SURPRISE, Ariz. - Dayton Moore has been coming here eight years as the general manager of the Kansas City Royals, roaming the practice fields on sun-kissed February mornings, watching his prospects and imagining a better tomorrow. Now, he believes, it is here.
“For the first time,” Moore said this week, “we’re coming into camp - assuming we stay healthy - without a lot of questions on who’s going to start the season.”
This is a big deal for the Royals, who endured 17 of 18 losing seasons before last year, when they finished 86-76 and contended deep into September. Their painful, perpetual rebuilding plan has entered a new phase.
For the first time in decades, the Royals begin a season with a realistic chance at the postseason, and all the pressure that comes with it.
“The confidence in this group is definitely at an all time high going into this camp,” first baseman Eric Hosmer said. “The front office has done what they need to do to put us in position. Now it’s just a matter of going out on the field and doing it.”
The Royals added Norichika Aoki and Omar Infante to address their on-base issues at the top of the lineup. They replaced one veteran starting pitcher, Ervin Santana, with another, Jason Vargas. They expect several impact players to improve, given their ages and career trajectories.
And if it all happens, the Royals just might end one of the more inglorious streaks in professional sports. They have not reached the playoffs since 1985, the longest current drought for any team in Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA or the NHL.
“No one here probably even knows the last time we made the playoffs,” starter Jeremy Guthrie said. “It’s not a productive motivator to say, we haven’t made it in 29 years; we’ve got to make it this year. It doesn’t motivate you any more than just saying, we want to make it this year because we have good talent and we believe in ourselves.”
A popular talking point around the Royals is how well the team played last season outside one dreary stretch. From May 6 through June 4, the Royals went 6-22. After that they were fine. Their 43-27 record was the American League’s best in the second half, and they had a winning record against playoff teams overall. But they simply could not catch up.
George Brett, the Hall of Fame third baseman, spent part of the season as an emergency fill-in hitting coach. Brett focused on the mental side, joking that his job was to fool struggling hitters into thinking they were swinging great. Another coach, Pedro Grifol, handled the details.
Whatever the methods, the Royals improved offensively, and the young core of their lineup - Hosmer, infielder Mike Moustakas and catcher Sal Perez, all 25 or younger,retains its sheen.
Brett, the engine of a team that made the playoffs seven times in 10 seasons, and won the title in 1985, recognizes a difference in attitude.
“Before, they used to go out on the field and hope they could win - they tried not to lose,” Brett said. “Now they go out there and try to win. They know they can.”
Moore and several players attributed much of that to James Shields, the starter acquired in a defining trade last off season with Tampa Bay. Moore sacrificed outfielder Wil Myers, who would become the American League Rookie of the Year, and three other prospects for pitcher Wade Davis and Shields, who had two years to go until free agency.
Shields did everything the Royals wanted in year one, leading the league in innings and quality starts while ranking eighth in earned run average, at 3.15. He said he was not thinking about his future beyond this season.
“I’ve never been that type of player,” Shields said. “My job this year is to win a bunch of ballgames for this team and try to make the playoffs and go to the World Series.”
Given Shields’ performance, and the importance ascribed to him in the clubhouse, it is hard not to see the Royals as needing to win this season, before his possible departure. But Moore said he had not been building the Royals to contend for only two years.
“I think we’re in the beginning stages of a window that’s got a chance to be very good here in Kansas City for a period of time,” he said. “But the other thing is, if you’re going to win consistently, especially in our market, we’re going to have to continue to make deals like we did last winter. It’s not just one deal and then you’re fine.”
Sports, Pages 24 on 02/27/2014