The 2022 series on team offense continues with the Kansas City Royals. The Royals finished twenty fourth in the majors and thirteenth in the American League in 2021 with 4.23 runs scored per game.

This season I am using FanGraphs Roster Resource Depth Charts* as the source of default lineups. That Mike Matheny batting order is plugged into the Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT) using Musings Marcels as the batter projections.   That information produces the following results (Runs per game):

• Best lineup: 4.69
• Probable lineup: 4.62
• Worst lineup: 4.39
• Regressed lineup: 4.35

The Royal are going full wit at the top of the order with Whit Merrifield batting first and Bobby Witt, Jr. batting second. As this will be Witt’s first season in the majors, he is getting the league average projection. I suspect those number are an underestimation of his abilities. He slugged in the high .500s at both AA and AAA in 2021.

The Royals need the power. Salvador Perez is the only regular project to slug above .435. As the catcher enters his early 30s, one has to wonder how long that will last.

As for lineup construction, Matheny gets the bottom four correct. The actual order of the top five will depend on how well Witt actually hits. The Royals will need to bring along a couple of more good hitters to complete the rebuild of the offense.

You can follow the data for the series in this Google spreadsheet.

Previous posts in this series:

• Introduction
• Houston Astros
• Tampa Bay Rays
• Toronto Blue Jays
• Los Angeles Dodgers
• Boston Red Sox
• San Francisco Giants
• Chicago White Sox
• Atlanta Braves
• Colorado Rockies
• Oakland Athletics
• Philadelphia Phillies
• Minnesota Twins
• San Diego Padres
• Washington Nationals
• Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
• Cleveland Guardians
• New York Yankees
• St. Louis Cardinals
• Chicago Cubs
• Seattle Mariners
• Detroit Tigers

*This is the best version of this information I’ve seen, with everything you might want to know on one page.