Kansas City Royals: End of the road for Alcides Escobar as a Royal
The Kansas City Royals’ 2018 season will come to an end on Sunday. Sunday could also very well be the final time Alcides Escobar wears a Royals uniform.
The 2018 season is over for the Kansas City Royals after Sunday afternoon’s slate of games (all scheduled to start around the same time) and that means that Alcides Escobar‘s time as a Royal will likely be coming to an end as well.
We all thought the same thing last year, as Escobar, along with the other key players heading toward free agency, waved good-bye to the fans as one of the best eras of Royals baseball came to an end. Esky ended up re-signing with the Royals after a slow offseason and at the time, I thought it was a decent move.
No one expected Adalberto Mondesi to take off the way he did this year, so bringing in a veteran shortstop made sense. Escobar provided that veteran leadership for a team that was going to need it.
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Instead, it was pretty clear early on that Escobar wasn’t what he once was. He was continuously thrown into the lineup despite struggling offensively and fans were frustrated to say the least.
Not only was Esky in the lineup every day, but Ned Yost would go to great lengths to KEEP him in the lineup (like putting him at third base and in center field).
When the streak of consecutive games was finally broken and Mondesi started to show he was worth starting on a regular basis, fans saw less and less of Escobar. While it’s certainly time to part ways with Alcides Escobar, he’ll always be one of the more beloved players in Royals history.
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It wasn’t long ago when Esky was one of the best players on the team. He won the 2015 ALCS MVP after batting .478 as the leadoff man for the boys in blue in the championship series against the Blue Jays. The whole “Esky Magic” experiment during the playoff years was a thing of beauty and something that to this day, I still can’t explain.
Another amazing Escobar moment was in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series. Escobar was known for always swinging at the first pitch and in that particular game, he obviously swung at Matt Harvey‘s first pitch and went on to score an inside-the-park home run. It was an unbelievable moment and one fans will never forget.
There is a slight chance that the Royals end up bringing Alcides Escobar back in 2019, but I doubt it. It’s time for both sides to move on and let Adalberto Mondesi become the future at shortstop. That shouldn’t be too difficult after Mondesi has looked sensational this season. He’s already earned the job next year.
Even though Sunday marks (what likely will be) the final game of Alcides Escobar’s Kansas City Royals career, fans won’t forget Esky and what he brought to the franchise. Without him, some of the best moments in Royals history don’t happen.
Best of luck to Escobar in whatever the next chapter of his career entails