KC Royals: Should The Royals Try To Retain The Core

The KC Royals are facing very serious decisions about what to do with the group of core players who brought home a championship in 2015.

Fans are looking ahead to what will happen to the players they have grown to know and love. This has created the “window of contention” argument as a primary talking point during the off-season.

Many championship teams have faced this dilemma because of the general nature of professional sports. Parity has been created through free agent acquisitions from teams who have won championships.

The 2008 Philadelphia Phillies are a great comparison to the KC Royals because the Phillies possessed a core group of young players. Those players included Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins and Cole Hamels. The Phillies response to this dilemma was to retain all of these players.

In the years that followed the Phillies signed all of their core players to huge contracts. This decision along with numerous trades by the front office allowed the Phillies to go to consecutive World Series. In the years that would follow, the Phillies would continue to have success,  but could not maintain their contender status and would ultimately miss the playoffs in 2012.

This was a sign of the beginning of the demise of the franchise.

The Phillies have become arguably the worst team in baseball over the past few years. They became handcuffed to the stars of 2008 because their contracts gave the Phillies zero flexibility and could not even be given away. Ryan Howard hasn’t been a productive player in recent years but is still making upwards of 20 million dollars a year.

Next: What Should The Royals Do?