5 ex-KC Royals who may be a bit too close to home

Baseball players come and go, rarely spending their entire careers with one team. Some who leave clubs never play against their former teams; some see those teams frequently. Five former KC Royals could hurt KC this season.

The rebuild of the KC Royals is a work in progress. It is a difficult multi-year project orchestrated by General Manager Dayton Moore with no certain end date, the pain of it punctuated by two straight 100-plus loss seasons with a third certainly not impossible. Moore and the club speak of competing, but not of immediate championship contention; the Royals draw closer to the former while the latter is, at best, a dim light at the end of a long tunnel.

To get where they want to be–October baseball–the Royals must add talent, a commodity rarely gained without sacrifice. Whether this necessary gain-loss takes the form of trades, free agent signings, or draft picks, the cost is always the same–adding players means giving others in trade, paying cash, or releasing one to make room for a newcomer.

The risks of such moves are many–acquired players may fail, players traded or released may blossom into stars with their new teams.

And some deemed dispensable may come back to haunt their former clubs. Such is the case with at least five former KC Royals, traded away or released but who may well face their old club in intra-division contests, the most meaningful games for any major league club. For the Royals, it is those games–the tilts that make up the majority of their schedule–that pose the risk of the haunt.

Four of these ex-Royals are expected to play roles with Minnesota and Chicago, the two AL Central teams who’ve done the most to muscle up this offseason while one, seeking to revive a once-promising career, heads for Detroit.

The KC Royals acquired a proven veteran starting pitcher for 2019, then traded him outside the Central Division in July. Now, he’s back in the Division as a member of its defending champion.

Homer Bailey was hardly a household name in Kansas City when the Royals signed him to supplement their starting rotation for 2019. But he was well-known in Cincinnati, where the Reds awarded his solid pitching with a six-year, $105 million contract that began with the 2014 season. By then, he’d given the Reds seven seasons, 47 wins (24 in the two campaigns immediately preceding the deal) and two no-hitters.

Unfortunately for Bailey and the Reds, injuries followed and Bailey suffered–he went 17-18 the first four seasons after signing his mega-deal, then crashed in 2018 with a catastrophic 1-14 record. The Reds traded him to the Dodgers, where he lasted a day before LA released him.

The Royals’ minimal gamble on Bailey–they signed him for the major league minimum–paid off. Pitching for the bad team that the Royals were, he posted a 7-6 record before the club traded him to Oakland in July; he helped the A’s to the Wild Card with a 6-3 record, including a 1-0 record in two games against KC. He struck out 14 Royals in 11 innings with a .0923 WHIP.

Bailey signed a free agent deal with Minnesota that could, with the signing of former Dodgers’ standout Rich Hill, make the defending Central Division champion Twins even better in 2020. His 13-9 record last season between Kansas City and Oakland suggests Bailey may be back on the beam and could make the Royals regret trading and not resigning him.

A relief pitcher who made unforgettable contributions to the KC Royals’ magical 2014 and 2015 seasons has been pitching for a Central Division rival since last season. Kansas City will probably see him frequently in 2020.

Kelvin Herrera will forever be known as part of the fearsome back-of-the-bullpen trio that played crucial roles in the KC Royals’ runs to glory in 2014 and ’15. Known simply as “HDH,” Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland made wining a virtual certainty when given a lead after six innings. Herrera invariably pitched the seventh inning, Davis the eighth and Holland the ninth until Holland went down with an injury late in 2015. Then, the Royals never missed a beat as Herrera simply moved up to the eighth and Davis closed the ninth.

No better word than “dominating” describes the way Herrera pitched in those two seasons as the Royals won the 2014 American League pennant before losing a heartbreaking seventh game of the World Series, then won their first World Series title since 1985 the following year. He went 4-3 in both seasons, with ERA’s of 1.41 (280 ERA+) and 2.71 (155 ERA+).

He saved 12 games in 2016; then, pressed into closer duty when Davis left for free agency after that season, saved 40 across 2017 and ’18 before being traded to Washington in June 2018. Herrera moved on to the White Sox for 2019 and suffered a discouraging off-year, posting a 3-3 record with one save in 57 games.

Although Alex Colome is Chicago’s presumptive closer, Herrera should see considerable 2020 action, including against the KC Royals. He’s pitched against his former club nine times, posting a 1-0 record with a 4.15 ERA; the Royals have hit .273 against him. If Herrera returns to form, Kansas City–and the rest of the Central Division–could suffer accordingly.

Pressed into service after a 2016 injury to Mike Moustakas, a young infielder did a good job for the KC Royals. But after that, he couldn’t land a permanent job. He’ll try to make it back to the big leagues with another Central Division club.

The KC Royals made Cheslor Cuthbert a teenage millionaire in 2009–they were so impressed with the 16-year old infielder’s potential that they signed him to a $1.35 million international free agent deal. But with the exception of one shining season that unexpectedly thrust Cuthbert into a starting role, his time with the Royals ultimately fell short of expectations.

Cuthbert was enjoying an excellent start to the 2016 season with AAA Omaha, hitting .333 with seven home runs and 28 RBI’s in 24 games–and riding an OPS of 1.026–when a May on-field collision with teammate Alex Gordon abruptly ended Mike Moustakas‘ season and just as suddenly forced Cuthbert onto the Royals’ major league stage.

Tested in only 19 previous major league games, Cuthbert took over at third base for the rest of the season; by the campaign’s end, he seemed to have established serviceable big-league credentials…at least at the plate. His .274/.318/.413 slash and 12 homers in 128 games were sufficient considering the circumstances, but the 16 errors he committed raised concerns about his defense.

Moustakas’ 2017 return meant a brief visit to Omaha and a reserve role in Kansas City for Cuthbert. For that and the next two seasons, Cuthbert struggled at the plate and in the field–he hit.231 in 2017, .194 in ’18 and .246 in ’19 (including a horrendous 0-40 slump in August) and posted glaringly low OPS+ numbers in each campaign, and his trend as a negative defender continued unabated. The club also gave him time at first base and second to no avail.

Apparently satisfied by early December that he no longer fit in their plans, the Royals didn’t tender Cuthbert a 2020 contract and their subsequent signing of third baseman Maikel Franco signaled the club’s infield needs were met without reconsidering Cuthbert. Clearly, his declining hitting and shaky defense rendered him dispensable.

Cuthbert, however, didn’t remain unemployed for long. The White Sox signed him to a minor league contract; that, and an invitation to Spring Training, provide him with another shot at the majors. Should he make the big league club out of spring camp, or at some point during the season, Cuthbert may see action against the Royals.

Cuthbert’s chances to play regularly for the Sox are slim, so KC isn’t likely to see much of him. He’s never played against the Royals, but his below-average offensive and defensive skills suggest he won’t be a significant threat if he does.

A breakthrough 2017 performance appeared to have put a Kansas City outfielder on the path to potential major league stardom. Things haven’t been the same for him since and his big league hopes now lie with a Central Division rival.

For Jorge Bonifacio, the 2017 season that marked his major league debut must seem deeper in his baseball past than a mere two full campaigns. It was in 2017 that he broke in with the KC Royals and established himself as an outfielder to be reckoned with.

Bonifacio was already a seven-year veteran of the Royals’ organization that year, having signed an international free agent deal with the club as a 16-year old in 2009 and then beginning his climb up the minor league ladder in 2010. He was coming off the best all-around season of his career, a 134-game 2016 campaign at AAA Omaha with 19 home runs, 86 RBI, a .277/.351/.461 slash and an .812 OPS.

He returned to Omaha to start 2017 and was hitting .314 with three homers and 12 RBI in 13 games when the Royals called him up on April 21; he finished the season with KC and hit 17 homers, had 40 RBI and slashed .255/.320/.432 with a .752 OPS, statistics sufficient to give him the inside track for a 2018 outfield spot.

Then came the 80-game PED-related suspension that derailed Bonifacio’s 2018 season. He returned at mid-season but never regained his form–despite hitting .392 in 13 games at Omaha, he slashed a dismal .225/.312/.360, and hit four homers with 23 RBI after returning to the Royals for 69 games. His stock fallen, Bonifacio spent most of 2019 back at Omaha where, despite slugging 20 homers, he batted just .222. He played in only five games for Kansas City.

The Royals DFA’d him just before the deadline for setting their 40-man roster for 2019 Rule 5 Draft purposes. Hoping to salvage him for their own outfield, the Detroit Tigers signed Bonifacio to a minor league contract in early December and invited him to Spring Training.

So it is that Bonifacio, once a rising star with the Royals, finds himself trying to rebuild his career with the worst team in baseball, but one that plays in Kansas City’s division. He’s never appeared in a game other than as a member of the KC system; if he makes the Tiger roster, he may get the chance to prove the Royals wrong.

At least five former KC Royals may face their former team in Central Division games this season. KC fans will watch each with interest to determine whether the Royals’ decisions to let these players go were wise.