Expanded postseason past 2020 would be beneficial to KC Royals

The KC Royals didn’t make the expanded postseason this year, but moving forward, having more playoff spots would speed the rebuild up.

The Kansas City Royals might not be playoff bound this October, but it’s not like they were far off from contending. As KC Kingdom’s own Cody Rickman noted in his article discussing the positives from the 2020 season, the Royals were in the running for a playoff spot until they were swept by the Brewers in the second to last weekend of the shortened campaign.

Something else to note is that three teams from Kansas City’s division made the postseason (and none advanced past the Wild Card round), meaning the Royals weren’t playing tiddlywinks. Yet, when push came to shove, they finished just eight games under .500 and weren’t eliminated from playoff contention until the final week of the season.

The expanded postseason makes sense for 2020 because of the season being shortened to 60 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Baseball fans have reacted mostly negatively to the amount of teams allowed in this year (over half the league!), but those same fans probably weren’t complaining at the amount of baseball we had on Wednesday, which was a lot of fun during these tough times.

If the expanded postseason does stick around past 2020, the KC Royals could find themselves in the playoffs sooner rather than later.

While there hasn’t been much buzz about keeping this expanded postseason past 2020, it wouldn’t be shocking if it did become a bigger topic of conversation at some point. Fans wouldn’t like it, but Royals fans might be okay with it, as it could allow for them to play past the regular season for the first time since they won the World Series five years ago.

The expansion could end up being something that sticks around for a few reasons. For one, money talks in any sports league and with how much of a hit MLB took this year by not having fans in the stands, they’ll be looking to get a pay day in any way that they can. Keeping the expanded postseason would do that.

Secondly, it’s generated a lot of buzz! When those eight games were taking place on Wednesday, several broadcasters referred to it as being similar to the NCAA Tournament and I have to agree. It was non-stop action and hopefully in the future, there wouldn’t be a need for the NBA to go this deep into the year, so baseball wouldn’t be competing with anything else in the middle of the week.

The Royals proved this year that while there’s room for improvement, they’re heading in the right direction. Despite facing three eventual playoff teams in their own division (as well as four other playoff teams from the NL Central), the Royals finished with a better record than many fans anticipated and the pitching in particular looked playoff worthy.

The starting rotation should be even better next year, as Brady Singer and Kris Bubic now have a season of experience under their belts. There are also some promising arms in the farm system who should be ready to contribute next year as well.

The bullpen was one of the best in the entire league and with only Greg Holland hitting free agency, that unit should continue to grow together. Plus, the Royals will have more arms joining the pen who didn’t get a chance to prove themselves in 2020.

Hitting was the downfall of the Royals this year and it wouldn’t be a bad idea for them to trade some of their promising pitching prospects for a few bats who can help this team round the corner quicker. Their hitting prospects are still a few years away.

The playoffs will probably go back to the traditional style, meaning the Royals will probably have to wait a few years to get back to October baseball. If, however, this expanded postseason format remains (even just keeping an extra team or two), the Kansas City Royals could find themselves in the playoffs and contending for a World Series.