Kansas City: After a 2025 season that saw them missing the playoffs, the Royals were hoping to have a starting five that would carry them. The 29-44 record might indicate that that plan failed. Cole Ragans lasted all of eight games before his left elbow sent him to the Injured List. Chris Bubic followed suit.

But that is not what ails the Royals. Stephen Kolek has stepped in to be the ace in the eight games he has started (2.68 ERA, 1.03 WHIP). The rest of the starters have been solid number-three or fourth starters. Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo (3.58 and 3.86 ERA respectively) have been good. Hopefully, Lugo is out for only a minute while in concussion protocol. Noah Cameron hasn’t been as good as his first 24 games in the league, but he hasn’t been terrible (4.11 ERA, 64 K’s in 70 innings).

They need a fifth starter. Occasional starter Luinder Avila sort of looked like he had things figured out to start the month of June. He gave up only a run in each of his first two starts. But, he also had only a 1.14 strikeout-to-walk ratio. On Friday, he gave up eight earned runs in .2 innings.

Still, it’s not the starters who are responsible for a disappointing start. It’s the bullpen that is the fourth worst in baseball. D Lynch IV has been great. Unfortunately for the Royals, there are a dozen other guys with ERAs north of 5.00. Lucas Erceg has 12 saves, but has blown seven and has an ERA of 5.81.

Offensively, Bobby Witt Jr. has been solid, but is on pace for just 20 home runs. That would be a third-straight year of decreases if that pans out. Jac Caglianone has been almost as good (.274, 8 HRs) and Maikel Garcia (.267) has delivered as expected. He’s not a guy who is going to hit the ball out of the park, though. Second baseman, Michael Massey has twice as many long balls and he hits lefties and righties equally well. Catcher Salvador Perez leads the team in home runs with nine, but he’s batting only .200. His platoon mate, Carter Jensen is hitting just 20 points better.

Forecast: To put it simply, they are middling at best, with three guys doing excellent work. It’s just not enough hitting and not enough relied pitching to do much of anything. This team is supposed to be past rebuilding. If they keep going like they have, they’re looking at 66 wins. I wouldn’t be shocked if they trade Bobby Witt Jr., even with his $289 million contract. If they can package some of the many relievers who are awful, they might be able to land someone useful from one of the teams that has already decided to scuttle this year and move on.