Late season luck turns bad for 4 former KC Royals

Ex-KC Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas is out for the rest of the season.

Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar and Mike Moustakas became free agents after Kansas City’s disappointing 2017 season. Cain signed with Milwaukee and won a Gold Glove and All-Star berth before the Brewers cut him loose in June, Escobar rejoined the Kansas City organization twice and the White Sox’s once before landing with the Nationals, who released him last month, and Hosmer signed an eight-year, $144 million contract with the Padres and now plays for Boston.

No one was willing to pay Moustakas what he probably deserved, so the Royals re-signed him for 2018 before shipping him to Milwaukee in a trade deadline deal. Moose so liked the Brewers, and they him, that he signed on for another season and hit 35 homers in 2019.

Then he found the deal of his lifetime—Cincinnati signed him for four seasons at $64 million beginning in 2020. But he also found a dismal string of injuries that have limited him to an average of just over 60 games per year.

It’s been so bad for Moustakas that he’s made six trips to the Injured List this season alone. And the Reds just extended his latest stint, which began on the 10-day List last month with a calf strain, through the end of the season when they transferred him to the 60-day IL Sept. 1.

Being sidelined for the rest of the year caps another distressing season for the former Kansas City fan favorite. He’ll finish the campaign with seven homers (his three-season Cincinnati average), 25 RBIs and a weak .214/.295/.345 slash. He’s hit .216 since joining the Reds.

Moustakas turns 34 today and has a year left on his contract. Hopefully, 2023 will be kinder to him.

Former KC Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer could be done for the year.

Like Mike Moustakas, but to a lesser statistical and less painful extent, Eric Hosmer hasn’t quite measured up to a lucrative free agent contract. San Diego certainly expected more from the popular All-Star first baseman who won three Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger with Kansas City, but he hit only 69 homers and batted .265 in 4.5 Padre seasons before the club shipped him to Boston at this summer’s trade deadline.

The Red Sox were still arguably in the Wild Card hunt when they made the deal with hopes he’d bolster their postseason chances. They’ll probably watch the playoffs from home, but the Sox have won more games than they’ve lost with Hosmer in the lineup.

Therein, though, lies the rub. Hosmer joined the Sox Aug. 4 but a back issue has limited him to 12 games. He’s hasn’t played since Aug. 20.

And like Moustakas, he’s on the Injury List; unlike Moose, he has a chance to play again before the season ends Oct. 5.

How great a chance? Perhaps not much. The latest injury update posted to the club’s website doesn’t seem optimistic.

Hosmer, slashing a combined .267/.333/.381 with eight homers between the Padres and Red Sox (he hasn’t homered and is hitting .225 for Boston) can opt out of his $144 million mega-deal when the season ends.

The luck of another former KC Royals player has been pretty bad this year.

Three years ago this December and seeking the kind of repair work Kansas City so often offers broken pitchers, former St. Louis star reliever Trevor Rosenthal signed a minor league contract with the Royals. The deal reunited him with KC manager Mike Matheny, the Cards’ skipper for whom he saved 45 games in 2014 and 48 in 2015.

Despite arriving in Kansas City after three straight subpar seasons and a 2018 campaign lost to a UCL injury, Rosenthal quickly became the club’s closer during the 2020 pandemic-shortened season and led the Royals with seven saves before a trade deadline deal took him to San Diego. He didn’t give up an unearned run and saved four more games for the Padres.

His 1-0, 1.90 ERA season made him such a hot offseason commodity that he secured a one-year, $11 million contract with Oakland.

But he underwent thoracic outlet syndrome surgery and never pitched for the A’s. The Giants took a chance on Rosenthal by signing him several weeks ago but, with him on the Injured List with a hamstring problem, traded him to Milwaukee just two weeks later.

Now it looks like gambling on Rosenthal’s health may not pay off for the Brewers this season. He’s developed a teres major problem that, per Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer Curt Hogg, may not allow him to return to the majors this year.

Rosenthal hasn’t thrown a big league pitch since 2020, which makes this latest news even more disheartening.

Four former Royals aren’t having good luck as the season winds down.