Kansas City Royals already saying good bye to key players

With their season already over for all intents and purposes, the Kansas City Royals have turned their attention to saying good bye to some of their star talent.

The 2017 MLB season is almost officially in the books, but for all intents and purposes it is already over for the Kansas City Royals. With nothing left to play for, the Royals have turned their attention to the elephant in the room, and they don’t seem to be making any secret about what is going to happen.

Kansas City is facing a nightmare of an offseason as several of their young core players are up for free agency. It is expected that the Royals won’t be able to retain these star players, except for possibly one or two. The drawbacks of being a small market team are rearing their head again.

Of the pending free agents, the two that are the most talked about are Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas. The Royals star corner players both had breakout years in 2017, and are expected to cash in big with their next contracts. That means KC is unlikely to be able to afford either of them.

Bidding Adieu

With the writing on the wall, the Kansas City Royals have actually been talking about this quite a bit. Normally you will get a lot of “coach speak” this time of year about how nothing is certain about the future. However, the Royals are talking about enjoying their last moments with the star players.

“You couldn’t ask for a better group of guys to spend the last six years with.” ~ Lorenzo Cain on Royals pending free agency.

Ned Yost touched on the subject himself, telling the Kansas City Star: “You would really like to just give them a couple of days off. It’s hard to do because our fans are going to want to see them. They want to see them this last home stand.” While that doesn’t directly say the players are leaving, the underlying thought is pretty clear.

For their own part, Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer haven’t said much about free agency. Both have taken the “we’ll see what happens” angle. It’s respectable, but nobody is really buying it. Lorenzo Cain, another pending star free agent, was a bit more open about it, saying: “You couldn’t ask for a better group of guys to spend the last six years with.”

Not All Hope Is Lost

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Granted, none of this makes for certain that the Kansas City Royals will be losing all of their star free agents. If you want to be really optimistic, you could even argue it’s possible they will sign several of them. GM Dayton Moore has insisted the Royals will be competitive in trying to keep their homegrown talent.

There has been a good deal of speculation that the Royals will make strong plays for Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar. Prior to the season beginning, Dayton Moore was in talks with Eric Hosmer’s agent Scott Boras. So Kansas City hasn’t officially given up hope on making some moves here.

However, the odds just seemed stacked against the Royals. When the big money teams like the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers get involved, it will be tough for KC to make a competing offer. All the signs are pointing to the end of this current group’s run in Kansas City.

The past several years of Kansas City Royals have been fun. Though the last two seasons ended in disappointment, Kansas City fans still have a World Series title, and a pair of AL Championships to hang their hats on. The Royals did right by their fans with this current core group, but it appears that time has ended.