Plus KCMO tries to figure out what to do with the Truman Sports Complex.
Anne Rogers writes about what to look for with the Royals in 2026.
It seems like every season, Royals catcher Salvador Perez is marking another milestone in what should be an eventual Hall of Fame career. In 2025, Perez hit his 300th career home run and 1,000th career RBI before ending his 14th Major League season with 303 home runs and 1,016 RBIs.
Next up: George Brett.
Brett hit 317 home runs across his 21-year career, the most long balls in club history. Perez is just 14 away from matching that mark. It’s extremely likely that Perez ties and overtakes the record in ’26; the last season in which Perez hit fewer than 14 home runs was the pandemic-shortened 2020 season when he hit 11. Since then, it’s been five consecutive seasons of 20-plus homers, including tying the franchise record for most in a single-season (48) in ’21 and 30 last season.
David Lesky reacts to Kris Bubic and Vinnie Pasquantino filing for arbitration.
Bubic filed at $6.15 million while the Royals countered at $5.15 million, which is less than I expected by a lot. I guess the injury clouded things more than I thought would. Pasquantino filed at $4.5 million while the Royals countered with $4 million. I think these two being the two they didn’t get a deal done with is interesting because Bubic is probably the most likely trade candidate of the bunch while Pasquantino is probably the most likely extension candidate of the bunch. Is it simply a situation where they didn’t have a sense of urgency because they think Bubic is being traded before a trial and they’re working toward something long-term with Pasquantino anyway?
I don’t know if that’s the case, but it does make some sense to me. To Pasquantino’s credit, he understands the rationale behind not getting an extension. It was a couple of weeks ago that he responded to someone on Twitter saying that corner players putting up 1.5 WAR seasons don’t get extensions. And he’s not necessarily wrong, but there are intangibles there that I think are really improtant and ultimately what swayed me when I wrote about an extension for him a few weeks ago. So we’ll see how that plays out over the next few weeks heading into spring training.
Royals pitcher Matt Strahm addresses some of his tensions with the Phillies that may have got him traded.
“The Kansas City Royals do an unbelievable job of not only producing major league athletes, but they produce men,” Strahm said. “Like that is something that I was brought up with Kansas City and (former Royals GM) Dayton Moore, his whole thing was, ‘We’re going to have good ball players, but we’re going to first make sure that you guys are good men.’ Kansas City, in my opinion, they do it the right way. 10:30 ground balls mean Rusty Kuntz was hitting that fungo at 10:30. It wasn’t 10:35 because we were waiting on (Eric) Hosmer. Hosmer was there five minutes early. I’m a very routine (oriented) human being. I love structure and structure doesn’t work unless there is discipline or someone enforcing the structure.”
The city of Kansas City allocates funds to study downtown entertainment and recreation projects and the future of the Truman Sports Complex.
Free agent outfielder Max Kepler is suspended 80 games for PEDs.
The Dodgers sign infielder Andy Ibáñez to a big league contract.
The Diamondbacks will not trade second baseman Ketel Marte.
That seems to take them out of the running for Alex Bregman.
The Phillies are in a standoff with free agent catcher J.T. Realmuto.
Where could free agent Luis Arraez end up?
David Schoenfield at ESPN lists the best fits for remaining free agents, with the Royals listed for Harrison Bader.
Which free agent pitcher would you rather have – Framber Valdez or Ranger Suarez?
In a recent poll, soccer has overtaken baseball as the third-most popular sport in America.
A Missouri lawmaker wants to make the UFL’s St. Louis Battlehawks, not the Chiefs, the official football team of the state.
Brooks Koepka seeks reinstatement to the PGA.
Amazon will open its first big box retail store in a Chicago suburb.
Black Mirror is returning for an eighth season.
Remember the time Oregon blew up a whale with dynamite?
Your song of the day is Warren Zevon with Carmelita.
Category: General Sports
