Ryan Lefebvre Opens Up on Royals' Disappointing 2026 Season

After 28 seasons of calling Royals games, broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre has seen plenty of losing, but he put this past season near the top of his list of letdowns.

Lefebvre joined host Joel Penfield on KC Sports Network's One Royal Way show for an interview that came out Friday, and he walked through the whole season.

He said almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong, as the bats did not hit for the first two months and then injuries tore through a pitching staff that looked deep in the spring.

Losing closer Carlos Estévez after one game, at the start of a lost year for him, pushed everyone in the bullpen into bigger roles, and Lefebvre added that some players just did not play up to their level.

He admitted he has called more 90-loss and 100-loss seasons than he would like to count, yet this one stung more because of what he expected.

"I mean, I thought they were going to be a playoff team. I really did," Lefebvre said.

That belief came from the last three years, as Kansas City lost 106 games in 2023, reached the ALDS against the Yankees in 2024 and stayed above .500 in 2025 despite a long list of injuries.

Instead, the Royals finished 69-93 and in last place in the American League Central.

Lefebvre still sees real building blocks, starting with outfielder Jac Caglianone, who hit .157 in 62 games in 2025 before batting .289 with 23 home runs in 143 games this year.

He said he could not remember seeing a turnaround like it in his career, and he liked that Caglianone stayed grounded and never fell in love with his power.

Catcher Carter Jensen hit 27 home runs with 81 RBIs as a rookie, and his plate discipline won Lefebvre over from the day he arrived.

The most hopeful part for Lefebvre was how Jensen bounced back from a couple of rough months and finished strong in a hot summer, when most catchers start to wear down.

Keeping right-hander Michael Wacha made Lefebvre happy, and he doubts the team was ever close to moving him, because it believes it can contend in 2027.

He pointed out that a prospect is still a player who has not done anything yet, so a club should be careful about trading a proven arm unless it plans to start over.

I agree, because Wacha posted a 3.32 ERA and threw 200 2/3 innings in 32 starts for his first 200-inning season.

Lefebvre also thinks the club believes right-hander Seth Lugo will bounce back from a 5.17 ERA, though I see real reason to worry about Lugo.

Lefebvre praised how left-hander Noah Cameron handled adversity too, as he finished with a 4.11 ERA in 30 starts after the staff expected him to come back to earth.

Cameron hit some bumps and started calling his own game before finishing strong, which makes the case to build the rotation around him even stronger.

If I ran the Royals, I would spend this winter adding arms around Jensen, Caglianone, Wacha and Cameron instead of trading any of them away.