Royals Rally Roundup
The most insightful and entertaining quotes from Kansas City's 2025 kickoff at Kauffman Stadium
I couldn’t make it to Royals Rally this year but, shockingly, the show went on without me. Still, I followed along from afar as the best reporters in the business shared quotes from J.J. Picollo, Matt Quatraro, Bobby Witt Jr., Cole Ragans and others.
Seriously, hat tip to Anne Rogers, Jalon Thompson, Jared Koller, Pete Grathoff and many others who cover the Royals on a daily basis. They do not get nearly enough credit for their work, and it’s so often redistributed or aggregated elsewhere without attribution. But that’s an entirely separate ethical subject for an entirely different day, so let’s get to the standout quotes from Saturday!
On Expectations for 2025
“They weren’t happy at the end of the season. The city’s excited, we made the playoffs, it’s a nice story, but we didn’t go as far as we wanted to go. That’s what I heard from the players. They’re going to be the ones driving the bus. When your players are motivated and feeling like they have something to accomplish, it’s a pretty good feeling for us.” — J.J. Picollo, via Anne Rogers (MLB.com).
“We want to go to the playoffs every year, compete every year and win our division every year. That’s what the goals are. We’ve got the right makeup. A lot of the same faces are back and the guys we added have been there before.” — J.J. Picollo, via Jalon Thompson (Kansas City Star).
“I was even asking some people, ‘Is there an uptick in ticket sales during this thing? And they said for the past two years, it keeps going up and up. That’s something you always want to see. The fans are engaged, and they’re definitely engaged with what’s going on across the street [with the Super Bowl-bound Chiefs]. What happened last year, and then now onto this year, I think everyone’s really excited, and that’s what it’s all about.” — Bobby Witt, Jr., via Anne Rogers (MLB.com).
“We have a good team. These guys play hard. They get after it and they take pride in playing for the city. And we think that we can really compete.” — Matt Quatraro, via Jalon Thompson (Kansas City Star).
“Everybody knows how our season ended. We took that into the offseason, kind of used it as some fuel. We know what it takes to get there. We’ve got to do a lot of little things right. In a couple weeks, we’ll be getting rolling, back to that main goal of getting back to the postseason and making it even further and winning it.” — Cole Ragans, via Anne Rogers (MLB.com).
On Signing Carlos Estevez
“He’s going to get plenty of opportunities to close games. He’s done it, he’s proven he can do it, but … the selflessness, the win-first mentality, the always trying to improve, that blends perfectly with the mix of guys we have from last year. When we talk to the guys about bringing Carlos on board, they’re like, ‘Let’s go, we want as many good players as we can get.’” — Matt Quatraro, via Anne Rogers (MLB.com).
“It’s what you want a bullpen to look like ... And there is a pretty good balance now.” — J.J. Picollo, via Jalon Thompson (Kansas City Star).
“Throw me out there, I’ll find my way.” — Carlos Estevez, via Anne Rogers (MLB.com).
“You know, you never stop learning,” Estévez said. “That’s one of the sayings that I have. You know, you’re always going to see what can make you better and what you can do to get better.” — Carlos Estevez, via Jalon Thompson (Kansas City Star).
On Further Player Acquisitions and Payroll Space
“(Getting a middle-of-the-order bat is) probably one area in the two years we haven’t been able to reach our goal, getting that, so it’s a little disappointing. But we can’t force teams to make trades they don’t want to make. We were active in the free-agent market, we just weren’t able to land the guys. I think it speaks volumes to what Mr. [majority owner John] Sherman is doing and his commitment to allow us to continue to bump our payroll up a little bit and a willingness to exceed what the payroll was projected to be. All we can do is try — we can’t force it. We made valiant efforts on the free-agent side and real concerted, direct efforts in a trade market and just weren’t able to pull it off.” — JJ Picollo, via Anne Rogers (MLB.com).
“To me, (increasing payroll is) about opportunity,” Sherman said about increasing payroll. “It’s about what makes our team better. … We tried hard on some, I would say, marquee outfield bats, and we’re continuing to talk to some guys. But it’s more about what makes our team better. Just like this Estévez add. That was a big add to our team. It made our team a lot better. We’re just smarter about roster construction.” — John Sherman, via Anne Rogers (MLB.com).
“If we were to start today, I’d be really excited about the lineup we have. If there’s an addition, I can’t imagine that it’s something that’s a 10-year deal for somebody or anything like that, but I think we’re happy with what we have.” — Matt Quatraro, via Anne Rogers (MLB.com).
The Fun Stuff
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