The Royals Reassigned Their Hitting Coach. Their 4.78 ERA Points Somewhere Else.

The most consequential Royals news of the past week wasn't a game — the season ended at 69-93 — but a staffing decision. Kansas City is replacing hitting coach Alec Zumwalt, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, though the move is a reassignment rather than a firing: Zumwalt stays in the organization as senior director of hitting performance and simply won't be in uniform with the big league staff.

It's a defensible move in a vacuum. The Royals struck out 1,159 times, posted a .317 on-base percentage and were caught stealing 28 times. Somebody had to answer for an offense that scored 690 runs in front of a pitching staff that allowed 810.

But the shape of the season says the axe landed on the wrong department, and the 2027 offseason plan should reflect that.

The offense was mediocre. The pitching was the problem.

Kansas City finished with a 4.78 team ERA, 28th in baseball per league rankings, with a 1.42 WHIP across 1,325.2 innings. The staff coughed up 191 home runs and walked 532 batters, and the season's final weeks were a full collapse: a 7.90 ERA and 1.765 WHIP over the last 10 games, with a 5.0 walks-per-nine in the last five. September alone produced a 7-17 record and a minus-37 run differential.

Meanwhile, the bats actually finished the year hot. The Royals hit .299 with an .849 OPS over their final five games and .278 with a .784 OPS over their last 10 — well above their season line of .250/.317/.404. That's a small sample, but it's the opposite of a unit quitting on its coach.

The rotation never had a chance

Twenty-seven pitchers took the mound. Eight Royals spent time on the 60-day injured list, including Cole Ragans, Carlos Estévez, Alec Marsh, Nick Mears, Stephen Kolek, Luinder Avila and Connor Seabold — and Ragans and Estévez never produced a 2026 stat line at all.

Michael Wacha was the lone stabilizer: a 3.32 ERA in 200.2 innings. Behind him, Seth Lugo scuffled to a 5.17 ERA over 172.1 frames, and Kris Bubic — quietly effective at 3.76 — managed only 55 innings in 14 appearances. The bullpen followed suit with a 4.35 ERA and a 1.452 WHIP, converting 22 saves while blowing 13.

That's the real culprit. Not the swing decisions.

What it means for 2027

The good news is concentrated and worth protecting. Bobby Witt Jr. put up 6.72 WAR with 45 steals, and his .378 expected wOBA against a .345 actual mark suggests his .281/.359/.441 line undersold him. Jac Caglianone's rookie year — .289/.340/.494 with 23 homers and a .834 OPS — looks like a building block. And the entire infield was named Gold Glove finalists, headlined by Witt's 24 outs above average and Michael Massey's 11.

None of that fixes a pitching staff. The Royals' power rating sits at minus-0.78 runs versus an average team on a neutral field, 25th in the league, a genuine drop from a positive prior-season mark. The rating notes no injury adjustment — meaning the weakness graded as structural, not merely bad luck.

So the offseason checklist writes itself: bullpen help first, rotation depth second, and a hitting coach to replace Zumwalt third. Kansas City got a real answer on where the 93 losses came from. The question now is whether the front office acts on it.