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Kansas City Royals: Injury Plagued 2016 Season

By Charles Lam

Apr 8, 2016; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost (3) and medical personnel attend to catcher Salvador Perez (13) after an injury in the ninth inning against the Minnesota Twins at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals won 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 8, 2016; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost (3) and medical personnel attend to catcher Salvador Perez (13) after an injury in the ninth inning against the Minnesota Twins at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals won 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports /
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Injuries continue to pile up for the Kansas City Royals. It seems as if a week can’t go by without hearing of another injury to a key Royals player. It’s almost like this season of injuries has been payback for the last two relatively healthy seasons (damn you baseball gods).

The Kansas City Royals received news that designated hitter Kendrys Morales is day-to-day with a back injury, Royals beat reporter Jeffrey Flanagan revealed on Twitter.

This news is concerning to say the least. Morales was the hottest hitter on the team. He received the Player of the Week award last week. Here‘s the numbers Morales achieved last week to earn the award.

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A .577 batting average is insane. He hit six home runs during the span as well. Taking a phrase from Rex Hudler, the guy was “lava hot”.

The Kansas City Royals will be without many key players in the short-term. The Royals placed closer Wade Davis on the 15-day disabled list yesterday with a right forearm strain. Lorenzo Cain is also serving time on the disabled list with a left hamstring injury. Both players could be back right after the All-Star break come mid-July.

The injury list doesn’t stop there. Mike Moustakas is out for the season rehabbing a torn ACL. Alex Gordon suffered injuries this year and last year. Salvador Perez and many other Royals players have sustained some kind of injuries this season as well.

The list could almost take hours to complete. Safe to say the offense is struggling to keep up in part to all these injuries. The Kansas City Royals are 26th in overall batting according to ESPN as of Wednesday. The Royals have the 25th best starting rotation as well.

How are the Royals two games above .500? The team’s relief pitching is the best in baseball. Powered by Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Joakim Soria to name a few.

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Unfortunately, the relief core isn’t unstoppable. Herrera allowed three straight doubles to the Toronto Blue Jays last night giving up two runs in a crucial bottom of the eighth inning. The Royals lost the game 4-2.

The biggest problem most games is the starting pitching. The unit gives up too many runs on average (5.05). That forces the team to play from behind. The offense without Cain puts a lot of pressure on struggling Alex Gordon and others. Those guys don’t have the wherewithal to win a slug-fest type of game. The line can not move if the score is out of control early on in the game.

In 84 games, the Royals gave up 112 home runs. The Kansas City Royals are negative 25 in run differential this season.

Currently the Royals are in fourth place in the American League Central Division. Kansas City is a half game back of Chicago, 1.5 back of Detroit and a whopping eight games back of Cleveland. There are plenty of games to be played to make up ground and many games are inside the division.

Next: KC Royals: Ten Greatest Moments In Royals History

If the team gets healthy soon, the Royals could make a run at the division and differently one of the wild card spots. If Kansas City can go on a winning streak coupled with a few teams going on a losing streak the Royals could be back in the division race. The season isn’t over yet but time is running out quickly.

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