KC Royals: Five Worst Managers In Team History

Manager Jim Frey #41 of the Kansas City Royals (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

Second Worst Royals Manager – Jim Frey

Frey managed the Royals team that won their first American League pennant in 1980, defeating franchise nemesis New York Yankees.

That 1980 team not only won 97 games, it won the A.L. West by 14 games, swept the New York Yankees in the ALCS to avenge three consecutive playoff losses to New York from 1976 through 1978, and featured George Brett‘s MVP season in which he made a run at .400.

With a career Royals record of 127-105, how in the heck is Jim Frey the 2nd worst manger in Royals history? 

Well, a deranged monkey could have won the American League pennant had they been named manager of the 1980 KC Royals.

That KC Royals team pretty much had it all. The offense featured 6 hitters with an OPS+ 115 or over (15% better than league average), including super-sub John Wathan who contributed  510 plate appearances.

George Brett had a legendary season in which he hit over .400 into late August. Brett’s .390/.454/.664 line with 24 home runs and an outrageous OPS of 1.118 was the best season for a Royals position player in club history at 9.4 wins above replacement (bWAR).

On the pitching side, the Royals had five starters who all won at least 10 games, headlined by Larry Gura‘s 2.95 ERA and 283.1 innings pitched (IP). The closer was Dan Quisenberry, who had a career-coming out party that season with 33 saves and a 12-7 record while piling up what would today be considered an astounding 128.1 IP for a reliever.

Along with Brett, the 1980 team included Royals Hall-of-Famers Hal McRae, Willie Wilson, Frank White, Paul Splittorff, Dennis Leonard, Larry Gura, Amos Otis, and Dan Quisenberry. Steve Busby had a brief cameo during a futile comeback attempt.

a deranged monkey could have won the American League pennant they had been named manager of the 1980 KC Royals

Other notable players on the team that season were former phenom and future World Series manager Clint Hurdle (Rockies), 4-time All-Star catcher Darryl Porter, Willie Mays Aikens who hit 24 home runs, and future Royals manager John Wathan.

The first crack in Frey’s armor came in October when the favored Royals lost the World Series to a Phillies team that had only won 91 games during the regular season.

Frey showed his true colors the next season, when another loaded Royals team stumbled out of the gate to an uninspired 20-30 start to the 1981 season that was interrupted by the baseball strike. Frey’s loaded team somehow managed to finish in 5th place in the season’s 1st half.

After play resumed, the Royals merely tread water with a 10-10 record before GM Joe Burke pulled the plug on Frey and hired Dick Howser. The Royals turned it on for 20-13 finish to win the 2nd half A.L. West title.

In a mere year-and-half as manager, Frey somehow managed to alienate his team full of successful veterans.

Frey was a bumbling tactician who suffered a national embarrassment when he had to send up a pitcher to hit in a game played under American League rules (with a DH). Just before he was fired, Frey ordered an intentional walk to fill the bases in a game against Baltimore and then told pitcher Jim Wright that since the runners on first and second were both slow, they could now turn a double play.

Much to his embarrassment, one of his players informed Frey that there were already two outs.

Dan Quisenberry agreed that Jim Frey was not popular in the clubhouse, telling the Kansas City Star at the time:

"“He [Frey] doesn’t leave a lot of friends behind.”"

That line pretty much summed up Jim Frey‘s time in Kansas City.

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