KC Royals: Ned Yost is Not a Hall of Fame Manager
By Joel Wagler
The Kansas City Royals were “Yosted”
Still, he is not a brilliant game strategist. We will never know, but if the Royals didn’t pull off that miraculous comeback in the 2014 Wild Card game against the Athletics, Yost might not have returned for 2015.
That comeback set up all that was to follow. Some would argue that Yost’s demeanor allowed his players the confidence to make that comeback, and they wouldn’t be wrong. That doesn’t make a manager Hall of Fame material.
Until that comeback, “Yosted” was a term used by Royals fans on Twitter. It wasn’t a compliment. Throughout the 2013-2014 seasons, a vocal fanbase on Twitter was unhappy about decisions Yost made with his line-up and in games. Whenever the manager did something considered stupid by these fans, the team was “Yosted.”
The call for Yost’s blood peaked in September 2014. It centered around Yost’s use of young fireball pitcher, Yordano Ventura. It culminated in that comeback in the Wild Card game.
In Ventura’s last 12 starts of the 2014 regular season, he threw at least 99 pitches in 11 of them. The only start that was the exception was the season finale when Ventura tossed 73 pitches on September 28th.
Two days laters, in the Wild Card game, Yost brought Ventura out of the pen in the sixth inning in relief of starter James Shields with two on and no outs. It was not an ideal situation for a young starter to be thrown into, especially considering the fatigue factor.
Ventura promptly gave up a three-run home run, followed by a single and a wild pitch before he recorded an out that moved a baserunner to third.
Yost finally pulled Ventura, but the Athletics went on to score five runs that inning to take a 7-3 lead. Fans on Twitter went nuts. If the game had ended right then, who knows what may have become of Ned Yost’s job with the Royals.
The thing is, the game didn’t end there. The Royals came back in the eighth and ninth inning, and again in the 12th, and finally beat Oakland 9-8. The rest, as they say, is history.
Next: Yost in the Royals Hall of Fame