Kansas City Royals: Five Reasons 2017 Became a Down Year

The Kansas City Royals had playoff aspirations when the 2017 season began. Entering August, the team looked destined to reach the postseason. How did it all go wrong?

There are many factors that lead to a team, such as the Kansas City Royals, not making the postseason. Major League Baseball lets just one-third of its teams into the playoffs, a smaller percentage than the NFL (37.5 percent), NHL (51.6) and NBA (53.33). It’s a process that’s set up to truly give the best teams a chance to win the World Series.

Sometimes it doesn’t work that way. Injuries have been known to derail the seasons of clearly talented teams. Other times, there just aren’t that many good teams in a given league. The latter case happened in the American League this season.

The AL had four teams that were clearly a cut above the rest. Cleveland, Houston, Boston and New York made it clear that they belonged on the grandest stage. If the season had been played in the days of one Wild Card team, there wouldn’t have been much drama. The only storyline would have been the battle between the Red Sox and Yankees to win the East Division and avoid scorching-hot Cleveland in the ALDS.

As it were, we live in a time where MLB has decided that two Wild Cards per league jazzed up the excitement level. That meant for a good chunk of the second half—until Minnesota pulled away at the end—there were no fewer than seven teams legitimately vying for the AL’s final playoff spot.

That kept the Kansas City Royals in the hunt for longer than they probably should have been. But what ultimately kept the team at home in October? We’ve chalked it up to these five reasons.

1.) Not Enough Talent

Sometimes it really is just that simple. The Kansas City Royals had several key players underachieve in 2017, and the remaining guys could not pick up the slack enough to make up the difference. It clearly wasn’t the only reason they missed the playoffs, but it’s the biggest one.

If you looked around the diamond and compared the Kansas City Royals players at each position to the league average, it would go something like this:

• Catcher: Above-average
• First baseman: Above-average
• Second baseman: Above-average
• Third baseman: Above-average
• Shortstop: Below-average
• Left fielder: Below-average
• Center fielder: Above-average
• Right fielder: Below-average
• Designated hitter: Below-average

That’s a fairly even split, which is not what you should have in your everyday lineup. No major league team can survive with below-average production out of 44 percent of its lineup. If even one or two of those positions had produced league-average latent, the Kansas City Royals might be in the ALDS right now.

That’s just the hitters. The pitchers—in a lot of ways—were even worse. At least with the lineup, you generally knew what you would get. With the pitchers, especially the bullpen, the volatility was ridiculous.

The starters seemed to either turn in one solid start after the other, or they each struggled just getting through the lineup twice in consecutive games. There was no in between. That, in turn, put a strain on a bullpen that already was a significant downgrade.

Combine that with the offense, and it was a recipe for disaster.

3.) Trades That Didn’t Pan Out

There can be a number of reasons why a given trade is seen as a mistake in hindsight. Injuries, underachieving players received or overachieving players sent away could each lead to fans questioning the general manager.

It’s impossible for any GM to hit on every trade. But Dayton Moore had hit on enough over the years that the Kansas City Royals seemed to be in good hands heading into the offseason. That’s when Moore’s luck started to run out.

Among high-profile deals, it’s impossible to say the Royals won their offseason trades with the Cubs and Mariners—at least as it pertains to 2017.

Among high-profile deals, it’s impossible to say the Royals won their offseason trades with the Cubs and Mariners—at least as it pertains to 2017.

Sending closer Wade Davis to Chicago left a gaping hole at the backend of the bullpen—one the team never could fill this year. The team’s return, Jorge Soler struggled mightily in the big leagues. Karns seemed to be a good addition to the rotation in exchange for fourth outfielder Jarrod Dyson. However, Karns’ season-ending injury curtailed his impact on this campaign.

Moving ahead, both could be seen as good deals. Soler would need to become a solid contributor to make fans forget about the missed opportunity this season. If Karns recovers fully from his injury, his trade could easily be seen as a success. The struggles of the right fielders in the Royals organization showed the impact Dyson, who also got injured in Seattle, could have had on the team.

That’s not to mention the midseason trade with San Diego that failed to pay off. But more on that later.

4.) Bullpen in Disarray

Now, we’ll talk about that disastrous trade deadline move that seemed like a good idea at the time. Firstly, Ryan Buchter has been a solid addition. Let’s get that over with, but Brandon Maurer and Trevor Cahill were massive disappointments.

Cahill was counted on to be the fifth starter. That didn’t go well. Then he was counted on to be a long reliever out of the bullpen—a role some fans thought he was better suited for anyway. But that didn’t go well either.

Maurer, meanwhile, had appeared to be a backend of the bullpen savior. Kelvin Herrera and Soria had been highly ineffective as the closer and eighth-inning guy, respectively. Maurer seemed like the answer to at least one of those problems.

However, he never truly impressed. Maurer only got put into high-leverage situations for two reasons. Firstly, Soria got injured. Secondly, Herrera got demoted from the closer role. Maurer did nothing to change initial impressions with poor performances throughout the months of August and September.

To be fair, Maurer was far from the only problem with the bullpen. Soria and Herrera struggled to hold leads. Mike Minor excelled most of the season, as did Scott Alexander. But the two lefties also gave up a few crucial leads, too. The rest of the bullpen seemed to be engaged in a season-long game of musical chairs. A game with no winners.

Couple that with a manager who struggles at, well, managing even good bullpens, and you have a dumpster fire on your hands.

5.) Yordano Ventura’s Void

The death of Yordano Ventura was the elephant in the room all season. Nobody wanted to mention it, but everyone seemed to silently acknowledge the impact it had on the Kansas City Royals in 2017.

The January death of Ace didn’t just leave a hole at the top of the starting rotation, it left a hole in the clubhouse. His personality—even more so than his electric arm—is what made him a player that teammates wanted to be around. It’s a void that nothing and no one could possibly fill, especially not this quickly.

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If you don’t think Ventura’s absence had a palpable impact on what the Kansas City Royals accomplished in 2017, there’s probably not much I can say to convince you otherwise. Maybe you find it pointless to even bring him up. But the death of a teammate is something that every player who knew Ventura dealt with this season.

The players never made excuses, but it would be ignorant to believe he didn’t cross their minds almost every single day.

The impact Ventura could have made on the inconsistent pitching staff is not hard to see. Erratic at times, he could have easily won 15 games with a 3.75 ERA. It’s not a stretch to say he could have been the difference in making the postseason or not.

But, in the grand scheme of things, none of that really matters. We will always have the memories and be eternally grateful for the time Ace spent in Kansas City.

Next: Royals Award Winners

At the end of the day, baseball is just a game. So while it would have been nice for the Kansas City Royals to make the playoffs, time marches on towards 2018 and a new opportunity.