Royals Rundown: A Kansas City Royals Podcast · Kansas City Royals Baseball

Royals in the Middle: Infield Rankings, Prospects, and What’s Next

·1 hr 16 min·5 clips

Bobby Witt Jr. had a down year and still finished fourth in MVP voting—is he truly the best shortstop in the game?

The show starts loose. Jacob and Jeremy open with Sunday talk about a day off, sleep schedules, and the odd freedom of waking up with nowhere to be right away. Baseball eases back in from there. The infield rankings settle first on utility depth, and Rojas gets pulled out of the minor league deal crowd because Jacob has a gut feeling he sticks around after camp. He is clear that it is not some firm scouting call. He just likes the fit, even if he cannot fully explain it. Javier Vaz changes the energy. Once the ranking reaches Royals prospects, he is the first name that makes the conversation feel like it might turn into a debate, even though Jacob and Jeremy never really split that far apart. The injury context matters. They remember a hand or finger issue early in 2025, and while the exact detail stays fuzzy, the bigger point is simple: it lasted long enough to make the step back easier to understand. The numbers suffered. Vaz had prospect buzz going into 2025, then dropped far enough that Baseball America had him in the teens one year and off the 2026 rankings the next. The player shape is specific. He is mostly a contact bat, with some occasional power but not enough thump to sell the profile by itself. The rest of the game keeps him in the conversation. Speed, baserunning, and middle-infield versatility still matter if the bat is more useful than loud. That is where they land. Jacob sounds comfortable seeing an MLB debut within the next two years, while Jeremy moves it up and says 2026 is probably when they see him. Nobody is calling Vaz a star. The case is more practical: after an injury-hit year and a rankings slide, there is still a believable Royals utility path if the contact and versatility hold.

As heard by us

A clean Royals roster chat that gives the middle of the lineup some real texture.

This Royals Rundown episode spends most of its time on roster sorting, with utility infielders, a few minor league deal candidates, and Javier Vaz after a hand injury that seems to have weighed on his 2025 season.

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Why you'd press play

You want the Royals' utility infield picture, minus the fluff.

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