Much has been made on Royals Twitter about the Royals’ parting ways with assistant hitting coaches Keoni DeRenne and Joe Dillon this week. While Kansas City retained Alec Zumwalt as lead hitting coach, the changes with DeRenne and Dillon demonstrate that Royals GM JJ Picollo is committed to making changes in the hitting department, as… Read More Struggles in the Lower Minors Likely Sparked Hitting Changes in Royals Organization
Much has been made on Royals Twitter about the Royals’ parting ways with assistant hitting coaches Keoni DeRenne and Joe Dillon this week. While Kansas City retained Alec Zumwalt as lead hitting coach, the changes with DeRenne and Dillon demonstrate that Royals GM JJ Picollo is committed to making changes in the hitting department, as promised in his end-of-the-year press conference.
Many in the Royals’ content sphere have already shared their perspectives on the Royals’ coaching changes. That includes Craig Brown of “Into the Fountains” and David Lesky of “Inside the Crown“, two writers who have a pretty good pulse of the Royals organization.
Most of my thoughts mirror Craig and David’s, who outline their positions quite eloquently in their respective posts.
Although the Royals finished with back-to-back winning seasons in 2024 and 2025, change was necessary, especially in the hitting area. I am glad to see the Royals make changes with two guys who were “in the weeds” working with the Royals hitters the past couple of years. Their approaches clearly weren’t working, and I am okay with Zumwalt staying if it means some staff changes (though at the end of the day, if Zumwalt is the “head” of this staff, he needs to be held accountable too in some way, so we will see how much patience he gets in 2026).
The move that has intrigued me more, however, has been the Royals’ decision not to renew the contract of Hitting Coordinator Drew Saylor. That was announced shortly after Picollo and Matt Quatraro‘s press conference, as reported by MLB.com Royals beat writer Anne Rogers.
While the changes with DeRenne and Dillon are notable, Saylor’s departure signals a more significant shift by Picollo and the Royals organization, particularly in terms of their overall hitting philosophy. At the end of the day, for a small-market club like the Royals, scouting is not just important; player development is also essential to help produce a consistently competitive club at the Major League level.
While the Royals’ hitting at the MLB level was quite familiar to Royals fans, the struggles of the organization’s hitting in the lower levels, particularly in High-A Quad Cities and Low-A Columbia, were much less known or publicized.
Nonetheless, those issues, especially with heralded prospects in the lower levels, likely contributed to Saylor’s ouster in the Royals organization.
Saylor and Picollo End Long-Term Partnership
Saylor has been in the Royals’ organization since 2019, initially serving as a hitting coordinator before being promoted to Director of Hitting Performance in 2023. While he’s not as big a name as Zumwalt, he’s arguably been just as crucial to the Royals’ current hitting situation as any coach in the Royals organization.
Saylor came from the Dodgers’ organization, where he honed his skills as a successful Minor League manager. In 2018, he earned Minor League Manager of the Year by Baseball America for his work with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. As a result, he earned the role of assistant hitting coordinator with the Pirates in 2019 before coming over to the Royals at the end of the year.
The move signaled a significant shift for the Royals, particularly for Dayton Moore, the team’s president at the time. Saylor brought an analytical and technical background to the Royals from the Dodgers and Pirates organizations. His more data-focused approach was evident in a February 2020 interview on Fangraphs with David Laurila, shortly before the baseball world (and world in general) shut down due to COVID.
Here’s a snippet from that piece.
David Laurila: What is your approach when working with young hitters?
Drew Saylor: “One thing I talk a lot about is being curious. The more we can get our players and staff to be curious about what is going on… for instance, what makes the player successful? What are some of his gap margins? From there we can go to, ‘OK, let’s look at this from a batted-ball data perspective. Let’s work this back to swing decisions, to movement assessment, to his training methodology.’ All of this to see how he’s able to transfer the skill to where it shows up in the game.
Under Moore, the Royals had a reputation for being archaic in their development practices. Saylor seemed to illustrate a change in that approach, which was much-needed in the organization after back-to-back seasons with 100+ losses in 2018 and 2019 and with a farm system that was rated as one of the worst in baseball at the time.
The hype around Saylor seemed to grow in 2021, especially after prospects Bobby Witt Jr., MJ Melendez, Michael Massey, and Nick Pratto had stellar seasons at the plate at their respective levels.
In a piece in The Athletic by then Royals beat writer, Alec Lewis, an exchange was shared that signified the analytical approach and relationship Saylor had with the prospects in the Royals system.
During the skills acquisition camp, as more experienced hitters such as Pratto started to seek information more frequently, texting Saylor at all hours of the day, some of the younger hitters (Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, Michael Massey) started to hear how much fun they were having. The buy-in rubbed off.
Massey remembered sitting down that fall with Saylor in Surprise. Armed with his batted-ball data from Short-Season Burlington, Massey asked, “Why was I hitting so many groundballs?”
“You swing with the upper half a little too much,” he said. “Once we get the lower half and hips working and put it on a plane, you’re not going to have to manipulate the barrel.”
Saylor initially appeared to be the perfect fit for this organization. And honestly, it seemed like his work paid off a bit early in his tenure.
Witt became a two-time All-Star and MVP runner-up in 2024. Massey became a regular in the Royals lineup in 2024 before injury beset him in 2025. Melendez and Pratto showed flashes of promise at the Major League level from 2022 to 2024. In many ways, Saylor, as well as Zumwalt and DeRenne (also credited in the Lewis piece), and the new Royals’ hitting approach got the job done at first.
However, the past few seasons have demonstrated a regression in hitting as an organization. That has particularly been clear at the lower levels of the Royals’ farm system.
Hitting Struggles in Quad Cities and Columbia
Minor league numbers can always be tough to understand at times, especially from a fan’s perspective.
Omaha’s Werner Park profiles as a more hitter-friendly yard. Furthermore, Triple-A pitching is often questioned, as a club’s top pitching prospects are unlikely to spend a significant amount of time at that level, facing four-A hitters in more hitter-friendly park environments. That’s why I believe Triple-A hitting numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt.
Double-A is a better gauge for prospect performance, and the Royals have done okay at that level in terms of hitting. That was illustrated by the Northwest Arkansas Naturals averaging 4.72 R/G, which was the fourth-best mark in the Texas League last year, according to Baseball Reference.
Unfortunately, the performance in High-A Quad Cities and Low-A Columbia was less encouraging.
Here’s how both those clubs fared in their respective levels in the following categories: R/G, HR, OBP, and OPS. I also list their ranking in parentheses.
- Quad Cities (Midwest League): 4.35 R/G (6th), 50 HR (12th), .324 OBP (9th), and .667 OPS (8th).
- Columbia (Carolina League): 4.10 R/G (10th), 54 HR (9th), .322 OBP (11th), and .639 OPS (11th).
The River Bandits and Fireflies were able to overcome these hitting issues to an extent last season. Quad Cities finished in first in the West Division with a 74-58 record, while the Fireflies finished 64-65 and qualified for the postseason due to their first-half record. However, their success was more due to their pitching, baserunning, and defense rather than their hitting.
The trends haven’t been good in previous years for either club. Here’s a look at what the River Bandits did in the last two seasons in those particular categories.
- 2024: 4.40 R/G (8th), 98 HR (5th), .328 OBP (4th), and .689 OPS (6th)
- 2023: 4.35 R/G (9th), 101 HR (6th), .321 OBP (9th), and .676 OPS (11th)
In 2023, the River Bandits were a pretty mediocre bunch, hitting-wise. They showed some progress in 2024, but have since reverted to their 2023 levels. That’s not a promising sign, especially with the Royals working to replenish their farm system in a more effective way under new Scouting Director Brian Bridges, who took over in 2024.
Now, let’s take a look at the Fireflies’ hitting performance in 2024 and 2023.
- 2024: 4.24 R/G (8th), 79 HR (2nd), .324 OBP (5th), and .654 OPS (6th).
- 2023: 4.37 R/G (10th), 76 HR (8th), .328 OPS (8th), and .665 OPS (9th).
The Fireflies have seen a steady decline in performance since 2023. They’ve gone down each season in R/G, OBP, and OPS over the past three years. Furthermore, they hit 25 fewer home runs in 2025 after ranking second in the Carolina League in home runs in 2024.
In fact, home runs have been an issue over the past year for both the Fireflies and River Bandits. To make matters worse, neither club has done much to compensate for the lack of pop in other hitting categories.
Typically, High-A hitters are usually comprised of players who are out of college or high school draft picks in their second or third year of professional baseball. Low-A is inhabited by mostly international teenagers and lower-level college players or recent high school graduates. Both High-A and Low-A are prime teaching grounds for development teams to mold and shape hitters, both in the present and for the future.
Unfortunately, positive overall development at those levels has just not happened during Saylor’s tenure as Royals Director of Hitting.
Final Thoughts on Saylor (And DeRenne and Dillon)
I can’t imagine that moving on from Saylor, as well as DeRenne, was an easy decision.
Picollo worked closely with that group, especially when Picollo took over temporarily as field coordinator after the 2019 season, which allowed him to do hands-on work with the Royals’ hitting development team (which included Saylor, DeRenne, and Zumwalt). While the struggles this past year at both the Major and Minor League levels were difficult, this group had experienced success shortly after the pandemic.
However, that’s where I give Picollo credit as a GM. I’m not sure Moore could have made the changes with Saylor and DeRenne if he had put in the time in the field with them, like Picollo did. Moore’s loyalty was a blessing and a curse for him as GM and eventually led to his departure following the 2022 season.
While Picollo shares many of the same principles as Moore, Picollo is a more realistic and grounded front office executive.
He knows that moves and changes need to be made quickly, even if there is a history of success. He did that at the Major League level in multiple ways since taking over for Moore, whether it was releasing Hunter Dozier in 2023 or trading Brady Singer to Cincinnati after the 2024 season, both Royals first-round draft picks who found some success at the Major League level. Despite the history and relationships, Picollo did what was ultimately best for the organization in both the short and long term.
Saylor is a talented and knowledgeable hitting coach. He will likely find another spot in another organization, especially given his skill set and experience, which are in such high demand among front office executives.
However, it wasn’t working with Saylor as Director of Hitting Performance in Kansas City, just like it wasn’t working with DeRenne and Dillon as assistant hitting coaches. The metrics at both the Major and Minor League levels demonstrate that.
Picollo was in that same spot after 2022 with their pitching development team and Cal Eldred as pitching coach. Changes were made, and now pitching development is the hallmark of this Royals organization, something unthinkable just a few years ago.
The Royals have an opportunity to do something similar with hitting…
Hopefully, the right people will be hired and appropriate changes will be implemented in the wake of Saylor, DeRenne, and Dillon’s departures.
Photo Credit: Ed Zurga/Getty Images
