Kansas City Royals news: Draft lottery, more trade pairings

MLB.com’s Anne Rogers looks at some trade targets (and one free agent) for the Royals in the outfield. She included the usual suspects, but brought in Colorado Rockies outfielder Brenton Doyle.

Doyle took a step back from his breakout 2024 season, in which he slashed .260/.317/.446 and posted a 3.6 fWAR. In ‘25, Doyle hit .233 with a .651 OPS and only accumulated 0.4 fWAR. But the 27-year-old is an elite center fielder and not a free agent until 2030, and with only three seasons under his belt, perhaps there’s more in there. The Royals would have to be confident in that, though, because Doyle does a lot of the same things that current Kansas City center fielder Kyle Isbel – a Gold Glove finalist – does, except Isbel struck out less than Doyle (18.1% compared to 25.7% in ‘25). New Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta has a lot of reshaping to do in that organization, and Doyle could be one of his best trade pieces.

David Lesky tackles the Cole Ragans rumors at Inside the Crown.

In sports, we make many declarative statements that are very difficult to back up. We’ll say that this team or that team can’t win a certain way. Or that this player can’t be successful unless he does something specific. I’m no different, though I’ve been trying my best to not do that as much. And yet, I’ve made the statements multiple times that the Royals can’t win the World Series without Cole Ragans healthy and pitching at his best.

That statement is probably wrong for a number of reasons. The first is that anything can happen in short series. But even if we amend my statement to saying that it becomes much more difficult for them to win the World Series without Cole Ragans healthy and pitching at his best, there is still some wiggle room.

Kevin O’Brien does the same at Royals Keep, but adds in a San Diego Padres wrinkle.

Remember how I talked about how the Royals should look to kill two birds with one stone by getting an established outfielder and prospects in return for Ragans? Well, this trade blows that idea out of the water.

That said, if the Royals can only get a one-for-one deal with Ragans, they might as well shoot high and acquire Tatis in an agreement that BTV’s model accepted.

Surprisingly, Tatis may be more available than some baseball fans would like to think. His BTV surplus value is 83.3, slightly higher than Ragans’. However, he also commands a super long-term deal, one of many that San Diego has on their payroll (Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts being the others). He also only posted an .807 OPS, down from his .833 mark in 2024.

Thus, the Padres may view a possible Ragans-Tatis trade as an avenue to improve their starting pitching (they lack depth after No. 1 starter Nick Pivetta, especially after Dylan Cease signed with the Blue Jays this offseason) while shedding some short-term payroll.  Still, he posted a 6.1 fWAR in 2025, and his Statcast percentiles showed that Tatis is one of the most naturally talented hitters in the league.

Nick San Miguel at Around the Foghorn ponders sending San Francisco Giants outfielder Heliot Ramos to Kansas City for… Cole Ragans?

Would trading Ramos for Ragans be enough for both sides? Ragans is 27 and has a few more years of team control left as does Ramos so it is not like either of these players would be a rental. Both were All-Stars in 2024 so one could argue that it would be a fair swap, but the Royals may want more.

Maybe including someone like Matos or Luciano along with Ramos would be enough to get a deal done.

ESPN lists Kansas City as a possible landing spot for several trade candidates, but includes the Royals as one of the top prospective spenders.

Either way, there has been more chatter in general about small-market teams spending this winter. Are the Reds one big bat away? Will the Marlins’ surprising season lead them to some aggressive signings? And everyone knows the Royals need hitting.

“Both Pittsburgh and Kansas City have top-of-the-game superstars that they need to support with more money,” one voter said. “The noise from Pittsburgh has already started but I will go with Kansas City because I think they spend the most on one player.”

Nicky Lopez joins the Colorado Rockies organization on a minor-league deal.

Philip Ruo at Royals Keep lays out the current Royals rotation and starting pitching depth entering 2026.

Vinnie Pasquantino and St. Louis Cardinals’ utilityman Brendan Donovan work out together amidst trade buzz surrounding Donovan.

Carter Lundberg at Royals Keep evaluates what Kansas City could, or should, do behind the plate in 2026.

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