Kansas City Royals Need To Be All In For 2017 Season

The Kansas City Royals are not going to be aggressive in free agency this offseason. The team should really rethink that decision though, as the 2017 season could be their last opportunity to win another World Series for awhile.

We all remember how “The Process” was supposed to work when general manager Dayton Moore first came to town in 2006. The KC Royals were going to draft key players and then wait for them to be ready for the major leagues and be the driving force of this team.

The 2013 season was when we finally started to see “The Process” turning the corner. The Royals had a winning record that year for the first time in a decade, and it just felt like something special was on the horizon.

In 2014, the Kansas City Royals made it into the postseason for the first time in 29 years. They were the underdogs in every series they played throughout the playoffs, but somehow, someway, they made it all the way to Game 7 of the World Series before ultimately falling to the San Francisco Giants.

The KC Royals have one last shot to win a title in 2017 with this current group of guys and that’s reason enough to not trade guys away.

The next year saw the Royals feed off that Game 7 loss and they coasted all the way to an American League Central division title. They then won the World Series in five games over the New York Mets.

So, yes, “The Process” worked in Kansas City. While many might want the Royals to start trading some key pieces away for farm pieces so that “The Process” can start over, that’s not a good idea right now.

Christina Kahrl of ESPN wrote an interesting piece on the Royals and how they need to be all hands on deck for the 2017 season. The biggest things she notes that the Royals need to go out and sign is a designated hitter and a front-end of the rotation starting pitcher.

Let’s say it for what it is: The Kansas City Royals offense was horrendous last year, even with designated hitter Kendrys Morales in the lineup almost every day. Can you imagine what it’ll look like without Morales?

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Sure, the team will get Mike Moustakas back from injury, but who’s to say that Moose will return to the 2015 form that Royals fans adored? Remember – He had struggled in every season before that.

Kahrl goes into detail, stating that the Royals might be tempted to “see what they can get” for guys like Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, and Lorenzo Cain, but not much will be had from those guys.

"Hosmer’s value is limited in a free-agent market flooded with first base and DH options, and Moustakas is coming back from an injury that similarly undermines what he’s worth in the abstract. Dealing Cain might generate worthwhile value now only if you’re placing him with a team he’s willing to sign a multiyear deal with up front."

I agree with everything Kahrl said in her article. The KC Royals have one last shot to win a title in 2017 with this current group of guys and that’s reason enough to not trade guys away.

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Dayton Moore should also try to go out and sign some sort of guy with designated hitting experience. A front-end rotation guy would be pricey, but it would likely put this team over the edge for 2017.

So while most Royals fans are going to want to see what the team can get for guys like Wade Davis, Hosmer, and Moustakas, I say keep them on the team and go for broke in 2017.

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