How are the KC Royals so bad four years removed from a World Series title?
The KC Royals won the World Series in 2015 and it was awesome! Since then, however, the team has sunken back into mediocrity and currently have one of the worst records in all of Major League Baseball. So, what the heck happened?
The Kansas City Royals have had an interesting history. They were competitive during their early years, but after they won the World Series in 1985, things were pretty bad for a long time.
That World Series marked the last time the Royals would partake in the postseason for 29 years. They finally broke that ugly record in 2014 and made it all the way to Game 7 of the World Series that year, only to lose to the San Francisco Giants.
The next year, we all know what happened. The Royals rebounded and brought home the franchise’s second championship. The hope was that there’d never again be a stretch of time quite like that 29-year drought, but the last two years haven’t painted a pretty picture for Royals fans.
After winning it all in 2015, the Royals had their marquee players for another two seasons, neither of which resulted in a postseason appearance. That was a disappointment, but the Royals were competitive and made a run toward the playoffs for the duration of both those seasons, which was all we could ask of them.
After the 2017 season wrapped up, fans knew what was about to happen. Several of those lovable players from the 2015 World Series team were hitting free agency and that was going to hit the Royals pretty dang hard.
… and hey, what do you know? It did hit them pretty hard!
Now the Royals had no legitimate solution at first base. They didn’t have a clutch center fielder. Even though Mike Moustakas re-signed on a one-year deal, fans knew he wouldn’t be in Kansas City for long.
Not only that, but the dominant bullpen of the 2014 and 2015 seasons was long gone. Kelvin Herrera, the last member of the H-D-H trio was traded in the 2018 season and that marked the end of an era for the Royals. The bullpen has been a train wreck (that’s putting it nicely actually) ever since.
Another big reason as to why the Royals are this bad is because Dayton Moore and the front office haven’t drafted well. A strong case could be made that after Eric Hosmer, the team didn’t have a successful first round pick (though Hunter Dozier is rounding the corner now and that’s good to see).
If first round picks don’t pan out, that hurts a team tremendously. The Royals weren’t hitting on those vital draft picks and it shows. Guys like Bubba Starling and Kyle Zimmer should have been heavily contributing to this team after the other marquee guys left, but Zimmer just made his debut this year and Starling has still yet to get that call-up.
Moore also hasn’t been doing well in free agent signings and that was a huge part of the Royals’ success during those fun years. Just about every free agent brought in ended up being a home run signing.
In the last two years, we’ve seen guys like Jon Jay, Lucas Duda (twice now), Chris Owings, Homer Bailey, and Brad Boxberger brought in to help this team compete. The end result has not been pretty.
Not only have those guys mostly turned out to be flops, but they’re blocking minor league prospects who should be taking their lumps in the big leagues now while the stakes aren’t as high. This is when you find out what kind of talent you have and the Royals keep going with washed up players who don’t have much left in the tank.
Another HUGE part as to why the Royals are so bad so quickly after their title is that Moore made some really, really bad trades.
The first one that comes to mind is the one with the Padres in 2017 that sent potential star Matt Strahm to San Diego in exchange for three pitchers, who did next to nothing as Royals. None of those three pitchers are with the Royals now. That’s the textbook definition of a bad trade.
The trade with the Brewers last year that sent Moustakas to Milwaukee in exchange for Jorge Lopez and Brett Phillips has been another bust of a trade too. Neither guy has shown much of anything in the year they’ve been with the organization.
Those were two VERY different trades, as the one with the Padres was when the Royals were still relevant and the latter was when they were far from it, but the Royals swung and missed on both deals. They really could have used Strahm right now, whether as a starter or a reliever, and while trading Moustakas was the right move, they should have targeted other prospects that could have helped the organization in their rebuild.
Next. Best Royals During the Dark Years. dark
While almost all franchises slip into irrelevancy for a period of time at some point, the KC Royals went 29 years being irrelevant. After two years of making the World Series, they’ve fallen off HARD and it’s understandable why fans are worried about this team once again.