The Royals concluded Cactus League play on a nine-game winless streak, which oddly sounds like something you’d hear about a soccer squad instead of a baseball team.
But spring games can end in ties, and that explains how the Royals finished with a 0-6-3 record in Arizona. It may seem concerning, but the Royals likely aren’t fretting about it.
To understand the reason for that, consider what happened a year ago.
The Royals had one of the best records in the Cactus League in 2023 at 19-13 and felt like they had momentum heading to the regular season. Even former Royals manager Ned Yost was bullish on the team after what he’d seen in spring training.
Instead, the Royals were swept by the Twins in a season-opening series at Kauffman Stadium. By the end of April, the Royals had a 7-22 record and were already 10 games out of first place in the American League Central.
At Royals Rally before spring training, general manager J.J. Picollo said the team hopes to learn from last year’s poor start. And he noted the Royals face teams that made the 2023 postseason in five of their first eight series to start the season.
“We have a tough schedule in April. I think we play Toronto twice, that’s six or seven games with Toronto, we have Baltimore twice, so we’ve got two of the top teams in the American League East and American League that we play early on,” Picollo said. “We open up with Minnesota. We got the White Sox in there, but it’s a tough April.“
Before arriving in Arizona, Picollo sat down with manager Matt Quatraro and his coaches to discuss what the team could do to be better prepared at the start of the regular season.
One thing out of their control: injuries. Starting pitchers Daniel Lynch IV and Kris Bubic faced them in the early part of last season.
“(In) conversations with the staff, let’s look at what we did last year in spring training that maybe didn’t have us as prepared going into April as we thought we were,” Picollo said. “Last year we played so well in spring training, we thought we’re in a great spot and then we didn’t play well in April. We had some injuries, too, and not making excuses, but we did have some injuries. Lynch not being on the opening day roster. Bubic went down after getting off to a good start. But worth talking about.
“I don’t have specific answers (about) how can we prepare to do the best we can in April, because it is a tough month, and the games in April count as much as they do in September. So we need to get off to a good start.”
Were the Royals successful in making changes to better prepare for the start of the season? We’ll find out Thursday when they open against the Minnesota Twins for a second straight year.
