Royals would be in playoff hunt this year under John Smoltz’s proposal for baseball

Fans knew it was coming, but it still stung to see the Royals lose their 100th game of the season with a 2-1 defeat Wednesday at Pittsburgh.

“It stinks to get a hundred losses, but you know what?” manager Ned Yost told The Athletic’s Rustin Dodd after the game. “Again, the thing I look at right now and I feel much better about is we’re making progress. You look at this club, and I don’t think any of our fans that are fans — you’ve got guys out there, you’re not going to make them happy no matter what. But the majority, nine-tenths of our fans, are looking at this club right now and having fun watching it.

“They’re watching them grow, watching them get better, they’re watching them compete and play hard. And I’m pleased with that. I feel like we’re making headway. Going into next year, all of these guys are going to have a long to-do list on what they need to do to continue to improve. ... But they’ve made tremendous headway and are on their way.”

The play of Adalberto Mondesi, Brad Keller, Ryan O’Hearn, Heath Fillmyer and others is the reason for Yost’s optimism, and the Royals are 9-9 in the month of September and 25-32 in the second half of the season.

A dreadful first half ruined any chance of the Royals competing for a playoff spot. But under a radical proposal from Hall of Famer/TV analyst John Smoltz, the Royals would be in the playoff hunt right now. Yeah, now.

Talking with USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, Smoltz said he believes Major League Baseball is in need of an overhaul.

His plan: no interleague games, each team would play the same schedule and have a first-half and second-half winner, just as it’s done in the minor leagues.

“The way it is now, 75 percent of teams leave spring training with no chance to win, and no desire to win so they can build for the future,’’ Smoltz told USA Today. “You look at the American League, it’s self-sufficient on four teams. We have no races.

“I would like to see a first-half and second-half scenario. I know people would roll their eyes at it, but it works in the minor leagues, and it would work in the big leagues. It would create so much more interest.’’

The Indians officially clinched the American League Central last week, but Cleveland has had it wrapped up since early in the season. Under Smoltz’s proposal, the Indians would be the first-half champion and the Central team with the second-best record in the second half of the season would advance to the playoffs.

That race for the AL Central playoff berth in the second half would be ugly, but the Royals would be alive:

Major League Baseball has had a split-season once before. In 1981, a player strike forced baseball to have a first- and second-half champion. It was a disaster as the Cincinnati Reds had the best record in the majors (66-42), but missed the playoffs by finishing second in both halves.

Ditto for the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL East, but the problem was that each team played a different number of games in both halves because of the strike.

However, Smoltz thinks this change could be a boon for baseball, particularly as there is a dearth of interesting races in either league.

“Teams can now compete in the second half instead of just dumping everybody,’’ Smoltz told USA Today. “How are you going to tell your fan base that you’re not going to try in the second half? Who says you can’t have a nice second half? You could see teams reconstructed and change philosophically.

“You would have trade deadlines that mean something instead of becoming a dumping station for teams. You look at Baltimore, they might have changed their philosophy. The Nationals wouldn’t have traded all of those pieces. It would change the way the game is played.’’

What’s not clear is what would happen after each divisional playoff series ended, because there would be three teams advancing.

But you can read more on Smoltz’s plan here.

This story was originally published September 20, 2018 at 9:12 AM.