Time for the KC Royals to “Burn the ships” for their prospects

A story about how a 16th century explorer gave his crew no other option but to battle is a game plan the KC Royals should put in place for 2020.

There are debates on whether Captain Hernan Cortes burned or sunk his ships but the motivation tactic is still the same. Upon landing in Veracruz, Cortes ordered his ships destroyed so his army had only one option, press forward.  Within a couple of years, he had overtaken the Aztec empire.  Can the KC Royals adopt this maneuver?

For the last couple of years the Royals have kept or signed veteran players to fill their major league roster, but now is the time to get the young players experience in the big leagues.  The argument is made that it would hurt their psyche to lose consistently at a higher level but there are flaws in that thinking.

Salvador Perez, Eric Hosmer, and Mike Moustakas were part of teams that lost over 90 games their first two seasons and what followed were three winning seasons, two trips to World Series, one title and two 80 win seasons after that.  That should prove that learning to play in the majors helped develop these players into the stars they became.  Learning to grind things out teaches character and a never-say-die attitude.

There are pitchers on the 40 man roster with career ERA’s over 6.00 in multiple seasons.  It does not make sense why the KC Royals do not plug-in Josh Staumont and Tyler Zuber in the relief roles now.

A recent depth chart has veteran pitchers who have no track record of success at the major league level.  Brady Singer, Jackson Kowar and Daniel Lynch are strong enough to handle struggling in 2020 as they become core parts of the rotation for years to come.

Khalil Lee is having a very good spring and it is time to find out what we have on a daily basis with Bubba Starling.  While signing Maikel Franco could turn into a useful transaction, we moved Hunter Dozier to the outfield to block another player’s potential playing time.  Same with bringing back Alex Gordon.

Obviously there are option years on players to worry about, not starting the clock to free agency sooner than necessary, and other baseball office options to consider. But as Royals fans, the sentiment is that if we are going to lose between 90-100 games, at least give us a glimpse at the future to get excited about.  It is time to “burn the ships” and only look to the future.