Royals Sluggers Quietly Accomplished Feat For First Time In KC History
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While it certainly wasn't the 2025 season the Kansas City Royals envisioned, there have been some impressive individual performances along the way.
For most of the first half of the season, the Royals were at the very bottom of the team power-hitting rankings. But catcher Salvador Perez and first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino evidently decided they'd seen enough of that.
In fact, with Perez's three-run double on Thursday night, the two accomplished a bit of joint history.
Perez, Pasquantino set new mark for Royals teammates
Perez reached the 100-RBI mark on Thursday, and he'd already hit his 30th home run over the weekend. Pasquantino, meanwhile, leads the team in both categories with 32 dingers and 111 ribeyes.
According to MLB.com's Anne Rogers, Perez and Pasquantino are now the first set of teammates in Royals franchise history with at least 30 long balls and 100 runs driven in in the same season.
However, Pasquantino, who is always honest about his and his team's progress, isn't satisfied with the marks.
“I think we both wish we would have done more,” Pasquantino said. “When you look at the numbers on paper, you’re happy about them, but I felt like there was more out there that we could have gotten, and we didn’t this year, which sucks. Numbers-wise, it’s pretty cool.
"But I think both of us will be pretty honest about how we feel like we could have done some more things.”
It's always encouraging for a star player to want more, and certainly, the fact that Perez and Pasquantino put up respective OPS's of .740 and .806 proves there's more they can do to make this team a winner next year.
And one has to imagine that after his 32-homer, 109-RBI season a year ago, shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is itching to get in on the act next year and make it a trio of Royals to cross those two thresholds for the first time.
If the Royals want to return to the postseason after an 80-83 win campaign this year, it's going to begin with consistency in the middle of the order.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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