Kansas City Royals are one of the busiest teams this offseason

Dayton Moore and the Kansas City Royals have been hard at work this offseason.

The AL Central is only getting tougher and that means the Kansas City Royals can’t just sit back this offseason. Dayton Moore has made it a point to be aggressive and clearly, he believes in this team and their potential in 2021.

Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com ranked the Royals as the fourth busiest team (out of the six on his list) this offseason. Here’s the first portion of Castrovince’s write-up on the busy Royals,

"Since their World Series glory in 2015, the Royals have not finished higher than third place in the American League Central. They finished fourth in 2020. They have a very strong farm system but not one expected to change the fortunes of the big league ballclub overnight."

The Royals were very good in 2015, but the division was definitely in the dumps that year. Since then, it’s been getting better and all five teams are trending upwards, which only makes it tougher for the small-ball Royals to make moves and win games this year.

Castrovince continues on:

"So, no, the Royals were not expected to be one of the more aggressive acquirers of talent this offseason. To date, though, they have been. All things are relative, and Kansas City won’t be a player for the top-end free agents."

Castrovince did note that while they’re not going to land the big names in free agency, the Royals have landed names like Mike Minor and Carlos Santana, which, as he says, “brings credibility to the clubhouse”.  He also liked the signing of Michael A. Taylor, which gives KC another dependable outfielder to patrol the spacious outfield at Kauffman Stadium.

"Whether these moves will help speed up the Royals’ timetable remains to be seen. But give credit to Kansas City for not taking the path of least resistance here."

The closing statement from Castrovince is a good one. He gives credit to the organization for trying to bring in talent and keep up with their divisional foes but as he says, we don’t know if these signings will pay off or not. The Royals are going to have an incredibly difficult time in their division and had they just stood pat and not brought anyone in, it’d have been understandable, but they’re choosing to battle to be relevant.

The other teams on this list are the Padres, Mets, Rays, Rangers, and Braves (in that order with the Royals sandwiched between the Rays and Rangers). The Padres have definitely put in the work to improve this offseason, but they have to, as they have the reigning World Series champion Dodgers in their division.

Royals fans didn’t expect the team to be as aggressive as they have been this offseason and it’s made for a fun free agency. The question now is: Will these moves pay off or will the Royals finish in or near the basement of the division once again?