3 potential season-wrecking disasters the KC Royals must avoid

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The KC Royals, a team restructured over a busy baseball winter, began their quest to extinguish the bitter memories of a dismal 2023 season by losing their Opening Day game with Minnesota Thursday. Assess most of the blame to an anemic offense that too closely resembled last year's.

But one game, as they say, doesn't an entire season make, and chances are good that this season's club will be better than the 2003 team that lost 106 times in 162 tries. The defense will be fine, the pitching should be much better, and even the offense is bound to improve. Some observers even believe the Royals will seriously contend for, if not win, the American League Central Division title.

They'll have to be pretty good and enjoy some good luck to accomplish either of those things. Also mission critical is avoiding disaster which, in this game, occurs too frequently and destroys even the best teams' seasons.

What pitfalls could get in Kansas City's way this season?

Deep trouble awaits the Royals if Bobby Witt Jr. doesn't stay healthy

Is anything about an individual player more obvious? No. Simply put, as Witt goes, so go the Royals, and there's really no getting around that proposition.

Witt's value to the club can't be overstated. Named KC's Les Milgram Player of the Year for both of his two major league seasons, he last year became the first Royal member of the 30-30 club by smashing 30 homers and stealing 49 bases. And because this isn't a team blessed with great infield depth, or more importantly a player of Witt's caliber, he's as indispensable to its success as any player to any other big league club.

So it is, then, that Witt must stay healthy. The Royals can't afford to lose him to serious injury.

Moving on...

Kansas City's new roster acquisitions can't fail

No Royals offseason storyline captured more attention than general manager J.J. Picollo's roster reconstruction project, a long-overdue project that drew far more praise than criticism and ushered Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, Will Smith, Hunter Renfroe, Adam Frazier, Nick Anderson, Chris Stratton, and others into Kauffman Stadium.

That infusion of new talent triggered a level of excitement and optimism not seen around the Royals for years; "contention" is suddenly a relevant word, not one associated only with the past or pipedreams.

But with so much riding on that new blood, one thing is clear — it can't fail, at least not to any considerable degree. The revamped starting rotation won't succeed if Wacha and Lugo don't perform well, potentially better run production won't be as good if Renfroe, who's hit at least 20 homers in six of his nine big league seasons, doesn't hit, and the close games can't be won consistently if the bullpen and its new members struggle.

Picollo and principal owner John Sherman deserve credit for the changes the Royals were willing to make, and did make, this winter. The free agent signings and trades were breaths of fresh air for a fanbase tired of losing and longing for better teams.

But it will all go for naught if the new players don't come through.

Moving on again...

Brady Singer can't be too inconsistent again for the KC Royals

When he's "on", Kansas City starter Brady Singer can be frighteningly good, a pitcher capable of mesmerizing and embarrassing opposing hitters. But when he's not on, as too often happens, it's plain for everyone to see, and those same batters beat him more than he beats them.

Singer is, in a word, inconsistent, so much so that, as the time-worn phrase goes, he's consistently inconsistent. He was 4-5 with a 4.06 ERA in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season which, all things considered, wasn't a bad record for a youngster with only 26 minor league starts to his name when that campaign began. His 5-10, 4.91 second season was worse, but he broke out in 2022 when he went 10-5, 3.23 and was the club's Pitcher of the Year. But last year was one of regression — in 29 starts, he lost 11 games, won eight, and posted a distressing and career-worst 5.52 ERA.

And although he pitched superbly at times this spring, he still gave up almost a run an inning (13 in 16 frames) and too many walks. That he worked on things during his Cactus League outings probably accounts for some of the rough times, but might not explain everything.

Singer's maddening ups and downs aren't something the club can easily absorb if they revisit and haunt him again this year — 2024 is a critical season for the Royals, a "put up or shut up" type campaign with the Royals appearing to be going all-in, or close to it, after last year's "evaluation" season.

Singer is a key to the club's success. He needs to be consistent, and the expansion of his pitching weaponry from primarily two pitches to an assortment of five may do the trick.

If it doesn't, the Royals won't accomplish everything they want to this season.

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