Kansas City Royals 2018 Season Review
By David Hill
The 2018 campaign was a disaster for the Kansas City Royals. However, for as bad as the past year was, the future is certainly bright.
One had to know the 2018 campaign would be rough for the Kansas City Royals. Although they had signed a few stopgap free agents, while bringing back Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar on one year deals, it seemed unlikely that they would contend. The Indians were still the class of the AL Central, and the Twins seemed like they could be a formidable team. Maybe, if everything went right, the Royals could hover around .500, and would potentially make a run for the postseason.
Instead, the polar opposite happened. The Royals best laid plans cratered, leaving the team in sell mode early in the season. Jon Jay, Moustakas, Lucas Duda, and Kelvin Herrera were sent elsewhere, as Kansas City stumbled through most of the season. The end result? A 58-104 record, the second worst mark in the majors, and tied with the 2004 Royals for the second worst mark in team history.
However, there are few similarities between the 2004 Royals and this year’s edition. The Royals from that time frame were in a perpetual cycle of mediocrity, with just one season over .500 from 1995 through 2012. That year was the first of three consecutive 100 loss seasons, as the Royals were one of the biggest pushovers in the game. This time, there is promise for the future, and hope that the halcyon days of just three and four years ago will return quickly.
Before we can look ahead, let us look back at the past season for the Kansas City Royals. it was not all bad, despite the record.