Kansas City Royals: Keys to a successful 2018 season

BIG CONTRACT PLAYERS LIVING UP TO THEIR DEALS

After the Kansas City Royals won the World Series in 2015, Dayton Moore was able to up the payroll a bit. In turn, Alex Gordon and Ian Kennedy received the two largest contracts in Royals history. Neither guy has lived up to the amount on their paychecks.

Let’s start with Alex Gordon. He’s been awful since inking that $72 million deal two years ago and his abysmal spring training numbers don’t exactly instill confidence in the fans. Gordon’s value is in the outfield on defense, where he probably will win the game for the Royals. On the flip side, however, he’ll lose the team some games too due to his poor hitting abilities.

The Royals are paying these two way too much money to be terrible.

Now onto Ian Kennedy. Starting pitchers are never cheap and Kennedy happened to hit the market in an offseason where pitchers were making absolute BANK. Yes, even the mediocre ones. Kennedy reaped the benefits of that and has not lived up to the bill.

Last season Kennedy was horrible. Always noted as an “innings eater”, Kennedy didn’t come through there, throwing 154 innings compared to his 195.2 in 2016. He was disappointing and has to step it up in 2018.

Simply put – the Royals are paying these two way too much money to be terrible. If Gordon can hit… say .250?… then I think Royals fans would be content with that. At this point, it doesn’t look like he’s going to get back to the Gordo we once knew and loved.

As for Kennedy, he had a nice 2016 season for the Royals and his 2017 campaign was off to a decent start. Injuries grabbed hold last year, so that will be a big factor for Kennedy in year three of his deal.

If these two players keep struggling, then it’ll be hard for the Royals to add to their rebuilding corps. At least through free agency.