Kansas City Royals: Billy Butler Returns

This off-season, the Kansas City Royals lost one of the their best offensive players in team history when they didn’t re-sign Billy Butler. Their designated hitter eventually landed in Oakland, where he has started the season on fire for the Athletics.

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So far this season, Billy Butler has hit in all ten of the games for the Oakland Athletics, this first time in team history a player has started the season with a ten-game hitting streak.

According to Baseball-Reference, he also sports a BA/OBP/SLG/OPS slash of .359/.405/.513/.918 in those ten games. He has a home run, three doubles, and six Runs Batted In. He also has grounded into three double plays.

So far, Butler looks like the player he was from 2009 through 2012, when he averaged 21 home runs a year, 93 RBI, and a slash of .306/.371/.482/.854 for the KC Royals, and not the hitter who averaged 12 homers, 74 RBI, and a slash of .280/.350/.396/.746 in 2013 and 2014.

Still, Billy Butler should be wildly cheered tonight when he appears in something other than a Royals uniform for the first time at Kauffman Stadium. He ranks high in many offensive categories in franchise history:

7th in HR – 127
11th in Runs – 502
6th in RBI – 628
5th in Batting Average – .295
8th in Games Played – 1,166
Stats from Fangraphs.com

Clearly, Billy Butler will eventually be in the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame. Considering his performance thus far with the Oakland Athletics, he isn’t done by any means with his stalwart career.

It remains to be seen if General Manager Dayton Moore erred in letting Butler go this off-season. His replacement, Kendrys Morales, has been just as good for the KC Royals as Butler has been for Oakland – 2 homers, 5 RBI, .351/.442/.595/1.036.

Butler is signed though 2017 with Oakland, and Morales through 2016 for the Royals. It will be interesting to see which player benefits his team more.

So, Royals fans, how do you feel about Billy Butler? Will you welcome him like a returning hero? This certainly should be the reaction.

According to Jeffrey Flanagan of Fox Sports Kansas City, Butler gave the Royals a chance to match Oakland’s offer, but Kansas City passed. According to Chris Cwik of CBS Sports, Butler would like to return to the Royals before he retires.

There is no reason other than to give Butler a warm welcome in Kansas City.

The Royals Twitter community is a fun one to follow and to join in. Below is a live Twitter feed that includes many of the Royals fans who tweet each game. This feed updates live every few seconds, and you can share, favorite, or comment on any post – right here on this page.

Have fun with this! Join in with other Royals fans, and give Billy Butler a virtual cheer in his return to Kauffman Stadium. He deserves it.

Tweets from https://twitter.com/KCKingdomFS/lists/royals

Cheer on our Kansas City Royals as they try to return to their earlier winning ways, but give Billy Butler a warm Kansas City Royals welcome, too.

Next: Butler Is 7th In Royals HR - Who Else Is On The List

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