Kansas City

Royals

After overcoming a forearm issue that sidelined him for the first half of the season, the 33-year-old Harris had a 2.55 ERA and a 27/16 K/BB in 24 2/3 innings for Boston’s Triple-A affiliate last season. His only major league experience came in 2023, when he had a 5.12 ERA in 19 1/3 innings for the Nationals.

MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand first reported that Mense would be the Royals’ hitting coach but has since added a correction saying it’d be assistant hitting coach role. Mense was the Giants’ primary hitting coach last season. Given that he’s now taking on a lesser role, he might have had an idea that he wasn’t long for San Francisco. Prior to 2026, Mense spent four years as an assistant hitting coach in Toronto. The 42-year-old spent parts of five seasons in the Marlins system before ending his playing career in indy ball in 2012.

Players become eligible for minor league free agency after six seasons if they have not been added to a 40-man roster, so these five players, plus seven more, are no longer a part of the Royals organization. Alex Lange appeared in 59 games for the Royals in 2026, posting a 6.75 ERA, but he has a 4.45 ERA in 244 2/4 MLB innings. Alexander has a career 3.36 ERA in 349 big-league appearances over 11 seasons and Moore has a career 4.39 ERA in 483 big-league appearances. Toro hit .270/.351/.478 with 19 home runs in 123 games for Triple-A Omaha, and Velasquez has a 4.86 ERA in 193 career MLB appearances.

Gonsolin missed most of the past two seasons while recovering from elbow surgery, but he returned in late September and was able to throw 2 2/3 innings with five strikeouts in his lone appearance for the Royals. The expectation is that he’ll compete for a spot in the Royals’ rotation to open the 2027 season.

Marsh had a 4.96 ERA in 33 starts and 10 relief appearances for the Royals in 2023 and ’24 before missing the last two years with shoulder issues that resulted in labrum surgery in Oct. 2025. While the idea at the time of the surgery was that he’d be ready for 2027, there were absolutely no updates on his recovery over the course of the year. The Royals will probably look to re-sign him to a minor league deal if he’s healthy.

As per usual, Kansas City is the first organization to start its offseason roster purge. Seabold and McGee have already opted for free agency, and Lange will soon become a free agent, too. Lange picked up 10 saves for the Royals between June and July, but he was never very effective at any point, and he ended the year with a 6.75 ERA and a 60/33 K/BB in 60 innings. He’ll likely have to take a minor league deal this winter.

The homer was Bryan’s third in six games. He also singled and walked. Bryan was the Royals’ eighth-round pick out of Troy University in 2025. He hit .319/.406/.496 in 33 games in Low-A ball this year before getting hurt at the end of May. He’s back now and thriving offensively, but he’s been limited to playing first base in the AFL.

Gomez, the second-youngest player in AFL history at just 17 years old, is still several hyperspace jumps away from reaching Kansas City. However, his fantasy stock has soared following a sublime DSL campaign in which he hit .361/.467/.653 with nine homers and 15 steals across 180 plate appearances. One of the premier prospects in the 2026 international signing class, Gomez received $2.9 million from the Royals and advanced to the fall circuit before even making his stateside debut. He’s an exceptionally fast runner who projects to develop into an above-average power producer as he matures physically. It’s not hyperbolic to suggest that his present trajectory puts him on track to become one of the top prospects in baseball by the conclusion of next season.

The 26-year-old hurler had been designated for assignment on Monday and passed through waivers unclaimed. He’ll have the option at the outset of the offseason to elect free agency if he so chooses. Little spent most of the season at the Triple-A level, posting a 7.28 ERA, 1.88 WHIP and a 60/46 K/BB ratio over 50 2/3 innings in 44 appearances.

That was his role before he was named hitting coach partway through the 2022 season. The Royals were 22nd in the majors in run scoring this year, even after bringing in the fences some at Kauffman Stadium.