{"id":705671,"date":"2026-05-31T05:01:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T05:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/705671\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T05:01:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T05:01:23","slug":"royals-notes-jensen-ragans-altavilla-avila-mears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/705671\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals Notes: Jensen, Ragans, Altavilla, Avila, Mears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Royals catcher Carter Jensen<\/a> was shifted to the leadoff spot on Saturday with the club searching for offensive production. The young backstop came through with an RBI single and a two-run homer. Kansas City scored six runs in the contest after having put up a total of five runs in four games this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the idea of hitting leadoff,\u201d Jensen said before the game, relayed by Jaylon Thompson of the Kansas City Star<\/a>. \u201cI think I can fill the role great. I think it\u2019s just putting my approach to my plan and just going out there and competing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jensen has mostly hit fifth this season. Of his 167 at-bats, 125 have come in the No. 5 spot. He\u2019d led off just once this year heading into Saturday. Jensen went 1-for-5 with a pair of RBI in that game, a 12-1 Royals\u2019 win. He was atop the lineup for two games in 2025, posting three hits (all doubles) in 11 ABs. One of those matchups was a 20-1 win.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old Jensen hasn\u2019t been able to recapture the form he showed in his MLB debut last year. He was slashing .222\/.306\/.383 heading into Saturday. The catcher is still walking at a double-digit clip, but his strikeout rate has spiked to 29.0%. Jensen struck out just 17.4% in 2025. He posted a massive 159 wRC+ in 20 games.<\/p>\n

Kansas City has scored the second-fewest runs in the league. The team ranks in the bottom five for OPS and wRC+. The leadoff spot itself hasn\u2019t been a major issue, as Maikel Garcia<\/a> has posted near league-average numbers. Garcia was moved to the No. 3 spot for the past two games, including tonight. Lane Thomas<\/a> led off on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Royals have dropped 15 of their last 18 games. The slide has the club sitting 11 games behind the first-place Guardians in the AL Central. Despite the challenges, coaching changes are not on the horizon, per general manager J.J. Picollo. \u201cI have a lot of confidence in our staff,\u201d Picollo told reporters, including Anne Rogers of MLB.com<\/a>. \u201cYou can go back and look at all the historical research on changing coaching staffs. There\u2019s not a lot of strong data on changing coaching staffs mid-season leading to what you need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from the Royals\u2026<\/p>\n

Left-hander Cole Ragans<\/a> has resumed his rehab assignment, according to his MLB player page<\/a>. The ace was shut down<\/a> from throwing earlier this week after feeling stiffness in his elbow. Ragans has been on the injured list with a left elbow impingement since early May. It\u2019s unclear when exactly he\u2019ll make his next Triple-A appearance. Ragans last pitched on May 23.
\nKansas City added veteran reliever Dan Altavilla<\/a> on a minor league deal, the club announced. The right-hander was released by Minnesota\u2019s Triple-A affiliate on Monday. The 33-year-old Altavilla has spent parts of eight MLB seasons with four teams. That includes a brief stint with the Royals in 2024, when he was knocked around for six earned runs over 3 2\/3 innings. Altavilla posted a strong 2.48 ERA in 28 appearances with the White Sox last year.
\nRight-hander Luinder Avila<\/a> is joining the rotation, manager Matt Quatraro told reporters, including Rogers<\/a>. His next start will likely come on Monday against the Reds. Avila made a start in his first big-league appearance this year, but has since operated out of the bullpen. The righty has covered three innings in back-to-back outings. He got up to 67 pitches on Tuesday against the Yankees.
\nReliever Nick Mears<\/a> was placed on the IL on Friday, the team announced. The right-hander will miss time with a right shoulder impingement. Right-hander Eric Cerantola<\/a> was recalled to take his spot. Mears came to the Royals in the offseason, along with outfielder Isaac Collins<\/a>, in a trade that sent lefty Angel Zerpa<\/a> to the Brewers. The righty permitted runs in just two of his first 16 appearances with the club. He\u2019s since allowed eight earned runs over his last five outings.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Andrew Dieb, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Royals catcher Carter Jensen was shifted to the leadoff spot on Saturday with the club searching for offensive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,80955,218872,343336,253531,591,58083,85],"class_list":["post-705671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-carter-jensen","tag-cole-ragans","tag-dan-altavilla","tag-luinder-avila","tag-mlb","tag-nick-mears","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}