The Kansas City Royals came into 2026 believing they had enough to compete for a playoff spot, and halfway through the year, things look completely different.
Kansas City sits at 35-53, dead last in the AL Central and 11 games behind the first-place White Sox.
The Tampa Bay Rays swept them in a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium this week, outscoring them 19-6, and the frustration is building for a team that expected much more out of this season.
Isaac Collins, who was brought over from Milwaukee this past offseason to fill a gap in the outfield, talked about what he is focusing on during the rough stretch.
"When things don't go your way, you have to simplify and just get back to the basics," Collins said. "Just trying to have competitive at-bats, move the line and reach base any way we can."
It is not a flashy answer, but it is a revealing one, because Collins is not trying to do too much at a time when Kansas City could easily start pressing.
The team has lost seven of their last eight games, and the spiral has been months in the making with no signs of slowing down.
The Royals rank near the bottom of the league offensively, and the pitching staff has not been able to pick up the slack.
Collins came to Kansas City after finishing fourth in the NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2025, when he slashed .263/.368/.411 with a .779 OPS across 130 games for the Brewers.
The trade was supposed to give the Royals a reliable bat with strong on-base skills, someone who could set the table at the bottom of the lineup and keep things moving for Bobby Witt Jr.
That has not happened.
Through 77 games, Collins is hitting just .232 with four home runs , and his power numbers have fallen off from where they already were last season.
The defense in left field has also been a problem as he adjusts to the wide open spaces at Kauffman Stadium.
He was viewed as someone who could change things in the outfield for Kansas City, but the production has not matched what they were hoping to get from him.
The bigger problem is that Collins' struggles are not happening in a vacuum.
The entire roster has been treading water, and the issues run deeper than one player's bat.
Rotation injuries have thinned out the pitching, the bullpen has been unreliable, and the lineup outside of Witt has been mostly quiet.
With the trade deadline approaching in August, the Royals will likely shift into sellers, which could mean moving veteran pieces that were supposed to help them win this year.
Collins is focused on what he can control, and that means stripping everything down and keeping his at-bats as simple as possible.
Whether that is enough to turn things around individually remains to be seen, but the second half in Kansas City will be about finding whatever small wins they can.
