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

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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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.