Kansas City Royals: 3 veteran pickups that secured the 2015 World Series

By making three acquisitions, the Kansas City Royals ensured themselves of the second world championship in team history.

There is no arguing that the core development of players like Salvador Perez, Eric Hosmer, Alcides Escobar, Mike Moustakas, Alex Gordon, Yordano Ventura, and Danny Duffy were crucial in the Kansas City Royals beating the New York Mets for the title.

Previous trades for Wade Davis and Lorenzo Cain also were an integral part of the success. Front office work by Dayton Moore and company before and during the ’15 season added the final pieces that made the Kansas City Royals the best team that year.

Kansas City was magnificent in 2014 coming up one victory shy from beating the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. Key ingredients from that roster were not around the next year and KC had to put the right players in place to ensure they finished the deal in ’15. Gone were Billy Butler, Nori Aoki, and James Shields. Jeremy Guthrie and Omar Infante could not repeat the success they had in 2014. New blood was needed to push the team across the finish line.

The normally tight-fisted franchise opened up their dusty wallet and increased the payroll by roughly $21 million dollars to a team-record $113 million. That still only put them in the middle of the pack for overall salaries in the majors. Moore had to be careful that who he added would not only contribute on the field but also not disrupt the clubhouse atmosphere. One wrong move and disharmony could kill any chances of returning the big stage.

We will look at the key moves that created a world championship roster.

Coming off a disastrous 2014 season, Kendrys Morales was out to prove his career was not over at the age of 32.

The Royals did not resign Country Breakfast (Butler) as his production had decreased the last couple of years. Insert Kendrys Morales who was coming off the worst year of his professional career slashing .218/.274/.338 for the Minnesota Twins and Seattle Mariners.

His promising career was initially derailed in 2010 when he jumped on home plate after a home run and broke his leg. The prior season he smacked 34 home runs and was fifth in the MVP voting. Morales missed the entire 2011 season but rebounded nicely in ’12 and ’13 hitting 22 and 23 dingers respectively.

The Royals were able to acquire him for a modest $6.5 million, almost one million less than he made the year before.  It was a gamble not knowing which player might show up that season but the team obviously believed better things were to come.

What followed was 22 blasts, 106 runs batted in and a Silver Slugger award for the designated hitter role. While he struggled in the World Series, Morales hit four home runs in the American League Divisional and Championship Series’ to help carry the Royals to victory.

An unlikely veteran pitcher not known for his lively arm became a strikeout machine in the playoffs.

Despite a nice season with Mariners where he started 29 games, won 12 and was awarded the AL Comeback Player of the Year, the market was not hot for Chris Young. The Royals signed him for a song and dance at $675k, almost a 50% cut from his previous year.

He had a history of success winning more games than he lost in eight out of ten seasons and being selected to an All-Star game in 2007. Injuries started to take their toll and prior to ’14 he had not participated in a full season since ’07.

All Young did was provide stability in both the rotation and long relief starting 18 games and appearing in another 16. His WHIP of 1.086 was a personal best in any season where he appeared in more than four games. Batters only collected 83 hits in 123 1/3 innings and he reeled off 11 wins.

In the playoffs Young really shined, starting two games and coming in two others for relief. Just shy of 16 innings, he struck out 18 hitters and only allowed five earned runs. He picked a victory in the Mets series and at 36 years of age gave the Royals a much needed veteran presence.

While he would come crashing back down to earth the next year, there is no doubt Young was a piece of the puzzle Kansas City was missing for 2015.