Kansas City Royals have to get off to a hot start in 2021
If the Kansas City Royals want to be in postseason contention late in the year, it’s imperative that they come out of the gate red hot to start the year.
Opening Day has arrived and for the Kansas City Royals, they can’t afford to fall into a hole in the early portion of the season. Obviously, it’s possible to dig themselves out of said hole, but with a division as tough as the American League Central, doing so will be harder than in typical seasons.
This is why the Royals need to pick up right where they left off in spring training and get off to as hot a start as possible. They get the Rangers for their first series of the season and the Rangers are a team who project to be much worse than the Royals, per PECOTA.
After that is where things get tricky, however, as the Royals then play two division opponents, Cleveland and the White Sox. Cleveland might have shipped off some good players recently but their pitching is no joke and this is a franchise that has continually been at the top of the division in recent years. The White Sox have talent all over the roster and showed last year that they’re finally ready to contend.
The Royals can’t back down in these two series. They won just one game against the White Sox a year ago and that can’t happen again in 2021 — Not if this team wants to be any kind of relevant at the end of the summer.
It might not be easy, but a hot start is key for the Kansas City Royals in 2021.
Not only would coming out of the gates red hot be a confidence booster for this team, but it’d make it tougher for the other teams in the division too. If the Royals are doing well in their first three series, that means they did well against Cleveland and White Sox, putting them in an early hole against the feisty Royals.
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Most fans aren’t expecting to see the Royals make the playoffs this year but if they’re able to play well in the first few weeks of the 2021 season, that could be all they need to make a sneaky run to the postseason in October.