4 key New Year’s Resolutions for the 2022 KC Royals

KC Royals New Year’s Resolution No. 3: Make staff changes if necessary.

Let’s face it. J.J. Picollo may be Kansas City’s new general manager, but because he’s now president of baseball operations, Dayton Moore will likely have no less influence on major decisions than he did as GM, and he’s still Picollo’s boss. That means no overhaul of the Royals’ field personnel.

Moore has displayed a consistent reluctance to make changes in the dugout. Nothing proves that more than the infrequent changes to the coaching staff during his tenure and the fact that, despite winning two pennants and a World Series, Ned Yost won only three times in the 10 seasons he managed the club and lost over 100 games twice after winning a Series title. Whether the players were consistently so bad, or Yost benefitted more from a couple of superbly talented teams than he did from his own managing acumen, is a question for another day.

The jury is still out on Manager Mike Matheny and will be for at least another couple of seasons. But questioning the performance and qualifications of hitting coach Terry Bradshaw and pitching coach Cal Eldred has become, not without at least a little justification, a regular practice of fans and some media.

The bottom line is this: Kansas City hasn’t been stellar at the plate or on the mound under Bradshaw and Eldred, which means Moore needs to be willing and ready to watch them closely, scrutinize their work and results, and make changes if necessary.