Kansas City Royals: Faces of the franchise

With Eric Hosmer no longer on the Kansas City Royals, there are only a few marketable and recognizable faces left on the team. Which ones are the most likely to be the faces and leaders of the franchise for the foreseeable future?

Eric Hosmer is not walking through the clubhouse door. We’ve established this. Lorenzo Cain isn’t walking through that door, either. The Royals are not the same organization they’ve been the past five years. The farm system is no longer one of the best in baseball. There’s no specific set of players that’ll lead the team back to the postseason. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some faces who can help along the way, though.

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Despite the multitude of things that can (and might) go wrong this season, there are some certainties. Three or four franchise centerpieces remain. Instead of bringing Hosmer back to lead the franchise for five-plus years, it’ll be up to guys such as Salvador Pérez, Alex Gordon, Danny Duffy and Whit Merrifield to step up. Whether or not they’ll do so, though, remains unknown.