Kansas City Royals: Five Most Disappointing Players in 2017

Honorable Mention

Labeling players as disappointing is an incredibly subjective practice. Some view it as strictly the difference between what a player is reasonably expected to contribute and what they ultimately bring to the team. However, mitigating factors, such as injuries, also need to be taken into account. A player’s salary also can influence the decision or what other players were involved in a trade to acquire them.

So before we dive into the five most disappointing Kansas City Royals of 2017, let’s hand out a few honorable mention awards. (Note: We did not include any deadline trade acquisitions—even though Trevor Cahill and Brandon Maurer have disappointed—because their impact on half of the season is less damaging than these other players’ impact on a full one.)

• Raul Mondesi — Named the Opening Day second baseman, the then-21-year-old was put in a situation in which he was never going to succeed. He has hit much better since being recalled.
• Jorge Soler — Came with a Wade Davis-sized price tag, but Soler also struggled to stay healthy. He was always seen as more of a future piece than a 2017 starter.
• Joakim Soria — Leads the team with seven blown saves, but that’s about what fans expected from him anyway. Given where the bar was set, Soria didn’t disappoint as much as some others did.

And now, on to the main event. (Another note: The following five players are not listed in any sort of best-to-worst or worst-to-best order. They are strictly listed in alphabetical order.)

Alcides Escobar

Don’t let a few decent weeks at the dish disguise the fact that Alcides Escobar has had a rough season. He was never expected to be a .300 hitter, but it’s taken him hitting .375 in September just to pull his overall average up to .250. There are other factors at play, but Escobar is a fairly good barometer for how the Kansas City Royals are playing.

Escobar hit .171 in April and .197 in May. He turned things on as the team heated up in June, slugging .412 in the month. July saw Escobar hit two home runs and drive in 17 runs after entering the month with one homer and 20 RBI on the entire season. He swooned in August, and, as mentioned before, turned it on when the calendar flipped to September.

Escobar is one of the cheapest players on this list.

He will finish up a six-year, $21.75 million deal this season. It’s difficult to see the team re-signing him with Mondesi waiting in the wings. It could be argued Mondesi should have seen more playing time at the expense of Escobar. However, the streaky shortstop always seemed to go on a hot streak just as it looked he might be benched.

Even if the Kansas City Royals get eliminated in the coming days, Ned Yost might elect to keep Escobar in the starting lineup to preserve his consecutive starts streak. If he starts all 162 games, it will be for the third time in four years.

Unfortunately, Yost’s loyalty has led to Escobar being one of the primary scapegoats in 2017. All you need to know is Escobar has the second-worst OPS (.616) in baseball among qualified hitters. The worst OPS? Well …

Alex Gordon

Even the staunchest Alex Gordon supporters out there would find it hard to argue his place is not earned among the most disappointing Kansas City Royals of 2017. As the previous slide teased, not only does Gordon own the lowest OPS (.606) of any qualified hitter, but also the veteran outfielder is the highest-paid player on the team (four-year, $72 million deal).

That’s a tailor-made definition for most disappointing player. Gordon struggled in 2016, so the expectations weren’t sky-high coming into 2017. However, most people kept their fingers crossed for a bounce-back season.

Instead, he’s fallen further off the cliff.

In 2016, Gordon staggered to a .220/.312/.380 triple-slash line with a .695 OPS. One year later, he’s currently at .210/.292/.314 with the aforementioned .606 OPS. And that is with Gordon playing extremely well in September. In his 19 games this month, the 33-year-old is batting .288 and getting on base one out of every three at-bats. His OPS—which was a minuscule .418 in August—was .842 this month, entering Thursday’s game.

But it’s not nearly enough to wipe out five utterly horrendous months. He has just eight home runs on the season, although one did set a record.

It would not be a stretch to argue Yost’s unwillingness to bench Gordon early in the season might have cost this team a playoff spot. The counter-argument would be there was no natural replacement for Gordon in left field until Melky Cabrera arrived. Even when that happened, Yost stuck with Gordon in left. A hot September does not vindicate coach nor player.

Kelvin Herrera

With Kelvin Herrera making an appearance on this list, a theme is starting to form in these selections. All three players mentioned thus far have been senselessly supported by Yost when evidence to the contrary proves he needs to make a change.

Herrera was an All-Star in 2015 and 2016, which is not easy to do being a set-up man, and justifiably so. He was even better in 2014. Over those three seasons, he allowed a total of 11 home runs, including none in 2014; this season, Herrera has allowed nine dingers. His success is why the Kansas City Royals felt OK getting rid of Davis.

They thought they had a legitimate closer on the squad. It’s hard to blame Dayton Moore and Co. for thinking that. Davis had arm issues in 2016, while Herrera posted a ludicrous 86:12 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Everything changed when he assumed the closer’s role in 2017.

It’s a job not every great relief pitcher is able to pull off. Herrera is clearly a more effective set-up man. That became obvious rather early in the season, as Herrera often had to escape trouble in save opportunities and gave up runs in non-save situations.

Yost stuck with him, though. Even when Scott Alexander had to save him in the ninth inning in August, and when Alexander did it again the first day of September. Yost said he had replaced Herrera with a committee on Sept. 8, but that didn’t last long. He blew another save against Cleveland on Sept. 14 and has pitched just once since then.

Ian Kennedy

When a starting pitcher needs 12 starts to record his first win of the season, they deserve strong consideration for this list. When said starting pitcher is making $13.5 million—second most on the team—this season, they are guaranteed a spot on this list. That’s life now for Ian Kennedy, whom the Kansas City Royals signed to a speculative five-year, $70 million deal after winning the World Series.

Kennedy was more than adequate in 2016.

He pitched to an 11-11 record with a 3.68 ERA over 195 2/3 innings. If he repeated that in 2017, no one would complain. If he had regressed a bit (I mean, he is 32), the Kansas City Royals would be a playoff team. Instead, Kennedy did exactly what he did with the San Diego Padres—follow up a .500 season with an absolute stinker.

Kansas City Royals

For the Padres, that meant dealing with a 9-15 record and 4.28 ERA in 2015. The Royals would gladly take that right now. Kennedy’s record sits at 4-12 and his eye-sore ERA is at 5.39. It’s been a strange season to say the least.

Despite pitching quite well in April, Kennedy didn’t earn his first win until June 16. That victory improved his record to 1-6. He proceeded to reel off three more wins and entered August with a respectable 4-6 mark. More importantly, the Kansas City Royals had won eight of his past nine starts—the lone exception coming against the Los Angeles Dodgers when they were still hot.

Since then, he’s 0-6 and seems to be burnt out. Kennedy has allowed 31 home runs—the third straight season he’s given up over 30—but the most concerning thing is his complete drop off in K/9 (from 8.5 down to 7.3). Kennedy told the Kansas City Star’s Rustin Dodd he’s not planning to opt-out of his contract, so we’ll see if he recovers in 2018.

Brandon Moss

When the Kansas City Royals signed Brandon Moss during the offseason, they knew he wasn’t the same player that almost single-handedly beat them in the American League Wild Card Game in 2014. But they definitely thought he would be better than this.

Moss signed a two-year deal worth $12 million prior to the season, but he is only earning $3.5 million this year. That makes him the cheapest player on this list. However, that alone is not enough to absolve a designated hitter from not hitting well.

His power has been fairly consistent throughout the season. (He has at least three home runs in every month except June when he had none.) But even his counting stats (22 home runs and 49 RBI) lag well behind what he did in St. Louis last year (28 home runs and 67 RBI). The main problem with Moss, though, is his triple-slash line. His batting average and on-base percentage have each dropped 15 points from last season, while his slugging percentage is down 40.

Moss is ending far more rallies than he is starting.

His batting average is the same as Gordon’s, but at least Gordon has had a true hot stretch. Moss has hit no higher than .284 in a single month. He did that in July. His next highest is .255 in September.

As this list clearly shows, Moss is far from the only Kansas City Royals player to struggle in 2017. It begs the question, though, if any one of these players had even a mediocre season, would the Royals be holding a Wild Card spot, right now?

Next: An Early Look at the 2018 Schedule

What do you think? Are these the five players you would have chosen? If not, let us know your picks in the comments and on social media.