Kansas City Royals have to be patient during rebuild
By John McCarty
(Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
In modern baseball, the rebuilding road map has been drawn. Can the Kansas City Royals exhibit the patience and willingness to do what is necessary?
The ‘tank’ is all the rage right now in baseball, as Kansas City Royals fans are learning. Teams such as the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs reached the pinnacle after gutting their major league roster to add talent to the minor league teams.
Atlanta and Philadelphia in the NL East are neck and neck vying for the division. Both teams are emerging from complete rebuilds themselves after experiencing previous success with a core group that got old and moved on.
San Diego and the Chicago White Sox hope to replicate that success as they look to the future with strong farm systems, high draft picks and lots of potential. The road map for this process to work is out there, and much like recovery from an injury, there has become somewhat of a well-defined time frame to expect a return.
In general, it seems to be around four years. Once an organization decides it’s time to rebuild, the process takes about four years. The Astros, Cubs and now the Phillies have shown this is true. Atlanta is a year ahead of that schedule due to the rapid rise of players such as Ozzie Albies and the uber-phenom Ronald Acuna.