How the Royals suddenly redefined their present while looking to the future
Sitting in his office at Kauffman Stadium in mid-January, Royals general manager Dayton Moore dutifully explained the realities and financial dynamics of this transitional phase for the franchise.
He stressed the urgencies of fiscal restraint and replenishing a minor-league system heavily drained by moves that helped the Royals win the 2015 World Series. And he gazed toward a blank canvas on an easel that served to symbolize the vast unknowns about his 2018 team.
Most likely, he said, “we may have to take a step back” before promptly adding, “But we’ll see. Still going to try to win, each and every night.”
If you didn’t know Moore, you could dismiss that as a perfunctory thought.
Especially if the Royals had forged forth with forced baptisms of fire for the raw likes of Aldaberto Mondesi (still best known as Raul) at shortstop, Hunter Dozier at first base, Bubba Starling in center and Cheslor Cuthbert (with some experience) at third.
While that would have been an extreme version of what they were angling toward, it speaks to what the presumed initial trajectory was as they reset.
Prognosticators had been so full of gloom that one Royal defiantly joked at spring training that they might as well just not show up for their games.
“As it stands, the Royals will field the worst group of position players in the majors,” ESPN.com wrote. “It’s not even close.”
That may or may not have been true even then.
But “as it stands” has changed radically since with the recent signings of Lucas Duda, Jon Jay and, finally, fan favorite and two-time All-Star Mike Moustakas.
The opportunistic message was resounding:
The Royals might be rebuilding, but they aren’t conceding that they have to take a dive to do that.
Flux or not, they seek to remain as credible as possible with what has become a brand to protect.
As usual with Moore, there’s both idealism and practicality at play in moves that reflect this thinking.
“We can’t just not try to win for the next two or three years to get draft picks and then think we’re just going to flip the switch and our culture is going to be strong again,” Moore said in his office in Surprise earlier this month. “We’ve got to continue to develop that winning attitude and approach on a daily basis.
“We can never get complacent, we can never get weary of the importance of giving your best effort every single day.”
He meant in terms of teaching and on the field.
But he knows it’s imperative for that message to be sent from the front office down.
Which he’s done, boosting both the morale of the team and a fan base without compromising the broader vision.
The bargain re-signing of third baseman Moustakas at one year, $6.5 million, combined with equally economical one-year deals in the days before with outfielder Jay ($3 million) and first baseman Duda ($3.5 million), doesn’t figure to make the Royals instant contenders or anything like that.
But it does represent a fundamental shift in their credibility to compete now … even without a fundamental shift in emphasis on financing the future.
The addition of those three and the earlier stop-gap re-signing of Alcides Escobar ($2.5 million for a year) adds up to the Royals acquiring half a field of successful major league players (accounting for Escobar’s glove more than his bat, that is) who have all played in the World Series for a total of $15.5 million.
For context, that’s nearly $2 million less combined than the $17.4 million qualifying offer that Moustakas declined after last season.
The finances are a rotten twist for Moustakas, who set a club record with 38 home runs in 2017 only to come to epitomize what might be called a disturbance in the force in baseball’s free agent market.
Moore seemed to acknowledge that as he stood alongside Moustakas and agent Scott Boras and spoke to the media at spring training in Arizona on Saturday.
“We’re fortunate that it happened for us the way it did,” said Moore, who along with his staff should be commended for their patient and alert reading of the distressed market.
A case could be made that the Moustakas move was more sentimental than shrewd, particularly since the Royals have had the stance that it’s time for Cuthbert to play third and now have to adjust that thinking.
On the flip side, though, Moustakas was irresistible at this price when you combine what he can produce with the intangible values of having back a fan favorite who plays with fire and can serve as a mature (29 and the father of two as of last week) role model of being raised Royal.
While less familiar on a regular basis to Royals fans, Duda (32) and Jay (33 next week) carry reputations for strong work ethics, too, and can set further examples in a clubhouse in which Moore and manager Ned Yost consider that crucial.
Now, what this will all mean in the end — or even a few months — is less clear than what it says right now.
Certainly, the prevailing wave suggests that the Royals are less ready to prime the pump now with their would-be future core, less confident in its basic preparedness for the big leagues (even if the health of Mondesi and Starling is holding them back now, too).
You could see that as simply buying time — or you could see it as a reassessment of the viability of the more immediate prospects.
Moreover, it’s hard to be sure what the implications will be for Moustakas, Jay and Duda as the season goes on.
If they play true to their recent pasts and a few of the other red-flag concerns about this team play out favorably (Alex Gordon regaining his form, Jorge Soler finding his way, the bullpen, etc.), the Royals could be downright competitive.
Depending on how much so, there might be this dilemma:
Whether their most attractive parts need to be dismantled by the trade deadline to continue to reinvest for the future … or whether they are somehow just competitive enough that Moore would be more honor-bound to see it through.
Just the same, there is much more upside in this in the last two weeks even if it fails to make the Royals competitive.
They could well still take a step back from being a team that has won at least 80 games the last five seasons after doing that just once in the previous two decades.
But at least it won’t be because they accept that as inevitable in revamping, which remains the primary focus even as they’ve deftly maintained integrity and intrigue in the moment.
This story was originally published March 10, 2018 at 6:43 PM with the headline "How the Royals suddenly redefined their present while looking to the future."