The question KC Royals owner John Sherman has emphatically answered
In December 2022 at the Plexpod Westport Commons, the Royals launched their so-called listening tour to galvanize support for what was being touted as a potential downtown stadium district project.
The first question from the audience came in high and tight on chairman and CEO John Sherman.
“Why does a perpetual last-place team deserve a new $2 billion stadium?” came the query delivered on stage via Royals broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre. “If you won’t invest in the team, why should we invest in you?”
Entering his fourth season of leading an ownership group through the turbulence of the pandemic, a lockout and scant tangible progress from the two dreadful seasons that preceded, Sherman appeared more amused than aggrieved by the prevailing cynicism.
Certainly, he had to know the insinuation had been arrived at honestly after the franchise’s many thrift-dominated years since its early glory days and the 1993 death of founder Ewing Kauffman.
While David Glass, Sherman’s predecessor, doesn’t get proper credit for his (small-market-relative) splurging in 2014 and 2015 in particular, there remained an inevitable sequel to those enchanting seasons.
Something then-general manager Dayton Moore lamented in advance.
“We’ll try to keep our young players here as long as we can,” he said in December 2014 after the Royals’ first of back-to-back World Series appearances. “We won’t keep them all. We won’t be able to. It’s just not feasible. But we’ll do our best to keep as many as we can.”
Next thing you know, much of the core of the 2015 championship team defected for substantial money the Royals couldn’t match.
Soon came the spiral into an average of 99.6 losses over the next five full seasons (not including the shortened 2020) spanning 2018-2023.
The Royals are investing more
As Sherman began to answer the question that night, he pointed to the tens of millions the Royals had spent bringing in the likes of Andrew Benintendi, Carlos Santana and Michael A. Taylor.
“That really didn’t work out for us, right?” he acknowledged.
Noting that the plan under a revamped administration with a new manager was to develop a young team, he added, “And when the time is right we’re going to invest very, very significantly to win on the field.”
Much has happened since … though nothing tangible yet with the stadium initiative.
But since the end of the abominable 106-loss “evaluation” season of 2023, Sherman has proven true to his word on investing “very, very significantly” in the product.
With that there’s this:
Considering the 11-year, nearly $300 million contract extension awarded to Bobby Witt Jr. last year and the $100 million-plus the Royals spent on free agents entering the 2024 season and subsequent extensions for Cole Ragans and Michael Wacha, the franchise hasn’t enjoyed this sort of financial commitment since the Kauffman era.
And that’s all the more meaningful because of an evident philosophical alignment between Sherman and general manager J.J. Picollo that figures to keep reaping dividends.
That was punctuated this week not by the measured flurry of deals before the MLB trade deadline Thursday but by the Royals’ most revealing and substantial move:
Effectively spending $46 million to sign star pitcher Seth Lugo for two more years (with a vesting option for a third season) rather than deal an enticing trade piece before he could become a free agent after the season.
A lot went into that working out, including the cultural fit for Lugo that superseded wanting to test the market.
But it ultimately couldn’t have happened if Picollo didn’t know Sherman would be open to what should be considered a blockbuster move: Lugo finished second in American League Cy Young voting last year. And in two seasons and 53 starts in Kansas City, he has the lowest ERA (3.03) in club history among pitchers with more than 50 career starts.
“I don’t think we are finding that in the trade market,” Picollo said earlier in the week.
J.J. Picollo feels ‘leeway and support’
Between that and their three trades Thursday, the Royals have bolstered their future without retreating from the present as they enter a pivotal nine-game road trip with a 54-55 record — three games back of the third American League Wild Card spot.
Because of ongoing injuries to Ragans and Michael Lorenzen and Kris Bubic being shut down for the season, by necessity their focus in the final days became starting pitching — with a lot of club control going forward.
Along with acquiring pitchers Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek from San Diego and Bailey Falter from Pittsburgh, they also added veteran outfielder Mike Yastrzemski from San Francisco.
Even those more nuanced aspects of the deadline dealings reflected a certain harmony in the mission.
Here’s the illuminating semi-full version of what Picollo said after the trade deadline Thursday via Zoom when I asked him about how liberating it’s been to know that Sherman is prepared to spend.
“John and I share a vision. I think the reason I’m in this position is because I understand where he wants this organization to go, and it’s my job to make sure that it happens. It’s nice when you have leeway and support when you’re asking to spend some dollars to try to make the team better. And the answer has often been ‘yes,’ and that’s a very comforting thing.
“At the same time, you can’t be reckless about it. We’ve got to be smart in what we do. What I liked about the players that we acquired today (was) we didn’t add payroll today. We added to depth and longevity. And when we think about trying to win now and take care of the future, I think that’s what we executed today. …
“We made our future brighter for tomorrow. And that’s really important, and we did it in a very economical way. … So it’s the mutual respect. It’s not something that we take lightly. We’re not just going to always go into John’s office and say, ‘Hey, we need you to sign another $10 million player.’ We’ve got to come up with solutions with young players that have bright futures.”
When I followed up about the sheer contrast to the past, Picollo emphasized that the Royals won the World Series during the Glass regime and that the Glass family was “awesome to us.”
“At the same time, ownership changed, and I have a different job and a different relationship with Mr. Sherman,” said Picollo, who has been in the Royals front office since Moore hired him in 2006. “And I’m proud of that relationship, and I want to do right by him and do right by our fans in our city.”
The Royals’ present and future
It remains to be seen how this will all translate, of course, both this season and in the future for a franchise that returned to the postseason last year for just the third time since 1985.
In the near term, the Royals went 15-9 in July and will play 26 of their final 53 games against teams they’re competing with for a wild-card berth.
So they’ve got some momentum and plenty of say in how this plays out.
What they didn’t get was the sort of dynamic bat that could ease concerns about the offense, which even after heating up lately still has the third-fewest runs in MLB entering the road trip.
But it sure wasn’t because they were unwilling to spend — a notion that’s reasonable to call a trend by now and that bodes well for the Royals continuing to enhance their roster in the years to come.
Going back to that question that night at the Plexpod, that’s not an endorsement for whatever public ask the Royals ultimately make when they announce their next site choice for a new stadium project.
That’s its own matter.
Much like the fact that Sherman had been one of the area’s most generous philanthropists since long before he took ownership of the Royals.
Just the same, Sherman to date has answered emphatically the question of whether he’ll invest in the team — and that’s surely an apparent signal of better days ahead.