When Royals general manager J.J. Picollo thinks of how he wants his offense constructed, it’s not a deviation from past Kansas City rosters. It’s a gritty team that might not beat opponents with its power all the time, but rather with the pressure it puts on opposing pitchers and defenses.
Good baserunning is essential to how the Royals’ organization operates. It has been for a long time.
So why were they so bad at it in 2025?
“We gave up a lot of outs on the bases this year,” Picollo said in September. “We need to clean that up.”
The Royals made 39 outs on the bases in 2025, which was below league average (45) and tied with the A’s and Astros for sixth fewest in MLB this year. Kansas City was picked off at a base 21 times this year — most in the Majors.
The Royals’ 110 stolen bases ranked 17th, but their 72% stolen base percentage was the second worst in the league, ahead of only the Rockies (69%). For comparison, the Royals’ 81% stolen base percentage in 2024 was 10th best in the league.
Baseball Savant’s baserunning metrics dive deeper. In every category, the Royals regressed. In 2024, they had a baserunning run value — a combination of stolen bases and extra bases taken into one overall value number — of +9. That was tied with the Dodgers for fifth best in MLB.
In 2025, that number was -4. That was tied with five other teams for fourth worst.
“As a team, we’ve got to have the confidence to run,” said Bobby Witt Jr., who swiped seven more bags than last year with a team-leading 38. “We’ve got to get back to Royals baseball. We’ve got to be the gritty team. We’re not going to hit a lot of home runs. But we do have to go out there and play fundamental baseball. Get the extra 90 when they give it to you. Go out there and be fearless. At times, I think we were a little fearful instead of being fearless.”
There’s so much that goes into baserunning that it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong. Witt stole more bases this year, but he still felt like he could have had more and pointed to several reasons why he didn’t, including that his on-base percentage dipped (.389 last year to .351 this year) and that he was limited by injuries at times.
Maikel Garcia, the Royals’ second-best baserunning threat behind Witt, only stole 23 bases this year compared to 37 last year. The third baseman had such a standout year offensively, but he’ll be focusing on his baserunning this offseason.
“That’s part of my game,” Garcia said. “I want it to be and the team needs it to be. … We can win the game with one run. As a group, we need more confidence. We can’t be afraid to be aggressive.”
Tyler Tolbert stole 21 bases total this year and 16 as a pinch-runner, which led the Majors. He made some rookie mistakes early but improved as the year progressed.
But no other Royal had more than seven stolen bases this season.
Manager Matt Quatraro took responsibility for a lot of it, especially when to give the green lights to his mid-tier baserunners who can swipe a bag every so often.
“I think there’s emphasis on hitting, clearly, to stay in the moment and understand what those situations are and do a better job of executing when called upon,” Quatraro said. “But also in playing in a more holistic game and understanding how we’re going to put more pressure on guys. Certainly not from a lack of desire this year. It was lack of timing on my part or some [times] when guys froze in the moment. Those are hard to predict when that’s going to happen.”
Quatraro is emphasizing the mental part of all of this. With an offense that struggled as much as it did, the Royals didn’t want to make outs on the bases — and outs are going to happen with an aggressive baserunning team.
But every mistake was magnified when runs were hard to come by, and that thought likely crept into the minds of Royals baserunners this season.
“We’re not going to slug every night,” first-base/baserunning coach Damon Hollins said. “It’s hard as heck to hit in this league. Good baserunning has to be a part of our game. It took a step back this year, for whatever reason. I have to look at myself in the mirror this offseason and go back to being more creative, more communicative, everything that you can do to get it back to where we want to be.
“Our guys are battling their you-know-whats off at the plate to do what they need to do. But we just got to make sure that we understand our identity, and that’s my job.”
