Grading J.J. Picollo and the Kansas City Royals front office at the season’s midway point

Overall

At 23-58, the Royals are so obviously terrible that Picollo’s assessment cries out for grading on the curve. Sorry, that’s not the way it works in the big leagues.

In fairness to him, save for those misguided free agency-driven attempts to recapture the lost youths of players such as Greinke, Chapman, Reyes and Jackie Bradley Jr., Picollo’s numbers aren’t all that bad. In fact, his rookie class, collectively at least, shows promise.

Here’s the first half report card on the Picollo front office. Note that grades for players departing the organization are based on the reverse of those players’ WAAs with their new teams.

Mode                    WAA                   Grade

Acquired              -0.8                        C

Traded                 -1.4                         B

Signed                 -3.2                         F

FA Lost                  0.0                         C

Rookies               +1.6                        B

Overall                 -1.0                        D

Picollo has made 22 personnel moves since the end of 2022 involving a player with 2023 major league experience. Those decisions have split evenly: 10 in his favor, 10 against him and two neutral.

It is a point well taken that the established core of the Royals team has not delivered in 2023. Such contractual holdovers as Perez (-0.5), Witt (-0.4), Pasquantino (-0.7), Melendez (-2.2), and Brady Singer (-0.8) have played poorly.

So even if Picollo had injected fresh talent into this franchise, the likelihood is that it would still be going nowhere. For a team to win, it is almost mandatory that the nucleus perform.

The problem is that Picollo hasn’t injected fresh talent.  Well, he may have injected some with Fermin, Cox and Garcia, but that isn’t good enough.