Kansas City Royals: Two Key Changes Could Solve Many Problems

Apr 22, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Kansas City Royals left fielder Alex Gordon (4) hits a two-RBI double in the ninth inning against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

There are many worthy story lines for the Kansas City Royals so far this season. From the dominant performances of pitchers Jason Vargas, Danny Duffy, and Yordano Ventura, to the pervasive power outage suffered by the Royals offense, or the sudden emergence of shortstop Alcides Escobar as a legitimate major league hitter.

This year’s Royals may be inconsistent and somewhat maddening to watch, but if nothing else, they are interesting.

It is still April and thus, it’s still far too early to draw any conclusions from what we’ve seen of this squad so far, but it is apparent they will be a playoff contender throughout the year.

Their pitching and defense alone will see to that. Still, there are a couple changes that need to be made to improve the Royals chances of winning the division and actually making a run deep into the playoffs.

Without further adieu, here are my recommended fixes for the Royals going forward.

The starting pitching, expected by many to take a step back from last season’s unexpectedly good unit, has exceeded even the most optimistic of predictions. Both James Shields and Jeremy Guthrie have performed as expected.

Jason Vargas is having a career-year so far (although we can reasonably expect him to fall-off a bit the second time through the league) and Yordano Ventura has delivered as expected, often displaying dominant performances offset by periodic bouts of youth and inexperience but it’s likely he will only improve as the season goes forward.

There is however a clear problem with Bruce Chen.  This brings us to the first of my first recommended change for the Royals going forward.