In letting the kids play, the Royals have gotten back to playing Royals baseball

At the end of the 2017 season, when it seemed likely the Royals would lose a number of players to free agency, there’s was talk that it was time for their minor-league prospects to play in the big leagues.

To help the prospects continue their development, the Royals would schedule extra “early work.” That’s the practice done by individuals and small groups early in the day before any team-wide activities.

It would probably mean a losing season, but the Royals would bite the bullet, give their prospects regular playing time and find out if those players could compete at the big league level.

But then the free-agent market did not develop as expected.

The Royals were able to re-sign Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar and add Lucas Duda and Jon Jay. Maybe those veteran ballplayers could make the team more competitive and avoid a 100-loss season.

If that was the plan, it didn’t work.

In the first half the Royals went 27-68, and the veterans were taking playing time from the prospects. It was the worst of both worlds: losing in the present and hampering development for the future.

But Moustakas, Duda and Jay are gone, Escobar’s taken a back seat to Adalberto Mondesi, and now that the prospects are playing, the Royals are actually a better team.

It’s not all that hard to understand why.

Speed and pressure

The big leagues appear to have gone home-run crazy, and some teams are willing to field bad defenders as long as those bad defenders hit enough balls over the fence. But those bad defenders present the Royals with an opportunity.

If other teams are going to field shoddy defenders, the Royals can take advantage of that by forcing those defenders to play the parts of the game that give them trouble.

After a Royals front office executive heard someone say the team had been looking better in September, he asked: “Do you know why? Speed.”

If everybody else is trying to hit home runs and nobody else plays the speed game — stealing bases, bunting for hits, taking extra bases — opposing teams are less prepared to face it.

If everybody else zigs, you might want to zag.

In the first half of the 2018 season, when the older, slower veterans were playing, the Royals ranked 10th in the American League in stolen bases, with 43; in the second half, they began the week tied for first, with 60.

Just like 2014 and 2015, the younger Royals are using their speed and forcing mediocre defenders to make plays.

Opening the playbook

The Royals might have gotten away from their original game plan by signing free agents, but they stay committed to doing extra early work. In fact, the Royals do so much early work that a player pointed out that the board that lists the practice schedule had to use a smaller font size to make it all fit.

But all that early work gives the Royals another advantage.

If the other teams don’t show the same commitment to defensive fundamentals, the Royals can make them deal with situations they won’t handle well.

If you’re into sabermetrics, you probably won’t like this strategy, but bunts, steals, double steals, fake breaks, delayed steals, squeeze plays and hit-and-runs force other teams to make decisions and play the parts of the game that give them problems.

Play station-to-station baseball because you’re afraid of making an out and you let bad defenders off the hook.

Getting the ball in play

The speed game doesn’t work if you don’t get the ball in play.

In 2014 and 2015, the Royals were the hardest team in the American League to strike out. And those extra balls in play put pressure on opposing defenses.

This season, the Royals struck out less than any other AL team before the All-Star break, but since the break only the Chicago White Sox have struck out more often.

If the Royals want to get back to the style of play that was so successful so recently, they need to do a better job of getting the ball in play.

Improved pitching

If the Royals want to get back to the formula that won them a World Series in 2015, they clearly have to improve their bullpen.

In 2015 the Royals had the best bullpen in the league; in 2018 they have the worst. The Royals have blown 23 saves this season; only three AL teams have more.

Once again, this is an area that needs improvement, but if you’re looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, overall the pitching has been better in the second half.

Before the All-Star break the Royals team ERA ranked dead last in the league; since the All-Star break they currently rank eighth.

Not great, but better.

Sticking with a game plan

Bad teams lurch from game plan to game plan and rarely stick with any philosophy long enough for that philosophy to work. They fire managers and GMs on a regular basis and are constantly starting over with some new approach.

Good teams have a long-term game plan and stick with it.

The Royals may have gotten away from their original game plan with free-agents signings but now appear to be back to the style of play that worked for them in the recent past.

The Royals know what kind of player they need in Kauffman Stadium and when they’ve gotten away from that kind of player, it usually doesn’t work out very well. You can’t take advantage of a big park that limits home runs but allows doubles and triples if you can’t run.

Before the All-Star break, the Royals were ninth in doubles and eighth in triples; since the All-Star break, the Royals are fourth in doubles and tied for second in triples — another sign that they are getting back to where they need to be.

Whit Merrifield currently leads the league in steals. And despite seeing only limited playing time, Mondesi is tied for sixth. Corner infielder Hunter Dozier is fast enough to have four triples, and Ryan O’Hearn has two. Rosell Herrera, Brian Goodwin and Brett Phillips all have above-average speed.

Before the All-Star break, the Royals were 41 games under .500; since the All-Star break, they are seven games under .500. That’s still a losing record, but it’s the way the Royals are playing that should give fans hope as we enter the last week of the 2018 regular season.

This doesn’t mean that the players we’re watching now will be the players that take the Royals back to a winning record, but it does mean that the Royals appear to be getting back to playing Royals baseball.

This story was originally published September 24, 2018 at 4:12 PM.