There were a lot of things wrong with the Royals this season, but one of the biggest positives to come out of it was the play of Michael Massey. The second baseman put together his best season overall and seemed to solidify his role going forward within the Royals organization.
2026 was the most we have seen Massey in the Majors, as he played a career-high 131 games, and in those games he slashed .274/.305/.430 for an OPS of .735 and a wRC+ of 100. That .274 batting average was a career high for Massey, and with these numbers, 2026 was Massey's second-best season at the plate, with 2024 being his best offensive season. Let's dive deeper into Massey's 2026 success.
Steady Improvements at the Plate
In 2026, Massey's profile saw some steady improvement and a return to his 2024 form at the plate. While his power was slightly worse in 2026 than in 2024, his contact ability improved in 2026. His quality of contact improved immensely in 2026 as he had a career low in Soft% at 9.8%, while having his second-best hard-hit rate at 39.0%.
He hit the ball harder more often, and he went from a mid-to-high 40% flyball hitter to a 40.5% flyball rate in 2026, a career low. The change in flyball rate comes with an improvement in line drive rate, as it spiked to 22.1%, which is ideal for Massey. Looking at his career splits, Massey is a batter who relies on line drives for his success, with a 368 wRC+ on them, while he doesn't get a ton of value from fly balls, career 72 wRC+.
Looking at Massey's profile, 2026 is very comparable to his 2024 profile. Both see him having a high sqaured-up rate, low whiff and K rates, and having middle of the road expected numbers. The biggest difference is that in 2026, Massey had a better launch angle sweet spot rate, bat speed, hard-hit rate, and a similar barrel rate, which makes sense given the quality of contact he had in 2026. Let's dive a little deeper into a small change that proved beneficial for Massey.
Swing Path Changes
A small but substantial change in Massey's profile stems from the changes he made in his swing. He changed his swing path in 2026, going back to a 34-degree tilt. Tilt is described as the shape of the swing on the way to contact, with higher angles meaning steeper swings. His attack angle sat at 16 degrees, which is well above his career average. Attack angle measures the vertical angle at which the bat is travelling as it makes contact with the ball.
Now, you might ask why not discuss launch angle instead of attack angle, and that is because attack angle measures how the bat is moving when it contacts, or misses, the ball. This means that Massey's bat is more aligned to hitting line drives compared to his previous seasons. Finally, we arrive at his attack direction, which was 1 degree to the pull side. All attack direction is the horizontal version of attack angle, with the higher degrees being more extreme towards the pull or oppo side of the field with anything around zero being up the middle.
With a higher attack angle and more of an up-the-middle approach in his swing specifically, it allowed him to use the whole field better. That shows in his splits, as he hit for a better average in 2026 compared to his whole career. He hit .376 on balls pulled, .293 on balls up the middle, and .275 the opposite way in 2026. For his career, he hit .347 on balls pulled, .288 on balls up the middle, and .255 the opposite way.
The changes to his swing path made it so he could be more consistent with his contact, since his actual contact rates didn't differ much this season compared to his other seasons. While the bat saw some major improvements, Massey also broke out defensively.
Gold Glove Finalist with a Solid Chance to Take the Award
The Gold Glove finalists were announced yesterday, with the Royals infield all landing a spot in the finals. Massey will be looking to get his first Gold Glove after a stellar season at the keystone that saw him have career bests in DRS, OAA, and FRV. With that, he was second in the AL in all three numbers and had a 9.0 Def value, per Fangraphs.
He has stiff competition against the Mariners' Cole Young and White Sox' Chase Meidroth, but Massey has the consistency across the stats. There is a solid chance he gets the Gold Glove nominee.
Conclusion
Massey put together his most complete season while staying relatively healthy. The changes to his swing helped him be more consistent with his contact, and he finally showed why he won the Minor League Gold Glove in 2021. For the Royals, Massey's 2026 showed them that he has a lot of value on the defensive side with the ability to make changes at the plate to improve, and more importantly not have to worry about the keystone for 2027.
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