Once they get to Kansas City, Royals hitters do not walk
It is unbelievable that no matter what almost all Kansas City Royals have a lower walk rate at the pro level.
Nick Loftin made it to the pro level this year by getting on base. He was leading all of the majors and minors for a while and sported a 21.2% walk rate in Omaha this year. The offense at the pro level has struggled mightily, so they brought him up, and to be fair, he has been reasonably productive, but the walks disappeared. Through 15 games at the major league level, he has three walks for a 6.1% walk rate.
Vinnie Pasquantino made his way through the minors by being extremely selective, walking and doing damage with pitches in the zone. During his rookie run at the majors, that approach continued, walking 11.7% of the time in almost 300 plate appearances and posting a 136 wRC+. He looked like the Royals were finally producing a true modern hitting approach. His walk rate has gone down every year since, and this year is just 6.3%.
You might think I am cherry-picking a couple of cases, but it is a much larger phenomenon for this organization. Going all the way back to 1969, if you track all 30 organizations, the Royals are 30th out of 30 in walk rate at 7.7% - the only team under 8%. Over that period, there are 1,588 team seasons and the Royals have four of the ten worst walk rate seasons. One of those seasons comes from this year’s team, so perhaps a goal is to not end up on that list by the end of the year. This organization is allergic to walks, and it makes no sense. How can you have three different owners, seven general managers, and many different hitting coaches without having at least some success in plate discipline? Guess what place they are in this year. Of course, 30th at 6.3% a full half percent behind the Angels.
The inability to be patient at the plate is hurting this team a lot right now. That is not just about walks, though it is the easiest thing to point to. Swinging at a pitch low and away 1-0 is also bad, even if it is in the strike zone. You cannot turn on that pitch and drive it out of the park. The 2025 Royals are hitting .250, that’s 14th in MLB. But their OBP is .302 and ranks 26th, while their slug is 27th at .366. So if you still don’t understand why batting average doesn’t matter it is because a good batting average with all singles equals 29th in the league in runs scored. I’ve already written a couple of times about this team and their lack of home runs killing them.
Jonathan India is leading the team right now with 28 walks at a 10.2% rate. The Royals traded for India so that he would get on base from the leadoff spot, and to some extent, he has done it. His walk rate is more than two percentage points below last year’s rate and slightly below his career rate. That puts India 59th among qualified hitters in walk rate and 83rd if you set the minimum PA to 150. He is only a little above the league average of 8.6%. Of the regulars, Maikel Garcia is the other above-average rate at 8.7%. Two - just two - of the Royals regular hitters take walks at even an average rate and one player in the top 100 of baseball in walk rate. That is insane.
This is not a solvable problem in the short term. I think what this front office has done on the pitching side is bordering on miraculous and warrants so much more attention, but the offensive ineptitude is sucking all of the air out of the room. Could they do the same on the hitting side? I do not know, but I hope so.
Job number one, in my opinion, for JJ and crew is to identify the equivalent of Brian Sweeney and Zach Bove on the hitting side. They need someone who can come in before next season starts and turn around the hitting development pipeline for this organization. It is just not good enough.