Why The Kansas City Royals Won't Win The 2025 World Series, According to Insider
The start of October is a day of infinite promise for teams in the Major League Baseball postseason. But for four of those teams, the dream won't last beyond this Thursday.
The Kansas City Royals are hoping to avoid becoming one of those teams. They open their best-of-three Wild Card Series with the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday afternoon, and they'll have to quickly sink or swim behind the roster that orchestrated their massive one-year turnaround.
No one saw the Royals getting here just a year after losing 106 ballgames. It's a remarkable achievement that came together because of huge seasons from players like Bobby Witt Jr., Salvador Perez, Seth Lugo, and Cole Ragans.
However, as much as the Royals will need those stars to make a deep October run, they're also only as good as their weakest link. One insider identified that potential Achilles Heel heading into Game 1.
On Tuesday, in ESPN's MLB playoff preview, reporter Jorge Castillo said that the cause behind an early exit for the Royals would be their shaky bullpen.
"The starting pitching doesn't mask the bullpen's shortcomings. The Royals (barely) completed their remarkable 30-win year-to-year turnaround behind their elite starting pitching," Castillo said. "Wild-card teams have made World Series runs in recent years with shallow bullpens by aggressively deploying starting pitchers. That's a possibility for Kansas City. But at least a few relievers will need to step up."
Bullpens are a fickle thing in the playoffs. We've seen teams like the 2018 Boston Red Sox and 2019 Washington Nationals whose bullpens were purported to be shaky buzz right through October. We've also seen the other end of the spectrum--teams like the 2023 Houston Astros, whose seemingly sturdy bullpen eventually collapsed.
One can closely examine this Kansas City bullpen and see a path to success. It starts with closer Lucas Erceg maintaining the lockdown form he has found since arriving at the trade deadline, but John Schreiber, Kris Bubic, and Angel Zerpa all will need to play key roles as well.
As the start of Game 1 draws closer, we'll all be waiting anxiously to see how manager Matt Quatraro intends to deploy his limited bullpen weapons this October. It could be the difference between a magical run and an early exit.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org