KC Royals: Five Reasons The Royals Will Repeat

Don’t forget about the core.

The Royals did lose some key players from last season. Ben Zobrist, Alex Rios, and Johnny Cueto all found new homes as did reclamation project Ryan Madson.

Ben Zobrist will absolutely be missed. Plugging Omar Infante back into the second base role hardly seems like a fix or a replacement for the Royals, but don’t forget that they have options.

It should also be mentioned that the Royals were 73-51 with Infante playing last season. That’s a winning percentage of .588. The Royals were 32-27 with Ben Zobrist playing for them and yes, some of that time was with Infante in the lineup.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Infante will replace Zobrist, but if he’s healthy, he could be an adequate player at second base for the Royals.

More from Kansas City Royals

• This Plus-Money Bobby Witt Jr. Prop Bet is on Fire (Hit in 15/21 Games)!
• The Royals Need to Extend Bobby Witt Jr. Immediately
• DraftKings + FanDuel Kansas Promos: INSTANT $150 Bonus Plus Two Chances to Win!
• 3 Royals Players Who Won’t Be on the Roster Next Year
• LAST CHANCE to Claim $250 GUARANTEED Bonus With FanDuel and DraftKings Kansas Promos!

The Royals also lost Cueto, who turned in two awesome performances during the postseason, but was otherwise awful during the regular season for the KC Royals. He turned in a 4.34 ERA during the second half of the season last year.

Ian Kennedy

posted an ERA of 3.64 during that time.

Alex Rios will be missed by very few fans, and he shouldn’t be too hard to replace in the lineup. He did come up very clutch for the Royals in the postseason and down the regular season stretch, but he also didn’t play a great right field. All of the internal options to replace him, should rememdy that issue.

The Royals are returning most of their core and actually have seven of the nine players returning to the lineup from last year. The two holes they’re filling are Zobrist and Rios in that regard. No matter how you slice it, that’s still a strong lineup.

Next: Time To Get It Started