KC Royals: The most disappointing Royals of 2019

The KC Royals suffered through another discouraging season in 2019, losing over 100 games for the second consecutive year. Three players had especially disappointing campaigns.

No postmortem of the disastrous 2019 KC Royals’ season is complete without determining why the club lost over 100 games, a sad record that fell short of the American League Central’s worst mark only because the Detroit Tigers played in the same division. The question of causation has many answers.

First and foremost, the club was destined for failure, doomed from the start by the shortcomings of its own roster. The 2018 team, stripped by free agency of many of its remaining championship core players, lost 104 games; then, club management didn’t take significant steps to improve the club, opting instead to reunite with Lucas Duda and add fringe players like Chris Owings and Brad Boxberger.

Predictably, Owings, Duda and Boxberger didn’t last the season and the 2019 Royals were just as bad as they’d been the year before–although they lost one less game, the differences were almost imperceptible.

The club failed, but a baseball team’s failure is only the sum of its parts, and too many of KC’s parts broke down. Many believed Jakob Junis would rebound from a 9-12 season and recapture his standout 2017 form (9-3); he led the ’19 Royals in wins with 9, but tied Brad Keller for most losses with 14 and posted an unsightly 5.24 ERA. Keller, KC’s 2018 Pitcher of the Year, lost twice as many games as he won and sat out September to rest a tired arm. Glenn Sparkman went 4-11. Jorge Lopez provided glimpses of his dazzling stuff but was maddeningly inconsistent.

Preseason hype heralded Billy Hamilton‘s arrival as a temporary center field solution, sure to be trade-chipped in July, but he didn’t hit and was DFA’d in August when no suitable trade partners could be found. Bubba Starling and Brett Phillips were miserable at the plate; neither proved worthy as Hamilton’s replacement. Ryan O’Hearn simply flopped.

Who among the disappointing Royals were the most disappointing?

Potential, occasionally electrifying stuff and two excellent late 2018 starts gave the KC Royals great hope for Jorge Lopez in 2019. But his inconsistency made for a most discouraging season.

The inevitable departure of a veteran star brought a young pitcher loaded with potential to the KC Royals in the summer of 2018. Forced by Mike Moustakas‘ imminent free agency to get value for him while they could, the club traded Moose to Milwaukee just before the July trade deadline, getting Jorge Lopez (and Brett Phillips) in return. Lopez arrived with an exciting array of pitches but limited big-league experience.

Lopez was not an immediate sensation–he lost his first three and final two Royal starts. But back-to-back games in September seemed to confirm the Royals had landed a gem.

Lopez shut down Detroit to win his first start of the month, striking out eight and limiting the Tigers to one run in seven innings. He was even better–astonishingly better–six days later in Minnesota, where he was perfect for eight innings before surrendering a walk and a hit to the first two Twins up in the ninth. Lopez’s perfect game and no-hitter were gone, but he proved just how dominating he could be.

The glory was short-lived. The same Twins he mastered roughed him up for three runs and nine hits in 4.1 innings his next time out; the Tigers then rocked him for seven runs and eight hits in just one inning.

Despite the shaky end to his season, his talent and the outstanding stuff Lopez displayed twice in September triggered high expectations for 2019. As expected, he started the new campaign in the rotation; but he disappointed from the start, going 0-5 with a 6.29 ERA before manager Ned Yost moved him to the bullpen. He made 18 straight relief appearances, an undistinguished bullpen stint marred by a 5.13 ERA, then alternated between the rotation and the pen before finishing the campaign with a 5.68 ERA in six starts.

As much as the club expected from him, Lopez failed to establish himself in any role–his 4-9 record was as disappointing as his 6.33 ERA, 75 ERA+ and 1.472 WHIP. Whether he started or relieved, Lopez was subpar.

Lopez enters 2020 with an uncertain future, a pitcher without a defined role competing for a job on an overcrowded staff. If he doesn’t establish himself quickly, his disappointing 2019 season may be too much to overcome.

First base has been an unsettled position for the KC Royals since Eric Hosmer departed after 2017. The club hoped Ryan O’Hearn would fit the first base bill in 2019. Instead, he had a poor season and the position remains uncertain.

Lucas Duda, acquired by the Royals for the 2018 season (and inexplicably reacquired for 2019) wasn’t the solution to the gaping hole Eric Hosmer left at first base when he chose San Diego over Kansas City after the 2017 season. The position has remained in flux for two seasons, with Duda and others trying but failing to make it their own. At his best, however, Ryan O’Hearn is a player the Royals would like to see stake and hold a claim to first.

Although his defense needs work, O’Hearn has power, a helpful tool for aspiring first basemen. He hit 13 home runs in 64 Rookie League games after the Royals selected him in the eighth round of the 2014 draft. Power followed him as he progressed through the minors: he hit 27 homers in 2015, his first full professional season, then 22 in each of the next two campaigns. He had 11 in 100 games at AAA Omaha in 2018 before the Royals promoted him to the majors.

O’Hearn made the best of his 44-game big league audition–he homered in his first game, then added 11 more to complement 10 doubles, 30 RBI’s, a 262/.353/.597 slash and a 154 OPS+.  Although KC re-signed Duda, it seemed O’Hearn was the team’s first choice at first for 2019.

But O’Hearn’s bat all but abandoned him in 2019. Their hands forced by his disastrous .188 batting average, the Royals sent him back to Omaha on June 14; his .295/.383/.597 slash and nine home runs in 35 AAA games punched his ticket back to Kansas City, where he slumped again and finished the season with a .195 average. (His 14 homers in 105 games with KC were the only bright spot in  what was perhaps the most disappointing season of any Royals’ player).

That the Royals haven’t acquired a first baseman this offseason suggests O’Hearn will have another shot there in 2020. But the acquisition of Ryan McBroom late last season reflects the club’s concerns with O’Hearn; if his disappointing 2019 performance bleeds into next season, O’Hearn may not be the Ryan manning first base.

The KC Royals’ second straight 100-plus loss season can’t be blamed entirely on the disappointing 2019 seasons of Jorge Lopez, Brad Keller and Ryan O’Hearn. But rebounding from those discouraging campaigns could help Kansas City avoid another disastrous season and move the club closer to future contention.