A Healthy Maikel Garcia Can Fuel The Royals After A Down Season

The 2026 season brought many levels of disappointment to the Kansas City Royals, who had a down year and trended in the wrong direction after a pair of promising seasons.

After making the postseason in 2024 and reaching the ALDS, the Royals narrowly missed out on the postseason in 2025, but still finished the year with a winning season. However, 2026 went in the opposite direction, as the Royals finished the year with just 69 wins and finished in last place in the AL Central.

Though the same young core remained with the Royals, inconsistencies and injuries added up to create an underwhelming season. The starting rotation was unable to replicate the same success from the previous couple of years, while the Royals saw multiple hitters have down years at the plate.

One of those hitters was Maikel Garcia, whose numbers notably dropped off from what they were from last season. Injuries also played a strong factor in his down year, as he missed just about half of the season.

Garcia, the team’s starting third baseman, played just 82 games in 2026. While he was still productive all-around, his numbers were noticeably not as strong as the stats he had posted the season prior. 

After making his major league debut in 2022 with a small sample, Garcia became a starter for the Royals in 2023. From 2023-2024, Garcia was productive but posted league-average numbers at the plate, but took a step forward in 2025.

In 2025, Garcia took his game to the next level. After not posting an OPS above .700 in a full season in his career, he posted an .800 OPS and upped his batting average to a .286 total in the 160 games he played. His power also began to show too as he hit 16 home runs, marking the first time he hit double-digit homers in his career.

However, 2026 did not bring the same fortune to him. He did own a productive .268 batting average and a .715 OPS in the 82 games he played, but his power took a big step backwards as he hit just three homers. 

Unfortunately for Garcia, injuries defined the second half of the season for him. He was placed on the injured list in late-June with a left hand muscle strain that sidelined him until mid-August, but he landed on the injured list again just days after he returned to the Royals. A left hamstring strain landed him on the injured list on Aug. 21 and held him out again for nearly a month.

After earning his first All-Star appearance in 2025, the Royals are hoping for more of the same from Garcia in 2027 in what will hopefully be a healthy campaign for him after an injury-riddled year in 2026.