Royals owner John Sherman spoke to Anne Rogers of MLB.com and addressed various topics related to the club. He voiced his support for general manager J.J. Picollo and manager Matt Quatraro. He expressed optimism about the way things have been trending for the club, while simultaneously noting that they need to do more. He also said he would love for Salvador Perez to continue on with the club, something that already seems inevitable.
Perhaps most notably for fans, he said the payroll is “in a good spot.” Rogers notes that Picollo said last week that he and Sherman hadn’t discussed a firm payroll number but he added that what the club has now is “plenty” and it is the responsibility of the front office “to make that work.”
Those comments seem to suggest that the 2026 payroll will likely stay in a similar range to 2025. According to RosterResource, the Royals spent $138MM on their players this year and have $127MM committed to next year’s club, which doesn’t appear to include Perez’s $13.5MM club option. There’s a $2MM buyout on that option, so picking it up would add $11.5MM to the club’s ledger.
That would put the Royals fairly close to this year’s payroll before even doing anything, but not all of their arbitration-eligible players will be tendered contracts. In MLBTR’s recent Offseason Outlook for the Royals, Jonathan India, Kyle Wright, Bailey Falter, Sam Long, Michael Massey, MJ Melendez and James McArthur are listed as non-tender candidates. That would be a projected $18.9MM saved if all were let go, though the Royals may not part with every name on that list. A trade or two could also open up some more breathing room.
Time will tell exactly how things shake out but it doesn’t appear there will be a massive amount of powder dry for the front office. Going into 2026, adding offense is the goal, an annual concern in Kansas City. The pitching staff had a collective 3.73 earned run average this year, good for sixth among MLB teams. But the bats had a collective .247/.309/.397 batting line. The resultant wRC+ of 93 was better than just eight big league clubs.
Second base could be a target area if the club does decide to move on from India and/or Massey, but as is customary for the Royals, the outfield will be a focus. The club bolstered their group on the grass with midseason trades for Mike Yastrzemski, Randal Grichuk and Adam Frazier but all three are impending free agents. That will leave them with a lackluster group consisting of Jac Caglianone, Kyle Isbel, John Rave, Drew Waters and a few others.
The free agent market is headlined by Kyle Tucker, but no one will be expecting the Royals to be in the running there. Guys like Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham are likely a bit outside their price range as well. Going after someone like Harrison Bader, Cedric Mullins or bringing back Yastrzemski should be more.
The trade market could also have some possibilities. The Cardinals appear to be entering a rebuild period and could make players such as Lars Nootbaar or Alec Burleson available. The Twins also might be taking a step back, so Trevor Larnach or Matt Wallner might be out there. Further possibilities will surely emerge in the coming weeks and months.
The details will become more clear as the offseason rolls along but the Royals will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing 82-80 season. “We’re looking forward to the future, and I feel pretty good about it,” Sherman said. “It’s hard to look at this season by itself. When you think about what we’ve accomplished the last couple of years, I feel really good about the fact that the franchise has been turned around. We’re going in the right direction. We should be proud of that. But we’re also very unsatisfied.”
Photo courtesy of Denny Medley, Imagn Images
JoeBrady and Seamaholic 2 probably thinks John Sherman is worse than John Fisher, Arte Moreno, Bob Nutting, the Pohlads and Dick Monfort.
To be fair Sherman does deserve to be said with those names
John Sherman looks like Steve Cohen in comparison to those owners you mentioned.
I happen to think that KC is very well run. I have no idea how you would stumble into that opinion.
Austin Hays seems like an obvious Royal.
How are they going to afford him? He’s going to get 8-10 M$ per and probably at least 2 years.
Non tender India. There’s the money.
The Royals have a pretty solid rotation without Michael Wacha. I’d honestly move him to clear the cash if that can help them reinvest in some offense because they really need 3 bats.
Might as well re-sign Yaz, who is a better version of Hays. In fact, the two of them platooning could make a heck of a good LF’er. Too bad the two of them together would cost close to 20M$.
Dropping India with their current payroll puts them about $18MM under this years payroll. I think they could find the extra $2MM. We don’t know that Sherman said he won’t spend an extra penny from this article.
I think it’s plausible they’re just saying the payroll will be within the same range. I’m sure there’s some flexibility there.
Jac Caglianone looks like he needs another 1/2-1 in triple A. Picking up Lars and/or Burleson would be great additions if they are looking to make a run next year. Still pretty surprised at MJ’s huge fall off
St Louis won’t just be giving them away. What does KC have to offer? (Please don’t mention the non tenders)
KC could do a PKG of young prospect arms. Thinking Shields and Beam for example
Shields is absolutely off limits unless it’s a monster haul. Dude is gonna jump and be their number one prospect when lists are updated. Or two behind Jensen.
Every team in baseball has enough prospect capital for Burleson or Nootbaar
Jac Caglianone looks like he needs another 1/2-1 in triple A.
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IMO, Cags is ready. He had an 18/10 K/W in September with 2 HRs in 60 ABs. That’s enough to start. The number of rookie hitters that hit the ground running is pretty low.
“Payroll in a good spot” is a way of saying ‘we have found a way to continuallly make the team competative through good player development. That way we are able to compete in the expanded wildcard era with low payrolls while me and my partners make enormous profits”
KC is 1/8th the market size of the NYY. Enormous profit is not even an option.
It isn’t? Who says you have to have a market the size of NYY to make an enormous profit? It’s 30 monopolies, they can all make an enormous profit.
And they do. That’s why the teams get sold for all those billions of dollars.
Your defn of enormous must be different than mine. A small market team with a mid market payroll doesn’t seem like a good equation for enormous profit.
At least this owner is trying to give his front office a shot at competing. Look at Bob Nutting from the Pirates, that guy wants to the entire cake for himself.
Yeah I’d be happy if the Pirates operated like the Royals. They get some free agents sometimes, keep their homegrown talent around, and make some trades to get better. Prospect pipeline isn’t glorious but that doesn’t mean everything.
Much different situation , Pirates are in western part of state where largest city is in the east and has a team that always out spends them. Oh wait this is the same situation!
Don’t think the Cardinals will trade Burleson unless there’s an overpay…
Good to hear. Royals seem like a well run team. Maybe I should be a Royals fan?
I believe they are. They don’t give into the spend,spend,spend crowd.
On the other hand, they make smart additions to keep competitive, the only way a small market can operate. The Brewers are good at that too.
Nobody expected the Royals to be players for Santander last off-season, but they were. Isbel (1.4 WAR) was the only KC outfielder with more than 1 WAR last season, and even if one expects more from Caglianone, the impact of a big name outfielder would be huge. With Ragans, Lugo, Bubic and Wacha, the Royals have a solid rotation to build around (presumably they buy out Lorenzen’s $12.5M option). In Erceg and Estevez (who led the majors in saves) they have the core of a bullpen. In Witt, Garcia and Pasquantino (combined 15.3 WAR), they are a second baseman short of a terrific infield. Their salary situation is fine, particularly if Perez is willing to play for his $13.5 million option, which is an $8 million pay cut. I would hope they will be real competitors for Tucker, particularly since the Dodgers (Teoscar), Yankees (Judge) and Mets (Soto) do not seem likely to extend themselves to fill right field.
Tucker? As in Kyle Tucker? Good luck!
His yearly salary would take up around 25 percent or so of their little payroll.
Pursue a Bubic/Falter trade for Adolis Garcia. Salary relatively even. Royals buy low on a power hitting OF who excels in postseason.
Excelling in the postseason is not really a bankable skill. It’s more happenstance than anything.
Bubic is a potential ace when healthy and Garcia has already hit his ceiling 2 years ago with lots of regression since. They’d be adding to their problem
Garcia is a non tender candidate. Just wait and sign him.
Should be more what?
They need to find 5 or 6 wins to make playoffs. Since their OF give them next to nothing it would be much cheaper to add two 3 WAR guys than one 6 WAR guy. It also reduces the injury risk.
Wouldn’t 2 players have double the injury risk of 1?
So you assume both will be injured? You go Jethro
Boy are you bad at math.
They should find it with their existing squad. Cags should be better, but the real improvement should be their rotation. Ragans (if healthy), Bubic, Cameron, Wacha, Lugo, Begert, & Kolek should be an excellent 1-7.