Kansas City Royals: How the shift impacts the Royals

What is the shift, how does the shift impact the Kansas City Royals, and how do the Royals use the shift? Time to dive into an intriguing aspect of Major League Baseball.

“The math works. Over the course of a season, there’s some predictability to baseball. When you play 162 games, you eliminate a lot of random outcomes. There’s so much data that you can predict: individual player’s performances and also the odds that certain strategies will pay off” is a quote that the Oakland Athletics’ General Manager Billy Beane once stated.

Billy Beane is often linked with analysis, sabermetrics, and anything that can give his Athletics an edge. This includes using the shift. As I asked above, what is the shift and how do the Kansas City Royals use the shift?

For those who may not know what a shift is, the shift is “a term used to describe the situational defensive alignment of fields away from their ‘traditional’ starting points”, states MLB. In short, a “shift” is where the defensive team loads up one side of the field with players to match the statistical likelihood of the batter hitting to the loaded side of the field. As Royals fans, we saw plenty of this action when Mike Moustakas played here.

How does the shift impact the Kansas City Royals?

According to MLB’s Baseball Savant, they listed the shift being used a total of 31,932 times last year. KC batters were shifted on a total of 1,715 times which was in stark contrast to the least shifted lineup, the Los Angeles Angels at 206.

Last year’s lineup consisted of Salvador Perez, Lucas Duda, Whit Merrifield, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar, Alex Gordon, Abraham Almonte, and Jorge Bonifacio. That group hit a total of 1,809, which was near the bottom of teams who hit the most ground balls. They also hit 2,447 fly outs. This is to say that last year’s group’s focus was not on on-base percentages or traditional baseball. Their focus was the long ball.

So, how can Kansas City beat the shift? Russell Carleton of Baseball Prospectus wrote,

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"“It seems that hitters have already figured out the best way to beat The Shift. Let the pitcher walk you”."

So, an increase in plate discipline could beat it. Another way to beat the shift is to do what Hall of Famer William Keeler once touted, “hit em where they ain’t”. To do that, hitters should consider hitting the ball to the opposite of the shift. Or, they can try bunting the ball. Or they can try slapping the ball towards the backhand of shortstop.

This year the Royals loaded their lineup to consist of guys who would get on base more, spray the ball to many spots on the field, and drive up the pitch counts. This team fields Alex Gordon, Whit Merrifield, Martin Maldonado, Jorge Soler, Terrance Gore, Chris Owings, Adalberto Mondesi, Ryan O’Hearn, Hunter Dozier, Billy Hamilton, and Kelvin Gutierrez.

While this lineup does not strike offensive fear nor does the lineup scream on a higher on base percentage. The beauty of this line up is that it is laying the foundation for higher competition.

What does this mean? This means a total shift away from what the rest of the league has focused on which is hitting the long ball. While Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, Manny Machado, or Bryce Harper walk up and with one whack of the bat change the perplexity of the game, the Royals are shifting their focus to traditional baseball fundamentals.

In focusing on things like on-base percentages, hitting the ball to the opposite field, and steals, the Royals are beating the shift while also laying the foundation that their future teams will be more competitive. Currently, the Royals are tenth in Balls in Play with 690. They are currently leading the league in steals with 28, which masks a poor On Base Percentage (.315) as well as Walks (91).

This also ties into how the Royals are using the shift. The Royals are using the shift as a teaching moment to their younger players (those at the MLB level and to their minor league players) .

Currently, they are tied at 11th with 23 double plays, which relates to the 234 times KC hurlers have induced the ground balls for outs. They also have induced 22 double plays. This is also laying the foundation for their future teams.

Next. All-Time Royals Leaders in RBIs. dark

The Royals have shifted away from big time bats and fancy plays. Instead, they have focused on setting a model that is based around solid pitching (maybe not relief pitching although there are some pieces there), good defense, hitting to all sides of the field, selflessness, and solid base running.

While this focus may not translate to postseason play this shift will lay the foundation for their future stars to follow.

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