After a season full of injuries, the Royals general manager says the club needs a better way to get players back on the field.
Injuries shaped almost every part of the Kansas City Royals season, and the front office is now making changes behind the scenes because of it.
At the team's end-of-season press conference on Wednesday, general manager J.J. Picollo announced that head athletic trainer Kyle Turner, assistant athletic trainer Chris DeLucia and major league rehab coordinator Jeff Blum will not return.
These are not small names inside the building.
Turner just finished his 17th season with the organization and spent five years as the head athletic trainer, while Blum just wrapped up his 19th season and DeLucia spent two decades with the club after getting he joined the Royals in 2007 and took the Northwest Arkansas assignment in 2008.
A Change in Approach
The Royals also moved Melissa Lambert, the director of behavioral science and major league mental performance, to the minor leagues, where she will keep her director role.
Picollo thanked the departing staff for their work and called them tremendous colleagues, but he said the club needs to keep moving forward across all of its departments.
"We try to do our best to prevent injuries," Picollo said Wednesday.
"I think what we want to move to is a little more efficient way of getting guys back on the field. We've had some guys that haven't had surgeries that missed significant amounts of time."
That last sentence explains the decision.
Major surgeries hurt the Royals, but so did players who sat out much longer than expected with injuries that did not need an operation, which is exactly what a new staff will be asked to fix.
A Season Lost to the Injured List
The list of injuries was long.
Starting pitchers Cole Ragans, Stephen Kolek and Luinder Avila all had UCL surgeries, and at one point the Royals had at least 12 players on the injured list, according to The Kansas City Star.
Pitcher Carlos Estévez went down with a right rotator cuff strain after just one appearance, and third baseman Maikel Garcia played in only 82 games after dealing with his own injury problems.
Kansas City finished 69-93 and last in the American League Central, and Picollo told reporters that a healthier roster could have made a better run.
It is hard to argue with that after watching so many key players miss time, including outfielder Jac Caglianone with his elbow trouble.
More Changes Could Be Coming
This was not the only staff change this week.
On Tuesday, the Royals moved hitting coach Alec Zumwalt out of the dugout, though he will stay on as senior director of hitting performance, and Picollo said the club plans to add another assistant hitting coach in the coming weeks.
The Royals will look to fill each of those spots before the 2027 season.
That gives them a full offseason to find the right people, and they need to get it right.
A young core led by shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is only as good as the number of games it can play together, and this season showed just how much injuries can derail a year.
If these moves keep more players on the field in 2027, Picollo's decision will look like the right one.
