Kansas City Royals: How 2020 team can get to 71 wins

The Kansas City Royals finished the 2019 season with 59 wins. With offseason acquisitions, position realignment, and player development, the Royals are poised to gain 12.0 WAR projecting for 71 wins.

The Kansas City Royals had some holes in their lineup last season with first base rated 30th, right field rated 27th, centerfield rated 26th, and catcher rated 25th in the league by WAR.

Let’s discuss how the Royals’ offseason acquisitions, position realignment, and player development will help the Royals raise their position WAR rankings at each of these positions to generate 12 more wins in 2020.

First Base – Ryan O’Hearn and Ryan McBroom (soft platoon)

The Royals were absolutely awful at first base in 2019, ranking dead last in the league with -2.9 WAR generated, hitting .218/.286/.361 worth 68 wRC+. According to Jeffrey Flanagan at royals.com, the Royals are planning to utilize Ryan O’Hearn and Ryan McBroom in a soft platoon at first base for the 2020 season.

The soft platoon of O’Hearn and McBroom could result in a +6 WAR swing for the 2020 season and bump the Royals into a top-10 positional ranking for first base. The offseason development of both O’Hearn and McBroom appears to be coming to fruition during spring training with each hitting over a .300 batting average with three home runs apiece.

If both O’Hearn and McBroom are able to carry over this success at the plate into the regular season, they could bump the offensive output at first base to a stat line of .260/.350/.490 with +35 home runs and +60 extra base hits.

O’Hearn is poised to take the lion’s share of at-bats against RHP and should outperform his projections to hit near .260/.340/.490 with +25 home runs.

McBroom has been on fire during spring training, showing the power he displayed in AAA for the New York Yankees prior to the Royals acquiring him late last season. McBroom is also set-up to outperform his 2020 projections and could hit around .275/.345/.460 with +12 home runs.

O’Hearn and McBroom are at least league average with their defense and base running. Combining a substantial improvement of their offensive production to average defense and baserunning should produce a 3.1 WAR season with the platoon.

The first base position alone should produce +6 WAR more than it did in 2019. The “soft platoon” will be employed for the hot hitter, so O’Hearn could see at-bats against LHPs and McBroom against RHPs if their bat is playing up at the time.

Improvement: +6 Wins