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.