One KC Royals decision that would be a giant step backward

In September 2022, the Kansas City Royals delivered stunning news at a surprise late-season press conference that shook the franchise, the city, and even the fans who'd been begging for the move for years.

Principal owner John Sherman revealed a sea change to his front office. The Royals and President of Baseball Operations Dayton Moore — the architect of the resurgent Royals who went to the World Series in 2014 and won it in 2015 — were immediately parting ways. Moore was out and J.J. Picollo, his longtime assistant, was taking over the baseball side of the teetering club.

The news was welcomed by fans, who'd grown angry by the team's return to the losing ways that plagued them before their World Series seasons. For them, Kansas City was correcting the mistake of keeping Moore too long, but for others, Sherman handing over control of the baseball side of his franchise to Moore protégé Picollo didn't help. By virtue of his years of working for Moore, some believed Picollo couldn't avoid becoming just another version of his former boss, a baseball executive whose ways many thought no longer measured up to the game's changing times and philosophies.

Two years later, it's clear the mistake made with Moore has been corrected, and Picollo isn't Moore 2.0. Now praised universally for restoring relevance to a club that this year made it to postseason play for the first time since 2015, he's now among the cream of the crop of his profession. Proof lies in his runner-up finishes for The Sporting News' Executive of the Year and Major League Baseball's 2024 Executive of the Year awards.

Now, the Royals must not make a serious mistake by deciding to let Picollo go too soon.

The KC Royals need to do everything they can to keep J.J. Picollo

There seems to be no imminent threat that Picollo could leave Kansas City for the proverbial greener pasture, and nothing suggests he isn't happy being Sherman's Executive Vice President and General Manager. But the old saying that baseball managers are hired to be fired applies equally to general managers, whose frequency of job changes is second only to their skippers'.

Despite what Picollo has accomplished with the Royals and the bright future he's given the team, two or three mediocre seasons could spell the end of his Kansas City tenure.

So, too, could continued success. Credit Moore with the contract extension that kept Salvador Pérez in Kansas City to contribute so much to the Royals' remarkable 2024 turnaround, but it was Picollo who redesigned, retooled, and reinvigorated the team that took baseball by surprise by getting to the playoffs after losing 106 games in 2023. That result undoubtedly put Picollo at the top of many clubs' lists of potential general managers.

And losing a good GM to another organization isn't unprecedented in Kansas City. Atlanta wooed Hall of Famer John Schuerholz away after he'd spent several successful seasons with the Royals, so it could theoretically happen with Picollo.

Picollo's two full seasons at the Kansas City helm prove he's more transactional than Moore, he's influenced by — but not irrevocably wed to — all of Moore's ideas and philosophies, and he's capable of putting together a winning team in the face of adversity and against overwhelming odds.

He is, in short, a baseball keeper. If other teams come courting his GM, Sherman needs to do everything within his power to make sure Picollo remains at One Royal Way. And should other clubs tempt Picollo, deciding to let him go without a big fight would be a huge step back this franchise can't afford to take.