Dayton Moore, Kansas City Royals senior vice president and general manager
-6.8
Moore accepted a promotion to president of the Royals at season’s end, naming J.J. Piccolo as his successor.
Moore attempted to grease the results of what would become his final season as GM with an aggressive approach to free agency. It failed pretty miserably. He signed or extended nine players, and they thanked him by producing -8.7 games of WAA to the Royals’ season-long fate.
Moore’s biggest mistake, at least in the short-term, turned out to be giving Hunter Dozier a five year, $34 million extension. Dozier responded with an execrable season: a .154 average and .680 OPS in 144 games. Dozier’s -4.5 WAA may have been baseball’s worst.
That wasn’t all. Moore signed first baseman Carlos Santana to a one-year, $10.5 million deal and got a .214 average, a .660 OPS, and -2.3 WAA for his effort. Wade Davis, a key piece of the team’s 2015 World Series win, reprised his bullpen role with much less success: an 0-3 record and 6.75 ERA in 40 appearances, translating to -1.1 WAA.
Overall, Moore made 31 moves affecting the MLB roster, only 11 of which returned positive short-term results.
At the trade window, Moore was more successful. His acquisition of Andrew Benintendi (+0.7 WAA) cost Franchy Cordero (-1.1 for Boston) and Khalil Lee (-0.4 for the Mets), explaining most of the net +2.4 improvement Moore created via that aspect of his job.
A dozen newly minted farmhands were less useful. They combined for -2.5 WAA, most of that attributable to Jackson Kowar’s unsatisfying debut. Kowar had an 11.27 ERA in 30 innings, good for a -1.8 WAA.