Assistant GM Jin Wong shocks fans with departure from KC Royals

The KC Royals are getting some new faces in the front office after all. Assistant General Manager Jin Wong is leaving his position, according to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal. His report made it clear that Wong's departure was "of his own accord." MLB.com confirmed the report Thursday evening.

The KC Royals front office is in flux after Jin Wong's departure this week.

Wong, who had been with the Royals organization for 24 years, was a very behind-the-scenes organization leader. He finished his second season as the team's vice president of baseball administration. That is an impressive rise from Wong joining the Royals in 2000 as a scouting operations coordinator and then rising through the ranks under then-general manager Dayton Moore.

As of this writing, the Royals have not responded publicly.

Wong's departure comes at an interesting juncture. He "had a major role in the negotiations of multi-year player contracts for the Royals" according to MLB.com's Anne Rogers, which Royals fans are expecting plenty of this offseason. General manager J.J. Picollo plainly played out the team's needs in his postseason press conference, including how players outside the organization now would compete for roles in 2024.

The Royals also have several extension decisions looming, an area Wong has experience in for Kansas City. Fans are clamoring for a Bobby Witt Jr. extension after his stellar season, while players like Brady Singer and Vinnie Pasquantino are still teetering back and forth between extension candidacies.

Whether it be in-house extensions or free-agent acquisitions, the Royals have a big hole to fill after Wong's departure. The organization needs all the help it can get in negotiating new contracts. Wong's biggest contract was catcher Salvador Perez's four-year extension back in 2021. That contract, worth a franchise-record $82 million, is just another offseason for many franchises. The Royals need both a greenlight from ownership and savvy negotiations to lure big-money players to the Midwest.

Royals fans wanted new faces in the organization, especially on the financial side of the house. It looks like that wish will be granted following Wong's surprising departure.

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