The Kansas City Royals were all over the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC), with their core position players and several pitchers participating. Many of them thrived, including third baseman and WBC MVP Maikel Garcia, and now the baseball world knows how deep Kansas City's roster is.

General manager J.J. Picollo gave his thoughts on the competition on Tuesday, via KC Sports Network.

"You go into the WBC with a little bit of hesitation," he admitted. "Typically, it's your better players that are playing in that tournament...You don't want guys to get hurt. But as it turned out, it couldn't have gone better for us."

"The guys that are gonna be hitting at the top and middle of our lineup were playing against elite pitchers...in high-leverage situations," he continued. "That's certainly gonna help them in the future, and now they're on this high. They all came back really excited...Since then, I've gotten a lot of different messages from people around the country, whether it's other clubs or writers, 'you guys may have something special brewing there.'"

Kansas City is in a unique position where many of its best players are coming off a high-level global tournament heading into the regular season, rather than just spring training. Whether that benefits the club remains to be seen.

There was a wide spectrum of involvement from Royals players in the tournament. Garcia slashed .385/.393/.577 over seven games, while catcher Salvador Perez was the captain of the Venezuela squad. They beat Team USA 3-2 in the final, which had superstar shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. The latter player had a .733 OPS with three stolen bases and multiple highlight defensive plays in the tournament.

First baseman Vinnie Pasquantino and outfielder Jac Caglianone each displayed their power for Team Italy, as Pasquantino became the first WBC player to hit three homers in a game during a 9-1 win over Team Mexico and Caglianone went deep in the squad's 8-6 win over the USA. Pasquantino was the captain of the squad, and Caglianone posted a 1.071 OPS. Italy lost 4-2 to Venezuela in the semifinal.

As for pitchers, right-hander Seth Lugo made two starts for Team Puerto Rico, and right-hander Michael Wacha tossed three innings for the USA. Fellow right-hander Luinder Avila also threw 4.1 shutout frames. 

Lugo and Wacha are both in Kansas City's rotation, and Avila was optioned to Triple-A on Friday, per the team's social media. However, the 24-year-old could get big-league work out of the bullpen this season, as he's the No. 9-ranked prospect in the organization and pitched 13 MLB games last season.

Meanwhile, Witt, Garcia, Pasquantino, Perez, and Caglianone are all healthy and will start for the Royals to begin the season. Witt is the franchise cornerstone, while Garcia received a five-year, $57.5 million extension in the offseason after his breakout 2025 campaign. Pasquantino finished sixth in baseball with 113 RBIs last season, and Perez notched 30 homers with 100 RBIs at 35 years old. 

The only non-established big-leaguer in that group is Caglianone, who was Kansas City's top prospect last year before slashing just .157/.237/.295 over 62 games. However, the 23-year-old's WBC performance showed that he's taken a step forward.

All of that good mojo will be thrown out the window if the Royals struggle to start the season, but the tournament at least showed how good their key players can be individually. The next step is to combine their skills to form a group that returns to the playoffs after a disappointing 2025 campaign.