Kansas City Royals: Mike Moustakas deserves better than this

The Kansas City Royals are awful and poor Mike Moustakas has to be a part of whatever this season is being defined as.

When the Kansas City Royals inked Mike Moustakas to a one-year deal worth $6.5 million, it was hard not to feel bad for the guy. Sure there are those out there with the “He’s an athlete, he makes plenty of money” take, but for Moustakas, $6.5 million is way less than what he and his family were expecting.

Moustakas was in a rough spot over the offseason with the free agent market going the way it did and his agent failed him. It was his own doing that got him back to Kansas City and back in a Royals uniform. Watching Moose rake on a terrible team has made it clear that he deserves so much better than the cards that were handed to him.

Moustakas was a part of a rebuild when he first was called up to Kansas City. The 2011 and 2012 seasons weren’t good, but things turned around over the next few years. He probably thought that the rest of his time as a Royal would be filled with winning seasons.

Royals fans love the guy and watching him bust his butt out there for an awful team is tough to watch.

When Moose waved good-bye to the fans at the end of the 2017 season, he probably really thought it’d be his last time donning a Royals uniform. He probably thought “West Coast, here I come!” and didn’t even think a return to Kansas City was possible.

Instead, no one wanted Moustakas in free agency and he eventually landed back with the team that drafted him second overall in 2007. Fans might be excited to have Moose back, but it’s hard to not feel bad for the guy.

Through the first 13 games of the season, Moustakas is slashing .327/.352/.596 with nine RBI, three home runs, three doubles, and a triple. He also has nine runs to his name. Moose has been the best offensive player for the boys in blue and all Royals fans should root for him to continue to be this good so that he can be traded at the deadline.

Not only that, but Moustakas padding his stats could help him maybe get a decent deal next winter when maybe the market isn’t so rough. Teams might not have trusted Moustakas’ numbers in 2017 (even though he hit 38 home runs and looked legit) or thought he wasn’t going to hold up physically.