but his velocity was down in spring training, he allowed six runs while recording one out in his season debut, and he hasn’t pitched since. Estevez’s injury is one of many reasons why the Royals never quite got going this season.
The Royals could keep him around and bet on a bounceback by exercising his $11.5 million club option, but that’s a lot of money to commit to a reliever coming off shoulder surgery. If they bring him back, it’d have to be at a cheaper salary, and it’d make sense to move on altogether and pursue more of a sure thing to close out games for them in 2027 and beyond.
INF/OF Jonathan India
The Royals traded for Jonathan India ahead of the 2025 season, hoping he’d be their lead-off hitter in front of Bobby Witt Jr. Instead, India had just a .669 OPS in 2025 and was hitting .167 with a .623 OPS in 17 games this season before undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery in late April. That deal, which sent Brady Singer to Cincinnati, backfired for the Royals.
India is now slated to hit free agency, and while again, it might make some sense to bet on a bounceback from India, who had some good years with the Reds, the Royals could use more of a sure thing in their lineup. The cornerstones are there, with Witt, Carter Jensen, Maikel Garcia and Jac Caglianone, but the bottom of the order needs work. It’s on the Royals to find an upgrade over India.
RHP Craig Kimbrel
Craig Kimbrel has pitched to a respectable 3.65 ERA in 13 appearances with the Royals, and he wasn’t awful with the Rays earlier this season either, but it’s clear he’s nowhere near the dominant closer he once was. His stuff is way down, his command is as shaky as ever, and his production has seen mixed results in recent years as a result.
Bringing Kimbrel back to be the seventh or eighth reliever in the bullpen wouldn’t be the worst thing ever, but the Royals can likely find a better and younger reliever for a similar price. Kimbrel is 38 years old, and his underlying metrics suggest he isn’t getting any better as he ages.
C Luke Maile
Luke Maile played pretty well in limited action in 2025, so it made sense for the Royals to bring him back on a minor league deal as an insurance option in case they needed another catcher on their big-league roster. He’s always been a pretty decent defensive catcher, but he entered the year with a .209 average and a .597 OPS in parts of 10 big-league seasons, and his numbers at the plate have been even worse this season.
Maile has gone 6-for-37, hitting .162 with a .514 OPS in 15 appearances for the Royals this season. He hasn’t been needed much with Carter Jensen and Salvador Perez in the picture, but when he’s been asked to play, he hasn’t done much. Catcher isn’t the biggest need for Kansas City with Jensen and Perez still in the mix, but they can probably do better than Maile in terms of their depth.
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