Kansas City Royals: Thank You Dayton Moore
The Kansas City Royals won the 2015 World Series. There are a lot of people to thank for this momentous occasion, but the one we should thank the most is general manager Dayton Moore.
Dayton Moore joined the Kansas City Royals in the summer of 2006. During that time, the Royals weren’t exactly a force to be reckoned with in Major League Baseball. In fact, many would probably agree that the Royals were the laughing stock of the league during that span.
The 2006 season was the third straight 100-loss season for the Royals and despite promising prospects, no progress was being made. This city hadn’t seen a world championship winning baseball team since 1985, and it was to the point where the people of Kansas City wondered if they ever would experience that again.
Fortunately, Dayton Moore ended up being the saving grace of this franchise. After years of him telling us to be patient and wait for guys like Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer, and Mike Moustakas to develop, the man was right.
One of the most brilliant decisions he made earlier on was in 2009 when he sent Alex Gordon back to Omaha to work on being an outfielder. We all know how that turned out. Gordon is a four-time Gold Glove winner and very well could win his fifth this season. He also is a three-time All-Star.
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It’s also worth noting that Moore made the decision to make the infamous James Shields and Wade Davis trade back in 2012. Parting ways with Wil Myers and Jake Odorizzi might have seemed tough at the time (and even the next season), but Shields helped get Kansas City to the postseason in 2014, and Davis is… Well, he’s Wade freaking Davis, man! He owns that bullpen now.
Moore’s tremendous work showed during the off-season, as he acquired guys like Kendrys Morales and Alex Rios to fill the voids of Billy Butler at designated hitter and Nori Aoki in right field. Moore also went out and signed relievers Ryan Madson, Kris Medlen, Franklin Morales, and Chris Young, all of whom had great seasons in Royal blue.
Moore also re signed guys like Jason Frasor and Luke Hochevar this past off-season. While Frasor didn’t make it to the end of the season, the signing only strengthened the bullpen at the time. Hochevar ended up having a terrific postseason out of the bullpen.
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Then came the bigger moments this season, like the Johnny Cueto trade. The Cueto trade meant trading away Wildcard hero Brandon Finnegan along with prospects John Lamb and Cody Reed. Moore also acquired Ben Zobrist from Oakland for Sean Manaea and Aaron Brooks. Many were concerned about the amount of pitching prospects Moore was giving up for rentals, but this was all for a World Series.
People weren’t necessarily thrilled about sending Finnegan to Cincinnati, but if the Royals won the World Series, then this trade could be considered a success. Guess what? We won the World Series! Hooray! Cueto had two fantastic, ace-like performances in key game to help secure the title.
While the players are the ones who go out and perform and win the games, Dayton Moore is the man behind the scenes. He puts the best possible team together to try and win that big title in the end. This year was the year that Kansas City Royals fans everyone got to see all of the hard work Moore had put into this team.
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Thank you for everything Dayton Moore! Kansas City is appreciative of what you’ve done for this team and hope the team can only continue to grow and get better!