- 3 days ago
Royals Insider Jaylon Thompson pops in from Boston to take a look at what the Royals may look like in 2027.
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00:00Cider interview on KFH.
00:05Welcome back KFH Sports Daily on this Friday morning and I did take a step outside does feel
00:11much much better out there uh here in one field I think it's probably a little cooler in Wichita
00:17area but still felt a lot better walking outside Brady Bowen with you TJ Cleland in for Jacob
00:22Balbrock and joining us Jalen Thompson Kinsey star Royals beat reporter and uh we got another
00:30game tonight as they start a series on the road against the Red Sox and there's one two three
00:37four series left Jalen I guess what's your approach going into these these last few series kind of
00:45closing out the season obviously not going to make the playoffs you don't have to worry about that
00:49wild card race anymore uh so what are Royals playing for right now it's all about the young
00:57guys and then the competition pitching spots if you're really breaking down what the Royals have
01:04to play for these last 16 games I believe um honestly it's going to come down to who's good
01:10enough to stick in that bullpen for next season uh you've seen guys like Nate Pearson that pretty much
01:17has put himself in consideration to be either a one to two inning guy in high leverage or a closer
01:24potentially if they need him to be next year um you look at guys like Steven Cruz that has really
01:31taken on that high leverage role too but there's more spots to be available out there is Nolan
01:37Hoffman a guy that you might consider is um Connor Thomas from the left hand side a guy that you
01:43might
01:43consider to be a specialist out there will Daniel Lynch go back to the bullpen next year when they
01:48get more arms as they get healthier and make more acquisitions so that's what I'm looking for as far
01:54as the just the open audition in that bullpen because there are spots available and guys are
02:00going to need to step up and earn those spots as far as the starter rotation I think you're going
02:05to
02:05continue to see continue to grow from Noah Cameron can he be the guy that can be a frontline starter
02:10uh he's been pitching like his last 10 or so starts so we'll see if that's the case moving forward
02:16can he take that momentum into next year and then you get Carter Jensen and Jack Caglione how well and
02:22how high can they climb can they reach that superstar status can they go along with Bobby Wood Jr. and
02:28the
02:28rest of the core of Benny Pasquitino Michael Garcia Salvador Perez you name them right is that what this
02:36Royals team is going to be next year and can they finish off on a good note going into that
02:40season
02:42Jalen I'm curious I know that you pointed out earlier this week is that they they had been
02:46flirting with it for a long time they officially are going to have a losing season though they got
02:50to the 82 loss mark uh I think they're still at 82 losses whatever they got it kind of felt
02:56to us
02:56is that it was kind of a race to 500 which felt impossible I know but like if they could
03:02have gotten
03:02to 500 it's not that long of a shot that they could have gotten in a wild card with how
03:06bad the
03:07American League has been this year you know that losing stretch there where they lost you know like
03:12seven to nine or whatever the number ended up being what did that feel like for the Royals did that
03:16kind of like you know pop the air of the balloon that was kind of inflating a little bit I
03:20mean
03:20that was kind of the gut punch to be like okay this season actually is over yeah TJ's it was
03:26basically they came back down to earth you know you have that one week where everything goes your
03:33way and you're you're riding high you're flying high you can see the the earth above the clouds and
03:40you're like wow this is what it feels like to be one of the hottest teams or or to put
03:48it in better
03:48terms it's like when you go on vacation you don't have to go to work anymore right and you're just
03:53chilling having a great time but eventually that clock is going to hit on Monday morning you got
03:57to come back down and get back to reality and that's what the Royals did they got back to reality
04:02they realized that they weren't the team that they thought that they were playing as and you know they
04:08play some teams that are in the playoff hunt and it was close games but when you don't have the
04:14weapons to compete against a playoff team or one in the hunt you're just not gonna win yeah no doubt
04:20you know just looking at the schedule especially this second half i mean in august the royals were
04:24about as hot as it actually was outside all of august until uh until uh basically right around
04:31september right the end of september and had some struggles surprisingly at home they in that winning
04:37stretch they had a lot of wins on the road where they've struggled then they come back home and you're
04:40thinking like okay they got a lot of wins they're putting themselves in position we got a lot of home
04:45games
04:45in a row they've been good at home things are looking good but they actually struggled at home
04:49uh in september with just let's see i think just one two three wins in september so far of course
04:57against arizona they had a real good chance to sweep arizona uh losing uh game one and game two
05:02in extra innings but uh going into this game against boston and now that things are kind of reset like
05:09you said back to earth when it comes to draft position i know that's probably the biggest thing
05:13to look at now is kind of where the royals could end up in draft position how is that looking
05:18what
05:18what do you project well they have a lottery uh brady so it's kind of difficult to kind of
05:25pinpoint where you could be at as far as draft position if you're the royals too i also think that
05:31you you really want to just keep playing out the string and put momentum together more so than draft
05:39position because you want to go for it next year you got you can't think about four or five six
05:46years
05:46down the line with bobby lee jr having an opt-out after the 2030 season so there i'm i'm gonna
05:52assume
05:53just knowing the worlds and how they operate they're going for it these last 16 or so games because
06:00they realize they need to have that momentum they need to have something going into 2027 so that
06:07they can come out firing in august may june or july whenever they play if they have when they have
06:13this lockout thing ends true the lockout's gonna throw an asterisk in this question that i'm gonna
06:18ask you but let's act like there's going to be a normal season and pretend for a second uh they
06:22you know that's such an interesting thought of what you're saying there is that if they finish this
06:26year strong in theory it should you know give you a spark going in the next year at least a
06:31spark
06:31confidence if nothing else but then you look at this year wouldn't you have said at the end of last
06:37year and the world baseball classic and spring training even you're like man this is gonna be
06:42fun and then to see it go the way that it is it's does that just really encapsulate how weird
06:46of a
06:46year it was it was a weird year and and also we got to put this in perspective too the
06:53worlds are never
06:54gonna say it but i'll say it when you have all your stars at the world baseball classic it's kind
07:01of
07:01hard to be build team chemistry team camaraderie when you when they come back with a week and a half
07:08before the season begins it's just difficult it just is you didn't go through those wars in spring
07:14training together those those day in and day out getting to know your teammates so now you're trying
07:19to play catch up and those guys had to go turn it on 150 percent in march and april and
07:28and that's
07:29hard to turn it on and then dial it back and then try to get your rhythm for a whole
07:35year to go that's
07:36just difficult right so i won't say the world baseball classic had a major effect on the team but
07:41i believe it has some effect that all your stars were playing to the end and then they have to
07:47come back
07:47and now you got to settle back in for this marathon after you don't ran a sprint if you're if
07:53anyone's
07:53runners out there you guys know that after you run a sprint you're huffing and puffing you're tired
07:58you gotta catch your breath again and they didn't have a chance to do that so they went straight into
08:02another marathon jalen thompson with the kc star talking royals with us on this friday edition of
08:09sports daily and looking back at the last win for the royals jalen uh one thing we've been talking
08:14about especially the second half is daniel lynch uh getting some starting nods got another one
08:19in that game at game three against zona got the win he gave up let's see where was that i
08:25just had
08:25it a second ago there we go gave up four hits uh just two earned runs a walk two three
08:30strikeouts
08:31and uh 3.52 uh era five innings of work um how do we look at that outing for daniel
08:39lynch
08:40i think it was exactly what he was chasing and hoping for when he got back into the starter role
08:48to be honest with daniel lynch it's all about how he starts the game because he can be a guy
08:55that can
08:56be overly dominant with some of his stuff and how his pitches move in the zone and getting the weak
09:02contact and pitching quickly efficiently but sometimes he can get behind and he can that leads to walks that
09:09leads to inefficiency that leads to runs being pulled on the board so in this game you saw him
09:15give up a walk to begin the game and then he just he works his way out of that it's
09:20a nice play at
09:21third base the uh cut down the runner at home and he gets out of that inning unscathed and then
09:26he's
09:27rolling he gets his confidence he's through the first inning no runs for it and then he he pitches
09:33well and that's what he kind of wanted he talked about being aggressive in that first inning
09:37coming out strong setting the tempo a lot of things that the world really want to do
09:41with their entire team the rest of the year and going in 2027 this team has to set the tempo
09:47and
09:47i think daniel lynch was a nice microcosm of what they want to do moving forward which is come out
09:55firing from the start i mean i think you guys as fans and reporters and everyone myself included we
10:02we want to see this team be more assertive from the beginning and i think if dan lynch can do
10:09that
10:09in his start maybe that gives them confidence to do it in his next couple ones moving forward
10:14uh jalen carter jensen has been a story that has really emerged late in the season he's
10:18obviously had a really good year but it's really becoming a story late in this one the way that i've
10:23been thinking about the royals obviously they're uh as you said kind of window hunting to capitalize
10:28while they're in the window it's interesting of the chiefs are kind of in the same spot when that
10:33new stadium opens what will they look like and i think that uh you know if you're a royals fan
10:37you'd like to hang your hat that bobby wood jr will be in that stadium and you hope jack
10:41caglione is a franchise piece in that stadium you could probably put michael garcia in that list as
10:47well potentially is carter jensen on that list is he a part of that main core uh that the royals
10:52kind
10:53of want to build around these next couple of years oh absolutely absolutely absolutely
10:58he is one of those guys where if you're a team regardless of sports you don't let the hometown
11:06guy get away he's there he the way he's done this year does not get talked about enough and i
11:15think it
11:15really should because it's easy to clown him for oversleeping and you know missing a game three
11:23years ago yes it's easy to talk about the negative right oh but he oversleeps
11:28but you have to keep the same energy when you talk about him being doing the positive things that
11:34he's doing he's carrying this team from the catching position salvador perez isn't probably
11:40not going to catch behind the plate the rest of the year his elbow is just it's been nagging him
11:45and i
11:45don't think he can make the throws and i don't think the roads are going to put him in that
11:47position
11:48moving forward so you're going to have carter jensen he is your primary catcher he's been doing it
11:54he was catching in 99 degree weather 100 degrees five straight days this guy with the home runs he's
12:01going to set the rookie record for most home runs by a royal he already has 23 he's one behind
12:06so he's
12:07going to break that he's already said it for the for as a catcher he is legit a top five
12:13catcher
12:14rookie wise in the american league right now maybe top five if we take the rookie out of it
12:19i was gonna say that's it put into perspective a little bit because i think that you know for us
12:25the the people around here that just watched the royals right and it's been such a waste of a season
12:29basically is that uh you know like wow he's having a good year i mean to put it into perspective
12:33i'm as
12:34you're saying i mean he's one of the best rookie hitters in the entire league right now in these you
12:39know he's one of the most elite catchers in the league this season as well exactly so i i'm just
12:45very
12:45much uh if you're gonna talk about him early as a rookie making rookie mistakes over sleeping and
12:51missing a game getting scratched you still gotta talk about the positive too because since that
12:56moment he's just been great all year for this team and he really hasn't had a moment where it's like
13:01do we think he's the guy or not because he came up last year he was great and he's backed
13:06it up this
13:07year and it was great he's gonna be one of those guys that i think the in kansas city people
13:12are
13:12going to talk about for a long time yeah no doubt about that jaylen jaylen thompson kinsley
13:18star royals beat reporter with us and just kind of uh piggybacking off that that positivity for a
13:25little bit we kind of talked about this the second half that obviously no big moves made uh on the
13:31trade deadline so we talked about how it looks like they're running it back and uh actually about
13:35out of time so next time jaylen i'll say thanks for how excited we should be about next year
13:40jaylen are you in boston are you in boston right now i am in boston yes nice have fun enjoy
13:46have some clam counter yeah we'll do i can't wait to have that there we go jaylen
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