Kansas City Royals: Can Dayton Moore Rebuild the Royals?

Dayton Moore spoke to the press concerning his plans for the 2018 season with the Kansas City Royals on October 18th.

Jeffrey Flanagan (an excellent writer and reporter for the Royals) reviewed his press conference in his article from October 18th. After reading a few of the quotes from Flanagan and thinking about all that Moore has done in 2017 and 2018 for the Kansas City Royals, I asked myself “Can Dayton Moore Rebuild the Royals?”

According to Flanagan, Moore was adamant that the Royals are not using the word “Rebuild.” Further, Moore emphasized that losing is not acceptable. The fan in me wants to believe Moore. I want to give Moore the benefit of the doubt. On one side, the case could be made that Moore is sending mixed messages. On the other hand, Moore is doing precisely what he is being paid to do and what he is one of the best in the MLB at doing, building a competing franchise.

Baseball is different than most sports. The beauty of baseball is that small, medium and large market teams can compete for the trophy. What makes the MLB different than the NFL, NHL and even the NBA is that it can take a club several years to become competitive. Looking at the AL Central division, the Indians pretty much had a cakewalk to the playoffs this year due to the four other teams working through a rebuild. Either a club is competing or rebuilding in the MLB.

Dayton Moore can try to sell fans that this is not a rebuilding club. Most fans understand that the Royals are rebuilding and are prepared to give up the 2019 season for the possibility of getting back to the playoffs in 2020. I have witnessed the Royals go the big dance three times in my life, winning two of those.

While rebuilding may not be sexy, it is what Moore does best. He proved that a small market team like KC could build a team through the farm system and later become competitive in 2013-2015. While we didn’t make the playoffs in 2013, it truly was that late-night game in St. Louis that started our run to the World Series in 2014.

Dayton Moore will get us to where we need to be in 2020. Hopefully, we will start seeing a different ball club in 2019 just like we did in 2013. Winning is not easy for small market teams. It takes time to build up a farm system and trade for key players that will not break the bank. These moves will help propel us to another World Series appearance within the next five years.

Yes, Dayton Moore has my vote of confidence to get the Royals where they need to be…winning games again.