George Brett, the sage of spring training, intrigued by 2017 Royals

George Brett has the same questions you do. He wonders about the looming free agents and the new acquisitions and how better health might help the 2017 Royals. He thinks about the future of Eric Hosmer, and the tragedy of Yordano Ventura, and what the clubhouse might look like in August if the Royals are not in contention at the trade deadline.

“It’s something that they can use,” Brett says, “knowing that if they’re not competitive, who knows what’s going to happen at the trading deadline.”

It is just before 9:30 on Sunday morning, and the greatest player in Royals history is standing inside the clubhouse here in Arizona, sipping on a cup of coffee, waiting out a morning rainstorm, pondering the pivotal questions of this 2017 season.

He is 63 years old now, his hair a little grayer, his build a little thinner, but his presence remains unmistakable. He is here at spring training because this is where he wants to be. Brett likes to say that he will do this forever, and maybe someday, he’ll be the old man cruising the grounds in a golf cart.

Here, he can slip on a baseball uniform and patrol the fields at the club’s complex — one of which bears his name — imparting knowledge and sharing stories, telling tales about one of his 3,154 career hits. Here, he can enjoy the warmth of the desert sun and throw some batting practice and feel young once again. Here, he can wonder, just like thousands back in Kansas City, about the future of this franchise — like, say, that upcoming free-agent puzzle.

So let’s sort through this. There is Hosmer, of course, the franchise first baseman who will be a free agent at year’s end. The same for third baseman Mike Moustakas and outfielder Lorenzo Cain. There is also shortstop Alcides Escobar, but in this moment, Brett is thinking about three players in particular.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen with them,” Brett says. “I would be surprised if all three of them sign. But I don’t know. If we win it all again, (owner) David Glass might say: ‘What the heck, let’s go out and win another one.’ ”

These are the kind of things you can say when it is spring training. And these are the kind of things you can say when you are George Brett, a franchise icon and Hall of Famer, one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball.

So Brett decides to offer another story. In his first days in Surprise, he was in the clubhouse to listen to manager Ned Yost deliver his first speech of the spring. He took in the scene as a room of players listened, ready to move forward after a frustrating 81-81 finish last season. He thought about all that went wrong.

“You look back at the 2014 and the 2015 (seasons), they basically went injury free,” Brett says. “They had a lot of guys that had great years and good years, and as a result, they were very,very successful.

“Last year, they got hit with the injury bug big time, and we had guys that didn’t perform, and they ended up .500.”

As Brett spoke on Sunday morning, the Royals’ workout was minutes away from being pushed inside for the second straight day because of rainy weather. But all around him, a familiar rhythm has taken root in the opening days of camp.

The club’s championship core remains largely intact, a group intimately familiar with each other and the realities of free agency. The Royals are not ready to declare 2017 as their last chance to contend for a championship — far from it. But there are only so many opportunities to do something special. Brett knows this as much as anyone.

“We were in the playoffs seven times in 10 years,” Brett says, recalling the franchise’s run from 1976 to 1985. “And so when we didn’t make the World Series in 1986, we go: ‘OK, we’ll just get there next year.’

“We just thought it was a bad year. Unfortunately, it was the start of a long drought there in Kansas City, which we didn’t realize at the time. … Maybe we took it for granted.”

This Royals team will not do that, not after a .500 finish in 2016, and not after watching the Cleveland Indians dethrone them in the American League Central. Inside the clubhouse, players are still stung by an injury-riddled season that did not meet expectations. The feeling of motivation permeates the room.

Yost would agree with that sentiment, though his marketing skills perhaps need a little refinement. On Sunday morning, Yost sat inside his office during his morning session with the media. When one reporter asked if he had cast a theme or motto for this season, Yost responded in plain terms:

“Look, we got a really, really good team,” he said.

Nearly 30 minutes later, Brett stood inside the clubhouse and echoed the thought. This can be a really, really good team. Will it? We’ll see.

There is no telling what will happen over the next eight or nine months. Baseball is funny that way. In more than 20 years since his last game, Brett has watched so many different teams in Kansas City. They have been good and bad, and awful and surprising, and every so often a team offers the ability to transcend. For the moment, there are so many questions about 2017. But once again, Brett is ready to watch.

“Hopefully they get off to a fast start,” Brett said. “Hopefully they can compete, and they’ll be together at the end of the year. That’s what we’re hoping for.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2017 at 6:29 PM with the headline "George Brett, the sage of spring training, intrigued by 2017 Royals."