The Royals likely will play just nine teams if a truncated 2020 season happens
It appears Mike Trout and the Angels won’t be playing at Kauffman Stadium this year. Ditto for the Yankees and Red Sox.
But former Royals stars Lorenzo Cain and Mike Moustakas could be back in Kansas City.
Major League Baseball and the players’ union failed to reach agreement on starting the 2020 season, which was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. But commissioner Rob Manfred is poised to implement a schedule once the players respond to two key subjects.
According to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the 2020 schedule would include geographic scheduling. That means teams in the American League Central would play their usual divisional games and then face only NL Central foes. Ditto for the AL East/NL East and AL West/NL West.
So the Royals would be playing only the following nine teams this year:
Cardinals (91-71 record last year)
Brewers (89-73)
Cubs (84-78)
Reds (75-87)
PIrates (69-93)
Twins (101-61)
Indians (93-69)
White Sox (72-89)
Tigers (47-114)
Earlier this month, Dayn Perry of CBS Sports wrote the better Central teams would be able to “fatten up” against the Royals and other teams that struggled in 2019.
Perry broke down how teams did in games outside their divisions in 2019:
- NL and AL Central teams were a cumulative 58 games below .500 with a cumulative run differential of minus-299.
- NL and AL West teams were a cumulative 42 games above .500 with a cumulative run differential of plus-161.
- NL and AL East teams were a cumulative 16 games above .500 with a cumulative run differential of plus-138.
A year ago, the Royals had a 31-45 record against AL Central teams and were 1-3 against the Cardinals. Against all other teams, the Royals were 27-55, so perhaps they’d get a boost by playing only Central teams.
But only time will tell.
