Kansas City Royals have to be patient during rebuild
By John McCarty
If the 2017 season was the disappointment and the current 2018 season is the first in a line of really bad seasons, we can reasonably expect to see the Royals vie for the playoffs in 2022.
If this is season that kicks off the rebuild, well, then we push that date back. Why are these dates and this time frame important? In a recent interview with Jeffrey Flanagan, Royals owner David Glass is quoted as saying he believes the Royals can contend again by 2020.
"“I think by 2020, we’ll be right in the middle of it again,” Glass said."
IF this is the case, that people in the organization truly believe they can contend again by 2020, this is why some Kansas City Royals fans might be concerned. This isn’t going to happen. Are the Royals going to spend like the Yankees, who spent a lot of money on younger talent and quickly rebuilt their roster and are now back again as one of the top teams in baseball?
The Royals, their front office and owner, must understand the process that lies before them and embrace what they have before them. Perhaps they can look in their own division for inspiration with the Cleveland Indians.
Why the Indians? Simple. They’re a small-market team that has displayed an ability to maintain extended periods of competitiveness in the every changing landscape that is this modern baseball. Between the eleven seasons of 2007 to 2017, Cleveland has won more then 90 games four times, and have finished .500 or more in seven of those seasons.
They finished with 90 losses or more three times in those 11 seasons. However, what they have done, is when things are not going well, they usually don’t hold on to veterans.