What’s it been, like nine months or so? An entire season and then some, right? So in 2023 I wrote one article. One. That is it. Ah, the days of me writing multiple pieces in a week are gone and I’m not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, I wish I wrote more and was able to go deeper on some of the thoughts I have, whether it’s the Royals or baseball in general. On the other, I just don’t have to toss my thoughts out there anymore and am fine with just being a fan who avoids social media more and more every day.
I will say that despite the Kansas City Royals being a very bad baseball team in 2023 (other synonyms for bad: awful, lame, terrible, disastrous and brutal, just to name a few) I didn’t mind watching them. It was a weird feeling knowing that Jordan Lyles was going to hop on the mound, give up 3-5 home runs, completely put the team in the tank and think ‘Well, he can’t start tomorrow, right?’. It was almost like I had this weird sense of serenity when watching the Royals since they were finally free of a false leader with a superiority complex. The team had chosen a new direction, one that felt right, that sounded right and while it looked wonky, it appeared to be a path that would lead to success.
Yes, I believe in the current path of the organization. I approve of the coaching hires, the pitching development program in the minors and I definitely think Matt Quatraro was a great hire. I still question J.J. Picollo as the Royals GM, although that has waned a bit this offseason. I definitely feel like the scouting department needs a major overhaul, but that’s an article for another time (let’s say two years from now? That work?). And I’m totally not a fan of the snake oil salesman known as the owner, John Sherman. But overall, the Royals have a solid foundation and there is hope in Kansas City again.
But instead today I thought I would throw out a few questions I get asked a lot. Yes, people still ask me about the Royals. Look, I sometimes wonder why they do but then I remember that while you rarely see me post here, I still religiously follow the team. I’m still ‘deep in the weeds’. I just don’t post my thoughts that often. So for that reason, I get Royals questions all the time. So today I will answer some of them and maybe I can go back to being a hermit.
Wow! The Royals spent money this offseason. Are they going to be contenders in 2024?
Yes, John Sherman, a man worth over a billion dollars, remembered that he had money he could spend on his baseball team and actually decided to do just that. If we are being honest, Picollo has assembled a nice crop of new players for Kansas City to trot out in 2024, acquiring the likes of Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, Chris Stratton, Will Smith (no, the other Will Smith) and Mike Trout doppelganger Hunter Renfroe. The team needed to strengthen their pitching staff and from the looks of it they have done just that. With the way it looks right now, Jordan Lyles is a fifth starter at best (AT BEST). We all know Sherman spent the money to convince taxpayers to help pay for a new stadium (more on that later), but he did finally open his checkbook and the results aren’t bad.
Is it enough to make the Royals contenders. Oh boy, that feels like a loaded question. On paper it appears the team is improved but the question becomes how much? If the new acquisitions play on par with their 2023 numbers, and if the offense performs more like they did in the second half of last season and if a handful of players improve on their performance of last year and if Bobby Witt Jr. continues to prove he is ‘Bobby Baseball’, this team has a chance to contend. That sure is a lot of if’s. Look, I would love for the Royals to surprise everyone and take over the American League Central in 2024 and prove my theory of last winter, which was if any team in the division spent even a decent amount of money (any of them), the AL Central could be theirs for the taking.
But do I believe the Royals will improve their win total by 30+ games or even 20+? I’m not counting on it. If the team had some players ready in the farm system to produce and it looked like they were 1-3 players away, maybe I could believe more. But this team had so many holes last season and just expecting a lot of players performances to improve feels foolhardy. I think they will be better, but I’m talking like 15-20 games better at most. That still puts them under .500 and not a contender in the American League. I think at this point we need to take the small wins and be thankful for them. This is an organization that hasn’t had a winning season since 2015, which is getting very close to ten years ago now. I will take whatever little victories I can at this point.
Also, the team should have signed Shohei Ohtani this offseason. What a whiff.
Should the Royals trade Salvador Perez?
Ah, the battle between the heart and the mind. That is essentially what a trade of Salvador Perez would be. I think 3/4 of us could agree that we wouldn’t want Salvy to be traded and we would even prefer he only wear royal blue for the rest of his career. But baseball is a business and sometimes you have to make moves that aren’t popular but are better in the long-term.
From a purely numbers perspective it would make sense to trade Perez. His core numbers have dropped the last two years and the abuse he has taken behind the plate is showing signs of wear and tear. His best seasons are behind him and if we are being really honest with ourselves, Salvy should be the primary DH at this point. He’s entering his age 34 season and regression has already begun.
But would the Royals get true value for him? Probably not what they want. No team is going to value Perez the way Kansas City would. Their expectations of any trade for him are going to be higher than they should be. The lone exception to that might be the White Sox, who are trying to recreate that Kansas City feel and have people (Grifol, Tosar, Getz,etc.) who probably still see him as the glue of whatever lineup he is in. Chicago has the 16th best farm system in baseball and have done a decent job of restocking their system through trades and might continue to if Dylan Cease is dealt. But I’m not sure they have what Kansas City is looking for, even if Picollo was deathly serious about making a deal.
Toss in how Royals ownership wants the stadium bill on the April ballot and you have a recipe for Salvy not going anywhere. In the long run it’s probably the best, as the team has alienated their fanbase enough over the last couple seasons and a trade of your most popular star would probably not help. Unless something major happens, Salvy ain’t going anywhere.
Where is that Bobby Witt, Jr. extension?
We could have asked this question last winter. Actually, I think most of us were asking this question last winter. While guys like Julio Rodriguez and Corbin Carroll where getting locked in for an extended period, there was nothing when it came to Bobby. While he didn’t have a blow away rookie campaign in 2022, he did enough to make you think Kansas City should get a deal done before it cost them too much.
Fast forward a year and Witt had a breakout second half where he looked like one of the top 20 players in the game. His value skyrocketed and now any extension is going to cost the Royals. The thing is, the longer this goes on, the more expensive it is going to get. There are no guarantees in baseball but if I had to guess, BWJ is going to be a perennial All-Star for the next 10 years and will probably be talked about for future MVP awards. Before you say it, yes, he could be that good; the kid is only 23.
So what are the Royals waiting for? For all we know, the organization has tried to lock him up and he isn’t interested at the moment. Although Bobby has said there have been talks “here and there”, whatever that means. Unless someone just comes out and says it, we don’t know that they haven’t been working on a deal. It wouldn’t shock me if they announced a long-term deal right before a certain stadium bill could be voted on in April (if you know what I’m saying). Only the Royals, Bobby and his agent know where they stand on this issue and no one is talking
What I do know is that as a fan I would like Bobby to stay with the team as long as possible and an extension would do the trick. The fear is that the Royals will wait too long and by the time they make a concerted effort, Witt has priced himself out of the team’s plans. If you are an old enough Royals fan, you remember Johnny Damon and Carlos Beltran and Jermaine Dye all price themselves out of the Royals market. I think we can all agree we don’t want to see a repeat of that with Bobby.
How do you feel about the Royals wanting a new stadium?
For the sake of you, the reader, I’m going to try and keep this short. I have spent the last year ranting about this to my family and friends and I don’t need to put anyone else through that. This is a very passionate topic for me and because of that I have a lot of opinions about it. So…here we go.
Do I want a new stadium? No.
Do I feel the Royals need a new stadium? No.
Does it feel dirty how Royals ownership has gone about trying to convince the fans they need a new stadium? Yes.
Do I feel taxpayers should help pay for a new a stadium or any stadium at all? Hell no.
Is this really all about real estate and John Sherman making bank off of the area around the stadium? God yes.
Look, if I felt the Royals needed a new stadium and this made sense I would be for it. Nothing lasts forever, especially baseball stadiums. But that is not what is going on here and most of us can see that. John Sherman wants to make money off of the real estate and a new stadium is how he gets that. This is a rich man trying to get richer. It has nothing to do with baseball and everything to do with lining Sherman’s pockets.
The Royals are bound and determined to get a new stadium. They aren’t for sure where or when, but they will get their stadium. There is even the chance that voters vote down the bill and the team looks to move to a different city. Yes, there is an outside chance Kansas City could lose the team and someplace like Nashville could get the Royals. That is obviously the worst case scenario, but it would be foolish to ignore that possibility.
I don’t like this and I never have but I realize I have zero say in this and they are going to do whatever they want to do. I don’t believe any taxpayer should pay for a sports stadium when these teams are owned by millionaires and billionaires; you know, people who can afford these pricey buildings. To have taxpayers help pay, when they will receive none of the profit from the stadium, sure does feel like a kick in the groin. The biggest con in sports is convincing fans to help pay for their stadiums and over the years that con has appeared to work. I just hope Kansas City fans don’t fall for it.
I think that is about all I’m going to say about it. I love ‘The K’ and would like for it to last as long as possible but that appears to be me asking for too much. I will say that if there are things on your bucket list that you would like to see at Kauffman Stadium, I would suggest start marking those wants and needs off soon. If you don’t, you might turn around and realize you can’t mark them off anymore because the stadium isn’t there.
Why do you hardly write anymore?
Technically this question isn’t Royals related, but I do get asked every now and then why I rarely write anymore. I’m sometimes thrown back by this, since there are a ton of people who write about baseball and there are so many opinions out there that the idea of losing just one lone voice doesn’t feel like a big issue. I appreciate everyone who reads my stuff but I’m just one guy who has loved the Royals since I was a little kid. Remember, I’m a big picture kinda guy.
The main reason that I don’t write very much is I just don’t have the time. My schedule has gradually been getting busier and busier since about 2018 and I can’t seem to slow it down. I used to be able to write at work late at night, since I would have an hour or two I could use for myself. I used to also have time to myself in general, which I rarely get anymore. But the real culprit is work.
Starting in 2018, I was pretty much splitting my time at work between days and nights. Rather than just have one consistent shift, my schedule bounced around a lot because I was the guy who filled in for everyone. When the pandemic happened in 2020, I was furloughed, which you would think meant I would have more time. But the honesty of the situation was that most people were at home, including my wife. It became harder for me to focus when writing and with other people around it became almost impossible.
Then in early 2021 I became the midday guy. We already were short on people and now even more was going to be asked of me. Add in our program director leaving in July of that year and work just got a lot more complicated. Ever since then, I am mentally drained by the time I get home and don’t really have the energy to churn out a piece on why Jordan Lyles is a great batting practice pitcher.
I’ve also been okay with just being a fan. Look, I love baseball and I love writing about it but I’m never going to make a living off of this. It was always just a fun thing to do so I could talk baseball. I still have all these thoughts and opinions about the sport but I just don’t feel anymore like I have to put them out into the world.
I’ve said this the last few years but I just don’t know how much time I will devote to this blog moving forward. I wrote one article last year and this is already tying my 2023 total. I would like to shoot for once a month but I know there are periods where my schedule is just super hectic. If you give me the option of watching a baseball game or writing about it, I’m probably going to just watch it. So I appreciate everyone who reads this and I hope that this isn’t my only post for the year: Fingers crossed.
So there you go, a few thoughts I have on our Kansas City Royals. 2023 was a rough year for our boys in blue but it looks like this new year could bring them a few more wins. More than anything, I hope all the bumps in the road over the last 4 years hasn’t killed your interest in this team and I hope you at least give them a chance in 2024.
Mary Tyler Moore once said “Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow.” Wise words but I tend to lean more toward the great philosopher Homer Simpson when he said “Don’t worry son, everyone makes mistakes. Yours is just public and expensive”. To me that sums up the Royals of the last couple seasons. Let’s hope there are fewer mistakes in the new season.
Bleeding Royal Blue 