KC Royals: The unforgettable mistakes of 2017, Part 1

The KC Royals went to the World Series in 2014 and won it in 2015. The club thought it could contend in 2017 but made serious mistakes that season it shouldn’t forget. This two-part series examines what happened.

At 4:05 p.m. on a mild autumn afternoon in 2013, in the 10th inning of the KC Royals’ final home game of the season, in a moment that made the end of Dayton Moore’s long, slow “process” feel near, the re-transformation of the team became more than just a dream. You could almost reach out and touch it, a thing you could hold near through baseball’s coming winter hiatus. With one magical swing of his bat, a bit player gave KC fans more than hope. He gave them promise and a preview of things to come.

The Royals, once a terrifically successful franchise with division titles, American League pennants and a World Series title, had fallen on such hard times that they’d enjoyed only one winning season since 2003, and only six since they won the ’85 Series. But just past 4 o’clock on September 22, with the Royals and White Sox locked in a scoreless tie with two outs in the bottom of the 10th, Justin Maxwell faced former KC closer Joakim Soria with the bases loaded. Maxwell worked the count to 3-2, then walked the Sox and Soria off with a grand slam.

It was the kind of moment most players dream of but few experience, and gave the Royals the 82nd victory required to secure their first winning campaign in 10. The club won four more times that final week and Kansas City baseball felt good again.

The 2014 KC Royals would bring the American League pennant back to Kansas City for the first time in 30 seasons; they pushed the Giants to seven games before losing the World Series, but made up for it in 2015 by beating the Mets in five games for their second Fall Classic title. Because key components of the team’s championship core were scheduled to remain intact for at least two more seasons, the words “Royals” and “dynasty” began to be spoken together.

But a true dynasty simply wasn’t to be–the Royals would never spend the cash necessary to extend all the contracts of core players Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas, Danny Duffy, and Alcides Escobar beyond the two seasons remaining on each of their deals; a dynasty without those key players was improbable, if not impossible. Realists urged the club to trade its core players before they became free agents–better to reap a return haul of prospects, or big league-ready players, than to get less if those players rejected qualifying offers and left for free agency.

Ultimately, torn between trying to slip through their rapidly narrowing window of contention or bracing for a dreaded and difficult rebuild, the Royals made the wrong choice.

The KC Royals opened the 2017 season expecting and determined to contend in the final season before several key players became eligible for free agency. But the campaign started poorly and contention suddenly seemed unrealistic.

April, it seems, is rarely a great month for the KC Royals. In the 15 seasons preceding 2017, the club lost more April games than it won eight times, dropping at least 14 games each campaign and as many as 18 twice. Of the seven winning Aprils during that span, only twice did KC’s wins exceed its losses by more than four.

Not surprisingly, three of those winning April records coincided with the club’s 2013-2015 resurgence. April of 2017 would not resemble those Aprils.

Simply put, the first month of the season was awful. The major league campaign began on April 2 but Kansas City didn’t open until the next day; because no AL Central Division games had been played the day before, the Royals were technically tied for first place when they opened against the Twins, but they would never actually occupy that position at any subsequent point. They dropped all three games in Minnesota to begin the worst month of their season. When April ended, the KC Royals were 7-16 and in the Central Division cellar.

The dismal month all but silenced postseason talk and triggered new speculation that Hosmer, Moustakas, Cain, Escobar and Vargas would be traded. Such conjecture was definitely understandable: some players’ values were increasing. Moose was hot with seven homers and 11 RBI; Cain was hitting .272; Vargas had a 3-1 record and 1.40 ERA. Conversely, the April performances of Hosmer and Escobar began to support moving them before it was too late–Hosmer had only a homer, six RBI, and a .225 average and Escobar was at .171.

The club’s 15-14 May record did little to rekindle playoff talk. Hosmer caught fire, though, hitting .367; although Moustakas hit only .232, he clubbed six more homers and drove in another 15 runs. Cain hit only .245 and Escobar improved slightly with .197. Vargas was 3-2 with a 3.12 ERA.

Ultimately, however, their so-so May put the KC Royals back on track. They left the month still in last place, then won four of their first six in June to climb out of the cellar and into fourth place; after losing the next two games, they won six straight,  then five of seven, to move into third place and within two games of first on June 24. Unlikely as it seemed after April, and even May, the Royals were in contention.

But with contention came a dilemma–should the club keep its core players and try to add some additional help to make a run at the playoffs, a run that could prove to be the core’s last KC hurrah, or move those players before the trade deadline to maximize their final value to the club? The Royals were just three games behind, but third place wouldn’t earn them even a Wild Card; sentimentality supported a final run, but the logic and business of baseball more than justified trades.

Core player performance in June, though, made the decision hard. Vargas was superb and unstoppable–he went 6-0 with a 1.98 ERA. Hosmer homered five times with 16 RBI and a .306 average; Cain, with only two prior homers, exploded with eight, drove in 17 runs and hit .333; Moustakas added eight homers of his own to raise his season total to 21, had 22 RBI and hit .313; and Escobar batted .294, nearly 100 points higher than May and over 100 points better than April. Their numbers were good enough to keep them–and also good enough to attract trade suitors.

Dayton Moore and the Royals had difficult decisions to make. How did things turn out? Find out in Part 2, coming tomorrow on this site.