MLB: Rating the front offices of the AL Central
By Bill Felber
Kansas City Royals
Dayton Moore, senior vice president and general manager
-0.2 games
Moore survived his first year under his second boss in 2020. John Sherman took over the team from David Glass last fall shortly before Glass’s death. That’s often a shaky scenario for the GM, and Moore’s contract expired at the end of the 2020 season. He was promised an extension at the time, but if Sherman has come through on that the news has been kept very low-key.
Still, there have been no intimations in Kansas City that Sherman may be contemplating a change, and until that happens – if it even does – Moore continues as the guy in charge.
What he has not been able to do is re-create the core of a championship team that was dispatched for financial reasons following the team’s 2015 World Series win. The Royals basically stood still in 2020.
Moore made 31 personnel adjustments to the Royals’ roster since the conclusion of the 2019 season, a dozen of which involved the incorporation of rookies into a developing cast. Over time there may be ability; aggressive young arms such as Brady Singer and Josh Staumont showed serious potential.
But none of those dozen rookies produced a WAA in excess of Singer’s +0.6, so for now, the long-term impact of that rookie crop exists largely in the hopes and aspirations of Royals fans.
For the most part, Moore was cautious in his handling of a developing roster. He took on only one veteran whose MLB rating went negative to any significant extent – free agent pitcher Matt Harvey, 0-3, 11.57 in seven appearances – and Harvey came cheap.
Here is the annual short-term performance rating of the Royals’ front office since 2016:
2016: -10.6
2017: – 6.7x
2018: -10.7
2019: – 9.6
2020: – 0.2
X: This was a greater loss than the margin by which the Royals failed to qualify for post-season play.