Kansas City Royals: Appreciating Ned Yost as Royals manager

Ned Yost, manager of the Kansas City Royals, still gets pummeled by the fans despite leading this team to two World Series and managing two All-Star games. Time for Royals fans to appreciate the man!

I was listening to a Fescoe in The Morning the other day and it got me thinking. We as fans tend to forget the recent past quickly. Bob made some good points about the great job Ned has done with the Kansas City Royals and I agree.

I don’t think Ned gets the appreciation that he truly deserves in this city. We live in a what have you done for me lately society and tend to have knee jerk reactions. We are all guilty of this myself included but sometimes it’s important to look at the big picture.

Yosted

Ned Yost became the manager of the Kansas City Royals in May of 2010 when he replaced the incumbent manager Trey Hillman. During the the first few years of  Ned’s tenure the Royals struggled. This was to be expected as he was taking over a franchise who hadn’t been to the playoffs since 2015.

Yost increased the Royals win total each year, but was the butt of jokes around town due to his curious managerial style. It got to the point that groups of friends would use the term “Yosted” when someone else made a gaffe. Ned would make moves during games that would leave fans scratching their heads. That is how this term was born.

Even as the win totals increased for the KC Royals, calls for him to be fired still rang through Kansas City. In 2013 he led the Royals to a record of 86-76, which ended a ten year drought of sub .500 baseball.

Fans softened their stance some, but frustration reared it’s head again when the Royals got off to a rough start in 2014. The boys in blue were up and down to start the season and then went 3-7 in series against the Tigers, Red Sox, and White Sox around the All-Star break. This slide caused fans once again to call for his firing but soon tunes would change.