Royals Time Machine: All-Time Defensive Team

SECOND BASE: FRANK WHITE

Here, again, we can look at the career hardware and have an easy decision. Kansas City Royals legend Frank White had his number retired by the club, and it wasn’t for his bat. White made his bones in major-league baseball with the leather, earning a club record eight Gold Gloves for his defensive prowess at second base.

More from KC Royals News

• KC Royals Rumors: Is a monster move in the cards?
• KC Royals Free Agent Hunt: 3 Tampa Bay pitchers
• Grading the 2022 KC Royals: The $25 million man
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Expectations met
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Day 3 update

For younger KC Royals fans who don’t remember his career, White was a Kansas City kid that came from the Royals Academy, an early 70’s attempt to teach baseball to gifted athletes who had excelled in other sports.

Frank White was the prize product of the Royals Academy, which was shut down before the end of the decade. He enjoyed an 18-year-career major league career, all in a Kansas City Royals uniform. He even helped build Kauffman Stadium as a part-time construction worker before making his debut there in the Stadium’s opening season in 1973 as a 22-year-old rookie.

White won six consecutive Gold Gloves with the KC Royals between 1978 and 1982, then snagged two more awards in 1986 and 87.

Frank White earned a club record eight Gold Gloves for his defensive prowess at second base

Frank White was one of the best defensive second-basemen of his era, and probably one of the best in the history of the game. He easily gets the nod as the second-sacker for the Kansas City Royals all-time defensive team.

The only real competition for the job comes from Mark Grudzielanek, who played three years in a Kansas City uniform from 2006-08. Though in his late thirties when he came to the KC Royals organization as a free-agent, he won his only career Gold Glove with the team in 2007 (age 37).

Though a steady second baseman, Grudzielanek wasn’t in the same defensive universe as Frank White.

Next: Shortstop