As baseball prioritizes the home run, Royals are moving in a different direction
The home run is a landmark of baseball history, responsible for the sport’s most iconic moments. Yet more than ever, it is a characteristic of the present game, even to the detriment of contact at the plate and elite defense in the field. And still, it remains the unequivocal way of the future.
Well, maybe not for the Royals.
Kansas City appears to be trending in a different direction. Away from the long ball. Away from its competitors.
Back to athleticism. Back to the makeup of the 2014 and 2015 teams.
The reasoning? It’s simple, manager Ned Yost says.
“Every park should be a home-field advantage to the home team,” Yost said. “So it was a home-field advantage for us in ’14 and ’15 when we had speed and athleticism and we could steal bases, we could manufacture runs, we could drive the gap, we could cover the gaps defensively. That’s what we have to get back to.”
The Royals didn’t win a World Series by out-slugging teams. In fact, in 2015, only one American League team hit fewer home runs than the Royals’ 139.
Their formula was tailored to the ballpark. In a stadium that swallows home runs but demands its fielders roam acres of space, the Royals prioritized Gold Glove defense in the outfield. At the plate, they put the ball in play at a better rate than anyone in baseball and pressured the defense to cover that ground. They ran. They stole. They took extra bases.
It all falls into Yost’s definition of manufacturing runs. And it falls into what he envisions the future of the young group he manages now.
“We’re going to have to be guys that can hit and run, that can bunt, that can steal bases, that can drive the gaps with doubles and manufacture runs,” Yost said. “We’re going to have to be able to get a runner from second base with nobody out to third base. We’re going to have to be able to sacrifice fly. We’re going to have to manufacture runs if we’re going to be successful.”
The home run is the way the rest of the league is moving. Actually, it’s already there. The 2017 season saw more homers hit than any year in baseball history. The consequence: The 2018 season is on pace to be the 11th straight year that MLB sets a new record for league-wide strikeouts.
For a couple of years, the Royals began to implement that trend. They traded Wade Davis for Jorge Soler, a power-hitting outfielder whose defense needed improvement. They signed Brandon Moss and Lucas Duda. They traded Jarrod Dyson and watched Lorenzo Cain depart via free agency. Moss and Duda proved awkward fits for the ballpark, power hitters who offer little in the way of speed, athleticism or defense.
The Royals would obviously love to hit more home runs, but they appear to be taking a step toward emphasizing the core values that propelled them to the playoff runs. The strengths of those teams — outfield speed, contact hitters — fit the home field.
Some recent moves display a preference to return to that. Moss was traded after just one year in Kansas City. Duda was dealt last week.
As part of the trade this summer that sent third baseman Mike Moustakas to Milwaukee, they requested outfielder Brett Phillips, who remains a work in progress at the plate but whose defense is MLB-ready. He’s fast and a pest on the bases. He’s athletic, which reverts to Yost’s original point. He’s a potential fit for Kauffman Stadium.
“I love the outfield here,” Phillips said. “More room for me to cover and make plays. As an outfielder, you want those plays. You want the ball in the gap to go run down. I’m happy it’s big enough for me to help our pitchers out.”
On Friday, Phillips caught a ball at the right-field fence, a drive that would have easily cleared the wall at most major-league stadiums. But Kauffman Stadium routinely ranks in the bottom third or fourth of home-run parks. It’s 22nd this year.
“You gotta really get into a ball here for it to be a homer,” second baseman Whit Merrifield said.
But Merrifield cautioned that a player can’t adjust his swing just to suit that difficulty. The adjustment, it seems, needs to come in the makeup of the roster.
The next wave of youth has the potential to provide that home field advantage. Shortstop Adalberto Mondesi is a menace on the base paths the same way Dyson was once. Mondesi swiped nine bases over the last month, tied for the major-league lead. Top hitting prospect Khalil Lee has speed, too.
That’s a start. But the best Royals teams in a generation were built on several more players like them — more players who could impact the game with more than sheer power.
It’s a sticking point with Yost that the next generation gets there, too.
“We’ve struggled to manufacture runs this year,” Yost said. “But if we’re going to be successful moving forward, this young group’s gonna have to learn how to manufacture runs again. Because we’re not going to be able to sit back and just look to hit home runs.”
Sam McDowell
Sam McDowell covers Sporting Kansas City, the Royals, Chiefs and sports enterprise for The Star
