KC Royals: Top storylines of Kansas City’s offseason

Although the KC Royals haven’t made any blockbuster moves this winter, the club has changed. A new owner and manager took over, an icon died, two personnel changes shook the lineup, and the club made some inexpensive deals.

The final out of each World Series triggers major league baseball’s offseason, that bittersweet period between the end of one season and the beginning of another, a time when winter weather and the players’ need for rest and recuperation combine to render games impractical. At the same time, free agency, trades, retirements and other team moves make those few months before Spring Training begins interesting and often exciting for all big-league clubs, including the KC Royals.

To be sure, the Royals, much to the chagrin of many fans, are rarely major offseason players. They prefer incremental change to mega-deals, and inexpensive moves compatible with their frugal ways to huge contracts.  With few exceptions, KC’s typical winter transactions are minor, designed primarily to fill perceived lineup holes, add a bat or an arm or shed excess payroll. Fans dream every year of major game-changing trades and free agent signings that inevitably never occur, but the mere prospect of such things really happening makes the offseason easier to endure.

But this has been a different winter hiatus for the Royals. There have been some major changes–new ownership now controls the franchise; one field manager retired and another replaced him; the man who oversaw the return of championship baseball to Kansas City, but drew the ire of some fans, died; and the addition of one player and return of a team icon rattled the lineup.

Let’s examine these top offseason storylines that give this Royals’ winter a bit of a different look.

Not long after the offseason ushered in new ownership for the KC Royals, a longtime owner many credit with saving the franchise died. And a new manager replaced the second skipper to lead the club to a World Series championship.

When Charlie Finley took his Athletics and abandoned Kansas City for Oakland after the 1967 season, pharmaceutical giant Ewing Kauffman, a man with little previous exposure to baseball, stepped up and bought the rights to bring the big leagues back to town. Kauffman assembled and maintained a team of keen, savvy baseball people, let them run the baseball side of his new business, and soon led the franchise to years of success and a World Series championship.

A board ran the team for a time after Kauffman’s death; its head, David Glass, an extraordinarily successful and wealthy businessman in his own right, stepped in and bought the club in 2000 when fear ran rampant that outside interests would buy the Royals and move them away.

Success was rare during Glass’ first dozen years at the helm–the Royals had just one winning season during that span. Things changed in 2013–the club made an earnest run for a playoff spot that didn’t end until late in the campaign, then went to the World Series in 2014 and won it in ’15. But the club’s fortunes soon declined, reviving previous complaints that Glass’ approach to baseball finances was too conservative and he simply wouldn’t spend the money necessary to maintain a winning franchise.

There were fans who rejoiced at the news, announced in August of last season when the Royals were well on their way to another 100-loss season, that Glass was selling the team to John Sherman, a longtime Kansas City resident and part-owner of the Cleveland Indians; with no real evidence, those fans believed the move signaled a change for the better–an increase in spending on players. Baseball approved the sale to Sherman and his ownership group in November. So far, Sherman’s fiscal approach seems a match for Glass’.

Sadly, Glass won’t realize his reported plans to attend 2020 Spring Training with the club. He died January 9, leaving an indelible mark on the history of Kansas City baseball.

Now it is Sherman who will run the Royals. He, too, is an eminently successful businessman who made his fortune in energy. He’s now overseen almost an entire offseason, one characterized not by a departure from Glass’ conservative spending, but instead one mirroring that approach. Time will tell how frugal Sherman’s reign will be.

Change in ownership wasn’t the only offseason alteration to the Royals’ landscape–before the sale to Sherman was consummated, Ned Yost, the only manager other than Dick Howser to skipper the team to a World Series championship, retired after 2019’s final game. Mike Matheny replaced him a month later.

Matheny and Yost followed similar paths to the Royals’ job: General Manager Dayton Moore hired Yost as an adviser after Yost’s unceremonious 2008 firing from Milwaukee when the Brewers were in a hot race for a playoff spot, then made him manager when Trey Hillman was fired; Moore hired Matheny for a similar role after he was fired, despite a winning record, four division titles and a World Series appearance, by St. Louis in July 2018, then named him to succeed Yost.

Matheny comes to the job with baggage, not the least of which is criticism of his handling of his clubhouse, tactical decisions and pitching staffs. But he was consistently successful in St. Louis, a strong indication that he can manage. And his self-improvement efforts can’t hurt his prospects for success in KC–since Moore hired him, Matheny has studied analytics and leadership and hired a media consultant.

The still rebuilding Royals have a stable of young talent–especially pitchers–on the verge of making the big leagues. Whether Matheny is, for those players and the current roster, the right manager at the right time remains to be seen. His hiring added interest to the offseason.

The KC Royals characteristically made no earth-shattering free agent signings or blockbuster trades this offseason. But a seemingly middle-of-the-road signing significantly impacted the lineup.

Hunter Dozier did just about everything he could last season to land the KC Royals’ everyday third base job. After hitting .229 with 11 home runs and 34 RBIs over 102 games in 2018, Dozier broke out with 29 doubles, 10 triples, 26 homers, 84 RBIs, a .279/.348/.522 slash and 125 OPS+. Although he can play elsewhere, and despite the club’s continuing concerns about his defense, third base appeared to be his.

But a late December trade intervened and shook the Royals’ lineup–the club signed Maikel Franco, Philadelphia’s veteran third baseman, to a free agent contract worth an approximately $3 million base on December 27, spoiling Dozier’s third base chances and sending him to the outfield.

The move was specifically tailored for third base and settles, at least for the time being, the Royals’ concerns about hot corner defense; although Franco’s hitting has become suspect, the club is obviously more comfortable with his glove than Dozier’s. But the deal’s ramifications extend beyond third base and right field, where Dozier’s presence may spell the end to the uncertainty that has plagued the position.

Now, the club wants Whit Merrifield, its undisputed jack-of-all-trades, to settle into one primary position and man center field, the Kauffman Stadium expanse upon which Bubba Starling and Brett Phillips were expected to continue their battle for a regular outfield spot. It’s a contest some thought would now shift to left, but Alex Gordon‘s return sets the outfield with him, Merrifield and Dozier, leaving Phillips and Starling (and perhaps Nick Heath) to contend for a backup role. Heath is close to being ready, but KC seems committed to give Starling and Phillips one more chance.

Those position changes may not, however, mark the limit of the Franco deal’s impact on the lineup. Combined with the impending expansion of major league rosters to 26 players, Merrifield’s center field assignment means the Royals may need another player with his versatility. Signing a proven utility player like Wilmer Flores would be a direct result of Franco’s signing.

The acquisition of a single player without superstar credentials, a characteristic incremental offseason move for the KC Royals, typically doesn’t shake up a club. But bringing Maikel Franco aboard has done just that and KC may be a better club for it.