The Kansas City Royals are highly anticipated going into the 2025 season and they are expected to be pretty good this season. They are also going to be a very competitive team this season hopefully making a playoff push and winning the AL Central.
The Royals opening day was Thursday, March 27th. They played in Kauffman Stadium at 3:10 p.m. They played against the Cleveland Guardians and lost 7-4.
The Royals are led by 34 year old All Star Catcher Salvador Perez and 24 year old All Star ShortStop Bobby Witt Jr. Witt finished in second in 2024 MVP voting and led the MLB with a batting average of .332 with 211 hits. Witt recorded a second straight season with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases. Perez is in his 14th season with the Royals. He hit .271 with 27 home runs and 104 RBIs last season. He was also named the 2024 Roberto Clemente Award winner.
Other stars to look out for this season All-Star pitchers Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans who finished second and fourth in 2024 AL Cy Young Award voting.
“The first game of the season always feels like the World Series” Royals catcher Salvador Perez said.
A new face in Kansas City is star leadoff hitter Jonathan India. India will play third base, second base and some left field this season. He hit .248 with a .357 on-base percentage last season. Hopefully he can be the stepping stone the Royals need to go farther in the postseason than last season.
One player that could surprise this season is Left Fielder MJ Melendez. MJ needs to perform better this season the Royals want to see better offensive production instead of inconsistent play. This offseason Melendez made significant changes to his swing. It’s now a simpler approach with quieter mechanics. Melendez must be the hitter the Royals have envisioned. If he can, the Royals will have the offensive bat they’ve coveted for nearly three seasons.
Jonathan India, Bobby Witt Jr, Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez make the Royals batting order very top heavy which means they can take the Royals pretty far. But behind them in the batting order leaves lots of questions for this season. This puts a lot of pressure on MJ Melendez and Hunter Renfroe to improve as players from a year ago and provide a power threat at the fifth and six spots of the batting line up. So when the stars struggle from time to time they need to be able to step up and make some plays to put them in winning positions.
In the first 10 games of the 2025 season MJ Melendez and his new swing has struggled to make contact with the ball and Hunter Renfroe has also struggled to make contact and has had some defensive struggles so far. They both would need to make an impact so the Royals could make a playoff push in october.
The Royals are 2 time World Series Champions, the first one in 1985 and the second in 2015. Let’s hope they can make the playoff push they need and hope for another World Series win this season.
