Alex Gordon’s storied time with Royals looks to be coming to an end

The championship came late Sunday night and the parade on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon. Baseball moves fast, so already, in the same week, Friday is Alex Gordon's last day with the Royals.

The team's longest tenured player is a free agent, starting at 11 pm Friday, and after that his connection with the Royals will be limited to contract negotiations and then, barring what would be a significant surprise, fond memories. Because Gordon will most likely be playing somewhere else next year, which will be weird — weird for him, weird for his family, weird for the Royals — but this is the way baseball works.

Ned Yost, the Royals' manager, calls Gordon the perfect ballplayer. Dayton Moore, the general manager, has said that his proudest professional experience with a player has been Gordon's path from superstar prospect to temporary bust to franchise cornerstone — and Moore said that before Gordon helped lead the Royals to an American League pennant last year and a world championship this week.

Moore is a sentimental man. He often talks about the importance of baseball in the community, particularly with kids, and means it as a compliment when he says someone "plays with a boyish innocence." Gordon is, in many ways, the defining player of Moore's time in Kansas City. This is a complicated situation, then, because the Royals have money to spend this offseason and Gordon figures to be in line for a contract worth between $15 million and $20 million annually over five years.

So what Moore said shortly after a season-ending press conference on Thursday is worth reading into. He was asked specifically about potential negotiations with Gordon, perhaps his favorite Royal of all-time.

"You keep it professional," Moore said. "Business is business. You do the right thing. It's about the Kansas City Royals."

This is significant, because the Royals, for perhaps the first time, are potentially positioned to win the negotiations for a player of Gordon's caliber. Assuming owner David Glass keeps with his policy of putting profits back into the team, a franchise record payroll could grow from $112 million in 2015 to $130 million or more in 2016.

In addition, the Royals have $40 million coming off the books in expiring contracts or likely non-tender candidates, which is only partially offset by about $25.5 million in contracted raises, buyouts, and estimated increases in salary arbitration.

The money coming off includes Gordon, Alex Rios, Jeremy Guthrie, and Greg Holland, who made $8.25 million in 2015 and is a candidate to be non-tendered and then signed to a multiple-year contract to cover his rehab from Tommy John surgery and return to baseball in 2017.

The $25 million in raises includes contract raises for players like Edinson Volquez, Wade Davis, and Eric Hosmer, as well as estimated raises through arbitration for players like Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas and Danny Duffy.

Moore said he doesn't have a budget for next year yet, which is normal at this point. But if these numbers are close, the Royals are well-positioned for the offseason. Moore's message, however, is consistent — prudence, patience, and smart spending rather than a shopping spree.

"We don't want to put ourselves in compromising positions," he said. "We don't want to be vulnerable going forward where we don't have flexibility. We don't want to end up as one of those organizations that's made foolish decisions or signed players to overly aggressive contracts, which I've done in the past. I've learned from that."

When Moore talks about "overly aggressive contracts," he means more in terms of length than size. The Royals caught a break when Gil Meche made what might be an unprecedented decision to retire and walk away from the last year of a five-year, $55 million contract. The Royals reinvested that money in the farm system, most notably in signing Raul Mondesi, now the team's top prospect. It would be foolish to expect that type of fortune again.

It is nearly impossible to imagine the Royals meshing this pledge for prudence with Gordon's price on the open market, which is certain to be bigger than any contract the franchise has ever signed — and likely to be much bigger.

He turns 32 in February, and even going into last offseason, team officials mentioned wanting to massage their roster in a way to lessen the stress on Gordon's body. He played only 104 games last year, slowed by a wrist injury in the spring and a groin injury in the summer.

Rival scouts notice less speed around the bases, and less ground covered in the outfield. He is still a very good player, but time takes its toll on all professional athletes.

Gordon's place in Royals history is secure. He is the team's best player since George Brett, a lock for the team's Hall of Fame, and as good a case as anyone else to be just the fourth man whose number the team retires.

His ties to Kansas City are real — though he no longer lives here in the offseason — and might motivate him to take slightly less money. But to stay here, he would have to take such a smaller contract that Moore and his assistants know they need to make other plans.

His story with the Royals is beautiful. He went to games in Kansas City as a kid, and has a brother named after Brett. He was drafted by the local team, and after working through some professional struggles, came to help lead them from decades of futility to the top of the baseball world. That kind of thing doesn't happen all the time in professional sports. That's worth remembering, and celebrating.

Because the story that does happen all the time in professional sports is coming. It's the one about an athlete signing an enormous contract, one the Royals are unlikely to match.

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 8:04 PM with the headline "Alex Gordon’s storied time with Royals looks to be coming to an end."