KC Royals: The 5 Worst Moves of Royals GM Dayton Moore

It has been just over ten years since David Glass and the KC Royals signed Dayton Moore to be their General Manager.  The year Moore was hired, June 2006, the KC Royals lost exactly 100 games on their way to another 5th place finish in the AL Central.

In fact, before Dayton Moore took over as the KC Royals General Manager, the team had exactly one winning season since the strike in the mid 90’s where in 2003, the KC Royals went 83 – 79. The stretch of futility after the 1995 – 1996 strike included three 90+ loss seasons and four 100 loss seasons including the season Dayton Moore was hired.

The very worst of season, which many of us KC Royals fans will fondly remember, was 2005 where the team lost 106 games and finished exactly 43 games out of first place. The futility of the 2005 season was however overshadowed a bit by the fact that it was sandwiched between two other 100 loss seasons in 2004 and 2006.

Those dark days in the KC Royals past have been compartmentalized by most of us and after miles of self-help tapes, we have moved on. The best therapy for Royals fans however has been the fact that the team improved their regular season win total in every season beginning in 2009.  Then of course, the demons were completely exercised in 2015 when the KC Royals took home a World Championship Trophy.

To be sure, Dayton Moore made some very astute moves during that period to pull the KC Royals out of the cellar. John Viril recently posted an article highlighting the 10 best moves that Dayton Moore has made since becoming the GM. Some of the highlights include hiring Ned Yost as the next manager, trading Zach Greinke and Yunieski Betancourt for Lorenzo Cain, Alcedes Escobar, and Jake Odorizzi, and trading for James Shields, Wade Davis, and Elliot Johnson.

However, while you will not find anyone in KC Royals land right now who would rather have anyone other than Dayton Moore as GM, including me, nobody is perfect. Even the great Dayton Moore has made a few mistakes along the way. The following are the Top Five Worst Moves that Dayton Moore has made since being named General Manager of the KC Royals.

Next: Mistake No. 5

4: Royals Pass on Chris Sale, Draft Christian Colon

The KC Royals had the 4th pick in the 2010 draft. As draft day neared, the buzz surrounding the KC Royals was that they were looking to draft a pitcher, and that pitcher was going to be the left handed Chris Sale.

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Conversations with Chris Sale in the past about his experience leading up to the draft stated that he had communications with KC off an on but when draft day came, KC opted to go with a bat. The bat the KC Royals chose was SS Christian Colon out of Cal State Fullerton.

Since being drafted, Sale has been worth 28.6 WAR, has a career ERA of 2.91, and has averaged around 200 IP per season since his first full MLB season in 2012. To put that into perspective, Bryce Harper has 21.8 WAR and was drafted the same year as Sale.  So it is safe to say that not only has Sale been good, but he is an “ACE” in every sense of the word.

Meanwhile, Christian Colon has been somewhat of a disappointment posting a career totaling 1.5 WAR with short stints on the Royals MLB roster. He did have a big hit in the 2015 World Series, however I believe the KC Royals win that series without Colon and therefore I would obviously rather have Sale.

Other notable picks in 2010 picked after Christian Colon: Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Cory Dickerson, Drew Smyly, Drew Pomeranz and Andrelton Simmons.

Next: Mistake No. 3

3: Dayton Moore Trades Melky Cabrera for LHP Jonathan Sanchez

In Melky Cabrera’s first and only full season with the KC Royals, Cabrera posted a .305/.339/.470 slashline as the Royals regular center fielder in 2011. While Cabrera wasn’t exactly a gold glove defensive player, he was more than good enough given his offensive output and in his season in KC, Cabrera had a 4.4 WAR.

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The 2011 KC Royals outfield featured Cabrera in CF, newly moved Gordon in LF, and Jeff Francoeur in RF. However, a new high-upside prospect in the KC Royals farm system named Lorenzo Cain was ready to make his move to MLB Royals, and Cabrera was apparently blocking that move.

The KC Royals had several pitching prospects in the pipeline at the time but General Manager Dayton Moore believed the Royals needed a guy with some experience to help in the rotation. Dayton Moore also could have traded Francoeur and move Cabrera to RF freeing up a spot for Lorenzo Cain in CF.  Moore however opted to trade Cabrera following a near career season for LHP Jonathan Sanchez.

Sanchez’s previous bright spot was 2010 when he was 13-9 with a 3.07 ERA in a year the Giants beat the Rangers. Moore believed Sanchez was a “#3 starter on a championship club”.  As a KC Royal however, Sanchez was disaster.

Sanchez lasted only about 1/2 a season in KC starting 12 games and posting a 7.76 ERA. Sanchez was traded midway through the 2012 season for Colorado Rockies Right Hander Jeremy Guthrie as Guthrie needed a change of scenery and the Sanchez experience in KC had already worn thin.

If Dayton Moore was set on trading Melky Cabrera, there were many suitors given his big season the year before he was traded. Despite Cabrera getting suspended for half the following season for PED usage, the Royals still got by far the worst end of this deal.

Next: Mistake No. 2

2: Dayton Moore Signs Jose Guillen

After the 2007 season, Dayton Moore, the somewhat new Royals GM at the time, signed Jose Guillen to a 3 year $36 million dollar contract. If Guillen stayed all three years, it would be the first time in his career which began in 1997 that he had spent three years on the same team.

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Dayton Moore was just beginning his KC Royals rebuild and while he was in the midst of drafting much of the core we Royals fans enjoy watching today, Moore still had to field an MLB team in the mean time and had already given a big contract to pitcher Gil Meche the year before.

As mentioned above, Guillen never spent 3 full seasons on any team, and as the KC Royals found out, it was for good reason. The year before Dayton Moore signed Guillen, he posted a slashline of .290/353.460 with a WAR of 3.5 for Seattle.  Unfortunately for the KC Royals and Dayton Moore, the 2007 season in Seattle was somthing Guillen couldn’t duplicate in KC.

In 2.5 season with the Royals, Guillen never had an OPS above .743, which was well below his .813 ops the year before the Royals signed him. But Guillen’s performance was only half the problem.

The other half of the problem was that Jose Guillen turned out to be a cancer in the locker room. Guillen claims that his intent was to light a fire under the Royals. Other sources state Guillen was simply just an immature hot-head lashing out when things didn’t go his way and taking it out on fans and other players. Regardless the reason, this turned out to be one of Dayton Moore’s worst moves since he became GM of the Royals.

Next: Mistake No. 1

1: Dayton Moore hires Trey Hillman. 

It is possible to slide some of Dayton Moore’s moves up or down the scale a bit depending on perspective. One could argue that maybe the Sanchez trade was worse than the Guillen signing. Or maybe even that passing on Chris Sale shouldn’t be on the list since we don’t really know if he would have excelled in the KC Royals organization the way that he did with the White Sox. But I don’t think anyone can dispute that hiring Trey Hillman as Royals manager was the worst move of Dayton Moore’s career.

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• 3 outfielders the KC Royals should consider protecting

Hillman was signed by the KC Royals in March of 2008 based upon his success as a manager in the Japanese baseball leagues. That success did not carryover into MLB as he went 152-207 as the KC Royals manager finishing no higher than 4th in the AL Central. Hillman’s stint was short lived as he was fired by Dayton Moore just 35 games into the 2010 season.

Hillman’s managerial style honed in Japan never translated well into the big leagues. In one occasion, after a spring training game, Hillman actually gathered the team at home plate to discuss fundamentals. Worse yet was Hillman’s handling of the pitching staff, mainly Gil Meche.

In December 2006 Meche was signed to the biggest contract at Royals history at that time for five years and $55 million.  Meche had two very good seasons with the Royals in 2007 and 2008 including an All-Star appearance in 2007. However, during a season in which overuse had worn down the arm of Meche, Hillman continued to trot Meche out to the mound and leave him in well beyond 120 pitches on occasion.

This handling of Meche ended his pitching career, one that could have been as productive as any of Dayton Moores great moves fans continue to talk about.

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So, while Dayton Moore has done exactly what he was hired to do, which was build a championship ball club, it wasn’t without several bumps along the way. But in my opinion, the man is certainly the best GM in the game right now.