Kansas City Royals receive a C on their August report card
The Kansas City Royals haven’t been good this season and that’s not a surprise. That’s exactly why they received a C on their report card for the month of August.
Jacob Shafer of Bleacher Report graded all 30 MLB teams for what they did in August and the Kansas City Royals received a C.
"The Kansas City Royals are in last place in the AL Central, which is no great surprise. They were supposed to be a rebuilding club, and that’s what they’ve been.The trade that sent veteran reliever Trevor Rosenthal to the San Diego Padres on Saturday for outfielder Edward Olivares and a player to be named was exactly the type of move the Royals should be making."
The Royals haven’t gone on too many winning streaks this season and haven’t notched many series victories, but up until they sent Rosenthal to San Diego, there was still a chance for them to keep their hat in their ring when it came to the postseason. While theoretically that’s still possible, it’s not plausible, as Rosenthal removes their closer and that’s a pretty big subtraction from their bullpen.
Even though Kansas City is currently 13-21, they’ve been in the majority of their games. Their recent road trip against the Cardinals and White Sox proved just that, as they were in every single one of those games, but failed to close things out.
The rotation hasn’t been great, but fans are starting to see what the future holds there. Brady Singer and Kris Bubic might not have the most eye popping stats, but neither guy seems rattled when things aren’t going his way. They’re both still very confident every time they take the mound.
The bullpen was the highlight of this team and it’ll be interesting to see how they finish out the season without Rosenthal. Josh Staumont and Scott Barlow are still studs out of the pen and guys like Kyle Zimmer and Jake Newberry have been impressive as well. Fans are starting to slowly, but surely see the pieces fall into place for this team.
The offense has its fair share of ups and downs and has been doing well recently, but Adalberto Mondesi has had a really tough time at the plate and unfortunately he’s out of options, so the Royals have to ride things out with him.
A “C” grade is fair for the Kansas City Royals because while they haven’t been winning a ton of games, no one expected them to. They’re showing strides toward being able to compete in the foreseeable future and that’s what was the most important thing for this shortened 2020 season.