Recap: How the front office rating works
This is one in a series of assessments of the performances of front offices for the 2024 season. Each front office is given a score based on the total Wins Above Average of the players they either traded for, signed via free agency or extension, or promoted from their farm system, since the conclusion of the 2023 postseason.
A front office’s score also includes the total Wins Above Average of players traded away or lost to free agency since the end of the 2023 postseason. The front offices are being presented in order of their total value from No. 30 (worst) all the way to No. 1 (best).
These ratings do not necessarily reflect the final standings. Front offices are measured based only on the talent they acquired or lost during the past 12 months. Players on multi-year contracts, or already under team control, don’t count toward this rating.
4. Kansas City Royals, J.J. Picollo, executive vice president and general manager, +5.8
Picollo took care of his own house first, and that’s why he ranks so high among major league front offices for 2024 performance.
The decisive move occurred in mid-February when Picollo culminated months of negotiations by obtaining the signature of the team’s star, Bobby Witt Jr., on an 11-year, $289 million extension.
The extension ensured Witt’s face in Royals laundry at least through 2030, and possibly until 2037. It also put an exclamation point on the team’s growth spurt that had begun the previous July, when the Royals obtained Cole Ragans in a deadline trade with the Texas Rangers.
Witt rewarded the Royals for their confidence with a season that would have won him the MVP if Aaron Judge had not posted historic numbers (again). Witt won the batting title (.332), led the MLB in hits (211), hit 32 homers, drove in 109 runs, polished off a .977 OPS, and won a Gold Glove at shortstop.
His extension was a major reason, although hardly the only one, why the Royals turned in a rare 30-game season-to-season improvement in the standings.
Five most impactful Picollo moves
Transaction | Net Impact (Wins Above Average) |
|---|---|
Extended Bobby Witt Jr. | +7.2 |
Signed free agent Seth Lugo | +3.5 |
Signed free agent Michael Wacha | +2.0 |
Signed free agent Hunter Renfroe | -1.4 |
Acquired Nelson Velasquez in a trade with the Cubs | -1.3 |
Since the conclusion of the 2023 postseason, Picollo’s moves impacted 45 major leaguers, and numerically, those impacts did not necessarily favor the Royals. Twenty-five of them were negative to Kansas City, only 15 were positive, and five created neutral impact.
How, then, did Picollo succeed so brilliantly in righting the Royals ship that floundered so badly in 2023? In baseball terms, his hits were home runs.
Beginning with the Witt extension, Picollo’s three most significant moves all favored the Royals at consequential levels. In December, he signed Seth Lugo, a pitcher who had been released a few weeks earlier by the Padres.
Coming off an okay season in San Diego, Lugo was given a central role in Kansas City’s rotation and he blossomed. He went 16-9 with a 3.00 ERA in 33 starts, numbers that got him an All-Star game berth and runner-up honors in Cy Young Award voting. He’s under contract through 2025 with a player option for 2026.
Then Picollo signed free agent Michael Wacha, also a recent San Diego defect. Wacha went 13-8 with a 3.38 ERA in 29 starts.
Add it all up, and the Picollo-led front office enters 2025 presiding over a team that looks like it has completed its growth spurt and is ready to challenge for preeminence in the division and possibly beyond.
Previous Rankings
5. Baltimore Orioles, Mike Elias, executive vice president and general manager, +5.3
4. Kansas City Royals, J.J. Picollo, executive vice president and general manager, +5.8
Next: 3. Atlanta Braves, Alex Anthopoulos, president of baseball operations and general manager, +7.6