What 1981 and 1984 can teach the 2025 KC Royals about midseason slumps

The clouds are starting to block out any silver linings over Kauffman Stadium. The Kansas City Royals are sliding in 2025, and the clubhouse doesn’t exactly radiate optimism as the team searches for solutions while still identifying problems. While advanced metrics may eventually forecast the club’s future, sometimes it’s more interesting—and grounding—to look back.

No two MLB seasons are the same, but history shows that teams in similar situations have found ways to right the ship. In fact, two Royals squads from more than 40 years ago offer reasons for hope.

After game 81 of the 2025 season on Thursday, the Royals sat at 38–43—a sub-.500 record following a mix of highs and frustrating lows. It’s not where any postseason hopeful wants to be this late into the season. So the question becomes: have teams with a losing record at this point gone on to make the playoffs?

History says the KC Royals still have a postseason path in 2025

The answer is yes—37 teams since 1973 have pulled it off. That list includes recent World Series champions like the 2019 Washington Nationals and the 2021 Atlanta Braves. Only 12 franchises have done it multiple times. One of them? The Kansas City Royals.

The first instance came in the strike-shortened 1981 season, when MLB’s first-ever split-season format gave Kansas City a path to the playoffs. The Royals weren’t impressive to start the second half, going 10–10 before general manager Joe Burke made a bold move: he fired 1980 pennant-winner Jim Frey and brought in Dick Howser—the same manager who had knocked the Royals out of the playoffs the previous October with the New York Yankees.

Under Howser, the Royals surged to a 20–13 finish in the second half. It wasn’t a dominant run, but it was enough to edge the competition for the second-half AL West title. Oakland promptly swept Kansas City in the AL Division Series, but a playoff berth is a playoff berth—especially in a season that once looked lost.

Then there’s the 1984 Royals—a team that may look more familiar to today’s fans. By the end of June, that club was 33–40, sixth in a mediocre AL West, and showing little sign of life. They’d been outscored 337–311 through June 30 and ranked 11th in the AL in runs scored. But July brought a new month—and a new team.

Starting on July 17, the Royals caught fire, finishing the season on a 44–27 run to reach 84–78. Steve Balboni slugged his way into the hearts of fans, Dan Quisenberry anchored the bullpen, and the team—while unspectacular on paper—won the tight games that mattered most. They punched their postseason ticket without making a blockbuster move or relying on a superstar debut.

That’s the lesson: both the 1981 and 1984 Royals didn’t rely on miracles. They turned their seasons around because the players already on the roster stepped up. There was no franchise-altering trade, no once-in-a-generation call-up—just a group of players who found their rhythm and started delivering on their potential.

Could the 2025 Royals do the same? There’s no copy-paste solution in modern baseball. But the core principle still holds: if Kansas City is going to climb out of this slump, the turnaround will have to come from within. The potential is there. The question is whether the players can rise to meet it before it’s too late.