Players are beginning to report to Spring Training, and while there is still time for big moves – as I write this, the Red Sox just traded away a top pitching prospect for a shiny new starting third-bagger – the look of teams is really beginning to shake out in a way that lets us begin to do silly things like rank who is the best at each position around the sport.
For this exercise, I counted all of the guys I felt were clearly ahead of a given Royal and then ranked the Royal in that spot. This means that, in most cases, there are multiple guys you could make a case to bump ahead of the Royal, but it would be a discussion. For example, Salvador Perez and Adley Rutschman feel pretty similar – in terms of ranking, not skillset – heading into 2026, so you could reasonably bump Rutschman ahead of Salvy, and I wouldn’t quibble too much. But you have to set the bar somewhere, and this is a blog about the Royals, and I wanted to be generous because Spring is the time for hope and excitement. Still, if you want to be pessimistic, you can bump any of these guys (minus one) down as many as five spots and you’d probably still be in the right range.
Catcher – 12
For the purpose of this exercise, I’m going to rank Salvador Perez as a catcher and Carter Jensen as a designated hitter. If I were ranking Carter here, he’d be a lot higher. But I didn’t, so he isn’t. Salvy has been a mainstay for the Royals for more than a decade, so it might seem insulting to rank him so low. But the fact that, entering his age-36 season, he still looks like a top-half-of-the-league guy is impressive as all get-out. Cal Raleigh leads the pack here, naturally. However, I also estimate Will Smith, Alejandro Kirk, Hunter Goodman, Drake Baldwin, Shea Langeliers, Kyle Teel, William Contreras, Dillon Dingler, Gabriel Moreno, and Francisco Alvarez above him.
First base – 8
You can put me down for thinking Vinnie Pasquantino has another gear available to him in 2026. The Pasquatch had a 30-homer, 100-RBI season in 2025, and I think with a longer lineup, he will rediscover the plate discipline that defined him as a prospect in 2022. His ability to tailor his approach to the situation has been a boon to the Royals at times the past two seasons, but has hurt his overall production as he’s tried to carry more than his fair share of the RBI load. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. comes up tops for me. The additional players I have ahead of Vinnie are Bryce Harper, Pete Alonso, Freddie Freeman, Nick Kurtz, Michael Busch, and Jonathan Aranda. There are a lot of guys around him that could push him lower if you wanted: Matt Olson, Josh Naylor, Ryan O’Hearn, Willson Contreras, Ben Rice, and Spencer Torkelson. But I’d take him over any of them.
Second base – 29
If I rank primary second basemen with at least 200 PAs by fWAR in 2025, India comes in at 49. Behind Adam Frazier, ahead of Michael Massey. The unsigned Luis Rengifo – someone the Royals should seriously consider for a utility role, if they aren’t – is ahead of him. But the Rangers don’t appear to have a real primary second baseman after trading away Marcus Semien. FanGraphs has the Angels positionally behind the Royals here, too, but I believe in Christian Moore more than they do, I guess.
To be clear, there’s a lot of room for advancement here. If India can bounce back at all, or if Michael Massey can supplant him and come back, the Royals could jump up this list in a hurry. I’m just not sure I see it.
Third base – 5
Now that’s more like it. I almost took Maikel Garcia all the way up to fourth, but I think Matt Chapman has one more really good year in him. Jose Ramírez is a future Hall of Famer and leads the way here. Junior Caminero and Bo Bichette are also ahead of Maikel, but I think if he can find another step, he could pass Bichette as well as Chapman pretty easily. The easiest path for finding that step is probably to run the bases as well as he did in 2024 while hitting like he did in 2025. That would get him up next to Caminero; I just don’t see any way he can reach J-Ram’s heights in 2026, though, unless the Guardian starts falling like a meteor.
Shortstop – 1
It’s Bobby Witt Jr. He has a bad season, and that lands him fourth in MVP voting. What are we even doing here? There are lots of good shortstops in baseball. Francisco Lindor, Gunnar Henderson, Geraldo Perdomo, Trea Turner, and Corey Seager all immediately spring to mind. But as far ahead as Ramírez is over Maikel, Bobby is that far ahead of everyone else at his position. ZiPS projects him for the fourth-most WAR in baseball. It would be silly to pretend he’s anything but one of the top 10 best players in the sport at any position.
Left field – 13
I think people might be sleeping a little on Isaac Collins. I get that he’s not a big-name guy, but he finished fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting last year. I’m not sure who the clear-cut best left fielder in 2026 is. Steven Kwan gets the best projection on FanGraphs, but I have him down in the mud with Collins thanks to a lackluster 2025. If you threatened my life, I’d probably offer up Roman Anthony. Riley Greene and Wyatt Langford both feel like pretty good picks, too, though. The others I have definitively ahead of Collins are Ian Happ, Cody Bellinger, Jackson Chourio, Tyler Soderstrom, Kyle Stowers, Randy Arozerena, and Heliot Ramos. Ramón Laureano, Taylor Ward, Lars Nootbar, and Mike Yastrzemski round out the group of guys similar to Collins in my mind.
Center field – 12
Twelfth seems way too high for Kyle Isbel, but well, let’s go through them all, I guess. First, the 11 clearly ahead of him: Julio Rodríguez is the best, followed by Pete Crow-Armstrong, Jackson Merril, Byron Buxton, Trent Grisham, Michael Harris II, Cedanne Rafaela, Evan Carter, Daulton Varsho, Parker Meadows, and Jo Adell. Here are the rest of the projected starting centerfielders: Andy Pages, Oneil Cruz, Colton Cowser, Jake Meyers, Harrison Bader, Jakob Marsee, Luis Robert Jr., Garrett Mitchell, Justin Crawford, Denzel Clarke, Brenton Doyle, Chase DeLauter*, Jacob Young, TJ Friedl, Victor Scott II, Cedric Mullins, Luisangel Acuña, Alek Thomas.
*DeLauter is a top prospect, and maybe he should be a for-sure ahead of Isbel but….
And yeah, sure, when I look at that group, I’d assume that some number of them will be more valuable than Isbel. Let’s say at least six of those guys are going to be better than Isbel. But if I compare them individually, I have a hard time saying, “Yes, this guy specifically will be more valuable than Isbel.”
If I had to guess which ones would climb out of the much, I guess I’d pick Pages, DeLauter, Bader, Robert, Cruz, and Cowser. But I’m betting any money on any of them to do it, that’s for sure. Still, if you wanted to say Isbel was more like eighteenth, I’d probably agree. I’m just not super sure about exactly who pushes him that low.
Right field – 12
Jac Caglianone is getting a huge lift here from both his prospect status and his projections; it’s certainly not from what he did in 2025. Though I’ll continue to insist that if he’d played a full season and hit 21 homers (which is what he would have had if you multiply his playing time and homers by three to get to full-season stats), even with those terrible rate stats, we’d be a lot less scared about his potential. Aaron Judge is naturally the top dog here. Also clearly ahead of Jac are Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr., Ronald Acuña Jr., Kyle Tucker, Corbin Carroll, Wilyer Abreu, Seiya Suzuki, Matt Wallner, and Addison Barger.
If Jac actually lives up to his projections, he’s going to pass several of those guys. Maybe even more than half of them.
Designated Hitter – 8
This time last year, I was advocating for Carter Jensen to get traded because I really didn’t believe in his future potential. I was wrong. Now I’m ready to project him as the eighth-best designated hitter in baseball. Though I hope he’s catching more and designated hitting less. I hope I’m right this time.
Shohei Ohtani is, as usual, in a league of his own. Behind him, but ahead of Carter Jensen, I have Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Schwarber, Brent Rooker, Ivan Herrera, Jarren Duran, and Yandy Díaz.
Just because I’m unhappy with how all this worked out, if I flipped Salvy and Jensen, I think Salvy would still rank between 8 and 10 in DH. George Springer and Christian Yelich might pass him. Carter would be ahead of Teel, Baldwin, Dingler, Alvarez, and Contreras at least. That would put him at seventh.
Taking into account the caveats I laid out at the start, this all still makes me feel better about the Royals’ lineup than when I started. Some of them will not end the season as high as they ranked here, but compare it to last year. Catcher might have gone up a few slots, second would have gone up a bunch (and been wrong, but that’s how it goes.) Shortstop, center, and first would have remained roughly the same. But third would have been much lower. Designated hitter and both corner outfield spots would have been near the bottom.
We’ve spent all offseason lamenting that the Royals didn’t make a big move to improve the outfield or second base, but even the middling moves they’ve made should lead to drastic improvements from awful to mediocre. The rotation is very similar to last season but with more depth, and the bullpen should also be improved. Until July 31, there’s always more opportunity to improve the roster. But even until that happens, the Royals should be pretty fun to watch this year.