The Royals salvaged the final game of their weekend series against the Guardians. On Sunday, Kansas City won 4-2 thanks to Salvador Perez‘s second home run of the year.
The Royals are back at .500 with an 8-8 record entering Monday’s game against the Yankees, with whom they begin a three-game set. It will arguably be the most brutal stretch of the season thus far, as Kansas City is not only playing in the Bronx Monday through Wednesday, but also has a four-game set at Comerica Park in Detroit looming after.
Jared Perkins and I discuss the Yankees and Tigers series and recap the Royals’ performance against the Twins (which was good) and the Guardians (which wasn’t) in our latest episode of the Crown Talk podcast, which can be found in the embedded video below.
In addition to our third episode of the podcast, I highlight the Royals’ “Three-Star” award winners from the most recent Cleveland series in this post (shortly before first pitch of the Yankees game).
1st Star: Cole Ragans (7.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K)
Ragans had another gem on Sunday, as he mowed down a Guardians team that only struck out against him twice on Opening Day.
In 7.2 IP and 89 pitches, he allowed only one run on four hits. He didn’t walk a single batter and struck out ten, his third-straight double-digit strikeout outing of the year. That string of performances is historic. Kevin Appier in 1996 is the only other Royals pitcher in franchise history to record three straight games of 10 strikeouts or more in a single season.
Once again, Ragans’ TJ Stats summary card from his outing was immaculate, demonstrating that if this trend continues, he should be seen as a serious candidate for the AL Cy Young.
Ragans generated 20 total whiffs on Sunday, suitable for an overall whiff rate of 40%. He also produced a 53.9% zone rate, a 39% chase rate, and allowed a 0.330 xwOBA on contact, all stellar marks. Furthermore, his arsenal sported a 105 TJStuff+ and all four of his pitches had grades over 55 (including three pitches above 60).
For the season, the Royals ace has a 2.28 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, and 1.74 xERA in four starts and 23.2 IP. Yes, this Royals rotation is as good as ever in 2025 (their rotation ranks 3rd in ERA and 7th in WHIP). However, Ragans is proving in April that he’s still quite a bit above the other four starters in the rotation (as well as above other starters in the American League, including the reigning AL Cy Young award winner, Tarik Skubal).
Vinnie Pasquantino (4 H, 1 HR, 3 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K)
Hitting has been a sore spot for the Royals so far this season and Vinnie has been one struggling out of the gate. Thankfully, the Royals first baseman snapped out of his funk a bit, collecting four hits in the three-game span, including his second home run of the year against Luis Ortiz on Saturday.
In addition to a home run, Vinnie also scored three runs, collected a RBI, walked twice and only struck out twice. After being a bit more free-swinging at the start of the year, Pasquantino looked a lot more patient and settled at the plate, which has been more characteristic of him over his career.
For his career, the 27-year-old has an 8.9% walk rate and 12.3% K rate. This season, his walk rate is 8.1% and K rate is 12.9%. Though that’s higher than his career norms, it’s better than what he did a season ago, especially in the walk rate category (which was 7.2%, a 2.4% drop from 2023 and 4.5% drop from 2022).
When looking at his rolling walk rate since his rookie year, it looks like Vinnie is starting to see things bounce back after it plummeted a bit in the second half of 2024.
A patient and disciplined Vinnie at the plate is a productive one, which is what the Royals need right now at the No. 3 spot in the lineup.
Maikel Garcia (3 H, 1 2B, 3 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K)
Garcia only started two games in this series (he sat out on Friday), but that didn’t stop him from having a tremendous stretch at the plate in Cleveland. The Royals utility player collected three hits, all coming on Sunday at the leadoff spot in the batting order (Jonathan India was out due to a mild quad injury).
Safe to say, Garcia set the tone early and often for the Royals offense against Ben Lively and the Guardians bullpen.
The 25-year-old Venezuelan has produced stellar results this season, as demonstrated by his .300 average and .821 OPS in 53 plate appearances. He’s also barreling the ball more than ever (7.3% barrel rate) and hitting the ball with authority, as evidenced by a 58.5% hard-hit rate and 95 MPH average exit velocity on batted balls.
Garcia has not only hit the ball harder, but more often in different areas of the strike zone. In the image comparison below, notice how much harder Garcia has hit the ball overall this year compared to a season ago (via Savant zone chart data).
It’s still early in the year, so some regression in this chart is to be expected. However, it’s nice to see Garcia hit the ball harder in zone 1 (100% hard-hit rate this year compared to 33% hard-hit rate last year), in zone 6 (75% to 41%) and zone 9 (83% to 30%). That shows that Garcia’s developed his swing to connect quicker and more productively on pitches in areas he was weak against in 2024.
That is not only a good sign for the remainder of 2025 but beyond.
Graphic Credit: Kevin O’Brien and Jared Perkins/Crown Talk Podcast