Kansas City Royals Midseason Awards: Moose or Salvy for MVP?

Kansas City Royals MVP and Comeback Player of the Year: Mike Moustakas

Salvador Perez and Jason Vargas have been tremendous this season, but it’s the Royals’ other All-Star Game representative who has put this team in position to compete for a postseason spot.

Moustakas, who needed a second Final Vote victory in the past three seasons to reach the Midsummer Classic, is on pace to shatter Steve Balboni’s franchise record of 36 homers in a season. His 25 first-half dingers got him into the Home Run Derby, where he narrowly lost in the first round to eventual runner-up Miguel Sano.

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Despite trailing the third baseman by seven home runs, Perez is a worthy Royals MVP candidate with three more RBIs (57 to 54) and a .290 batting average to Moose’s .270. Vargas, meanwhile, has put together one of the best starts to the season by a Royals pitcher in the past 25 years.

Moustakas, though, has been a revelation, especially considering the tempered expectations as he came back from a mostly lost season.

It’s no coincidence that the only time in the past five seasons the Royals have failed to even contend for the playoffs came when Moustakas missed a majority of the 2016 campaign with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Recovering from a torn ACL to hit 25 home runs in the first 87 games of the season made Moose a fairly easy choice for KC’s Comeback Player of the Year, but it also sets him up to possibly take home the American League’s official award come season’s end.

Runners-up: Perez (MVP) and Mike Minor (Comeback POY)

Kansas City Royals Pitcher of the Year: Jason Vargas

As mentioned on the previous slide, Vargas has been phenomenal in putting together a 12-3 record before tossing a scoreless inning—fittingly with no strikeouts—in Tuesday’s All-Star Game.

The left-hander has had arguably the best first half by a Royals starting pitcher since the Cy Young Award winning seasons of Zack Greinke (2009) or David Cone (1994).

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Entering the second half, Vargas leads the AL in wins (12) and ERA (2.62). He’s tied for first with Toronto Blue Jays hurler Marcus Stroman with a 4.0 WAR, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

Greinke was 10-5 with a 2.12 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP at the All-Star break in 2009 when he went on to win the Royals’ most recent Cy Young Award. In 1994, Cone had a 12-4 record with a 2.88 ERA and 1.04 WHIP at the season’s unofficial midway point.

It will take a nearly flawless rest of the season—or a complete collapse from Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale—for Vargas to have a legitimate chance at winning the club’s fifth Cy Young Award. (Along with Greinke and Cone, Bret Saberhagen also took home the honor in 1985 and 1989.)

Regardless, Dr. Vargas has been surgical in his precision, while pitching like the anti-Sale. A fastball that hangs around in the mid-80s has worked just fine for Vargas thanks to his pinpoint control and a fantastic curveball to complement it.

Runner-up: Minor

Kansas City Royals Biggest Surprise: Mike Minor

After a pair of silver medals, Minor finally gets his gold in the form of biggest surprise of the first half.

As with the NBA’s Most Improved Player of the Year award, this honor would seem to be somewhat of a slap in the face. Obviously, it is preferred to be the biggest surprise as opposed to the biggest disappointment (See next slide.), but it still means that little was expected of a player at the beginning of the season.

Kansas City Royals

It’s hard to blame those who expected nothing out of Minor, even though he made the Royals’ opening day roster.

Minor had not pitched in the Major Leagues since 2014. In his five seasons with the Atlanta Braves, the team that drafted him seventh overall in 2009, he had only pitched out of the bullpen once in 111 appearances.

Fast-forward to now and Minor is making those who doubted him look pretty stupid and general manager Dayton Moore look pretty smart.

The lefty has a sparkling 1.87 ERA and 0.97 WHIP—both of which lead the team—to go with a 5-1 record.

Those stats aren’t influenced by a small sample size either. Minor has pitched 43 1/3 innings over 35 games. The innings are the most for any non-starter and the appearances rank fourth on the team.

Runner-up: Whit Merrifield

Kansas City Royals Biggest Disappointment: Brandon Moss

If the biggest surprise award is a slap in the face, then the biggest disappointment honor (or dishonor) is a punch to the gut … or maybe lower.

It’s never a good sign for a team when picking the biggest disappointment is so difficult.

Betsided

One could go with the opening day second baseman who hit .095 through 42 at-bats before finally being sent down to the minors.

Or the corner outfielder who has five homers and a .195 average while making $16 million in the second year of an increasingly ludicrous four-year, $72 million deal.

Or the other corner outfielder who—after being traded straight up for one of the most dominant closers the game has seen in recent years—has had injury problems and struck out in 33 of his 88 at-bats.

While Raul Mondesi, Alex Gordon and Jorge Soler all have legitimate claim to being the worst of the first (half), the title has to go to Moss.

Another everyday starter hitting below the Mendoza Line (.193), Moss has whacked 10 home runs but done little else after being brought in to replace the departed Kendrys Morales, who has 16 homers and 48 RBIs for Toronto.

A designated hitter with 16 runs driven in over 181 ABs is hard to believe. A team deciding to stick with said DH that long is unfathomable.

Runner-up: Soler

Handing out midseason awards is clearly about looking back at what happened in the first half of the season, but it can also give a glimpse at what to expect the rest of the way.

What becomes abundantly clear when sifting through the Royals’ first-half statistics, more guys need to step up if this team is going to continue a postseason push.

The offense has had to rely far too often on Moustakas and Perez. Eric Hosmer has been solid after a terrible start, while Lorenzo Cain was amazing in June, but that still isn’t enough to carry an offense through September.

On the pitching side of things, injuries have derailed the season of every starter, save Vargas. The pressure on him to carry the rotation the rest of the way could be asking too much of the 34-year-old.

However, if the staff can stay healthy in the second half, there is no reason why Danny Duffy, Ian Kennedy and even Jason Hammel can’t help take the load off of Vargas.

In turn, the staff should also be able to lighten the burden on the bullpen. Kelvin Herrera and Joakim Soria have struggled at times holding on to leads at the back end, but being able to bridge the gap has also been an issue.

Next: Recapping topsy-turvy first half

If some additional players can step up over the coming months, maybe the Royals’ postseason award winners will differ from the midseason honorees. Perhaps even Moss will rise up and challenge Moose and Salvy for MVP. … Yeah, that is probably asking a bit too much.