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

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