Kansas City Royals: Ten Best Seasons In Royals History

The Kansas City Royals have had some great seasons in recent years. What are their top ten years overall?

For years, or decades really, it seemed the Kansas City Royals were stuck in a black hole of pity and despair. They had a 29 year span in which they didn’t make the playoffs and posted a winning record only seven times in that time frame.

Some of the Royals best players never saw playoff action while still in the organization. Mike Sweeney, Zach Grienke, Bo Jackson, Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye, and Johnny Damon are just a few of the players who couldn’t help the Royals to the postseason. At one point the Royals had a trio of Beltran, Dye, and Damon in their outfield.

It wasn’t always bad for the franchise though. In fact, looking at the history of the Royals compared to other expansion teams, the Royals are one of the better teams in the league.

There are 14 expansion teams in Major League Baseball. Only four of those teams have won two world series titles. The Royals joined the New York Mets, Florida Marlins, and Toronto Blue Jays as the only other expansion teams to win two World Series titles. No expansion teams have won more than that.

Of those four teams, the Royals have reached the playoffs a total of 9 times. They average a playoff appearance every 5.1 seasons. That’s the most frequent rate among the four teams with two World Series titles and third only to the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Rays.

Eight of the teams have never won a World Series and four of them have never made an appearance in the Fall Classic. The Nationals may be the most unsuccessful franchise among this group. They’ve seen postseason action only three times in the 46 years they’ve been around. The Marlins have only made the postseason twice yet both appearances netted them a championship.

Considering the Royals missed the playoffs for 29 straight seasons, the fact that they still average a playoff berth at the third highest clip along with their two World Series titles proves that the Royals may not be the proverbial ‘little brothers’ of the league after all. They’re actually among the elite when it comes to expansion teams and they have a shot to build on that status in coming seasons.

So, what were the best seasons the franchise ever had? Click through the links at the bottom of each slide to find out.

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