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What went right, what went wrong, and what are the top priorities for the Kansas City Royals this offseason?
The 2017 season will be remembered as the final year together for the core group of players who brought a second world championship to Kansas City. This group includes Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, and Alcides Escobar, all of whom are free agents. They’ve been with the Royals since 2011 and grew up together in the big leagues as the team went from a 71-91 record in 2011 to back-to-back World Series appearances in 2014-15 to the 80-82 record they had this year.
It was well known heading into this season that this would likely be the last hurrah for this group. As the season played out, everyone wondered whether GM Dayton Moore would allow them one last run for the playoffs or trade one or more of them during the season? A brutal 7-16 April seemed to signal that it was time to move on, but Moore stood pat.
The Royals improved with a 15-14 May and an impressive 17-9 June. After winning five of their first six games in July, they were 44-40 and just a half-game behind Cleveland in the AL Central. They also held the second wild card spot. There was hope in Kansas City. Perhaps there was another playoff run left in these Royals?
They stayed close through July, but it wasn’t easy. At one point they lost seven of eight games and fell two games below .500. Then they won nine straight games, three of which ended with walk-off hits. By the time the trade deadline came around, they were still in second place, just two games behind Cleveland, and still holding the second wild card spot. Hoz, Moose, LoCain, and Esky would make one last run together.
August would be their downfall. They went 10-18 while Cleveland went 19-9. By the end of the month, the Royals were 11 games out in the AL Central. The wild card was still in play, but they would need to jump over five teams to snag one of the two spots. They finished out the season by winning 15 of their final 30 games and finished third in their division, 22 games behind Cleveland and five games out of a wild card spot.
Rather than try to get something by trading one of the core four prior to free agency, Dayton Moore gave it one last shot. He’d seen this team surprise everyone before and hoped they could do it again. Ultimately, it didn’t work out, but Moore put together a championship team before and perhaps he can do it again.
Let’s take a look at what went right, what went wrong, and the team’s top offseason priorities.