The Kansas City Royals are the last team standing, and deserve congratulations as the undisputed best team in baseball for the 2015 season. While they should have been the favorite from day one after finishing just one game short of the title last season, they had to fight their way to respect. They never fell below second place in the AL Central all year and finished the year in first, never falling below after June 8th. In the Postseason, this dominance continued as they led each of the final two series for the duration.
Preseason Prediction: While the rotation and lineup might look a little bit weaker, the major pillars of last year’s success remain intact. The Kansas City Royals remain an excellent defensive club with lots of speed on the bases and one of the most dominant bullpens in recent memory. They may not have quite as many leads to hand the bullpen as they did last year though thanks to their offseason losses, but it shouldn’t be enough to knock them out of the picture in the AL Central. The Royals have the look of an 84-win team, but with the way the rest of the division is shaping up, that could well be enough to keep them in the race for the division crown. (Garrett Wilson, March 20th)
What Went Right: More than any other team in the Postseason, the Royals were a team. Yes, they had some incredible standouts, including Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera from the bullpen, along with Alcides Escobar and Eric Hosmer both in the field and at the plate in the playoffs, but the success of this team was based on the well rounded nature of the team. Unlike many other playoff teams, the Royals didn’t depend on a couple of all or nothing power hitters or one or two ace starters. They came out every game with incredible defense, an at least league average starting pitcher and a great bullpen.
You can’t credit the bullpen or defense enough, but neither were enough on their own to win it all. If they were, they would have won last year when both were better. Much of the difference this year was offensive, coming from the incredible season of Lorenzo Cain, the improved Hosmer and the very surprising Kendrys Morales. While these all had fantastic years at the plate, there wasn’t a huge star anywhere in the lineup. No Royals hitter had more than 22 home runs during the regular season, but six had more than ten. None had more than 106 RBI, but eight had at least 44 including Omar Infante, who wasn’t quite All-Star worthy, but was a solid defender and decent bat before being replaced in the field by Ben Zobrist. Without any of the next level superstars like Trout or Harper, the Royals scored 724 runs this year, more than both of those players’ franchises.
KANSAS CITY, MO – OCTOBER 16: Edinson Volquez #36 of the Kansas City Royals walks off the field after the second inning against the Toronto Blue Jays during game one of the American League Championship Series at Kauffman Stadium on October 16, 2015 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
What Went Wrong: Obviously very little went wrong as they won the World Series, but if there was a problem, it was in their starting pitching. As it were, the World Champs finished ninth worst in baseball in ERA in the regular season and needed ten starters to make it through 162 games. Of those, all but Edinson Volquez and Chris Young finished the year with an ERA of 3.98 or above as a starter. The bottom five of these starters played 50 games and all held an ERA for the year above 4.50 in a league where the average ERA in the entire major leagues was 4.10. All this despite the fact that their rotation always played in front of a defense that was vastly superior to any other in baseball.
NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 31: Chris Young #32 of the Kansas City Royals against the New York Mets during Game Four of the 2015 World Series at Citi Field on October 31, 2015 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
Most Surprising Player: Who expected a 36 year old starter with just 28 games pitched from 2010 through 2013 and a 3.77 career ERA before 2014 to become the Royals’ most reliable starter ahead of Johnny Cueto, Volquez, Yordano Ventura and Danny Duffy? Chris Young did this during the regular season this year, joining the rotation from May 1st through July 28th before being replaced by Cueto. During this stretch, Young held a 3.40 ERA and had five starts with no earned runs allowed, four with just one. Also pitching out of the bullpen, Young held a 2.59 ERA for the season with a .153 average against.
In the Postseason, Young was called upon to start twice and twice in relief. He was better in relief, but still was used for distance as he pitched 7 innings, allowing one run in those two appearances. In the World Series itself, he pitched in two games (one each way), allowing just two runs in seven innings as the Royals won both against New York.
NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 30: Yordano Ventura #30 of the Kansas City Royals against the New York Mets during Game Three of the 2015 World Series at Citi Field on October 30, 2015 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
Most Disappointing Player: While Alcides Escobar was disappointing in the regular season, he really turned things on when it mattered in the postseason, winning the ALCS MVP and working a .861 OPS across all postseason games gives him a pass. Yordano Ventura doesn’t get that pass. The top ranked pitching prospect for the Royals in 2013 and 2014, Ventura was ranked as high as 12th best prospect in all of baseball by Baseball Prospectus at one point. He did have a breakout season in his rookie year in 2014 with a 3.20 ERA in 183 innings, but fell backwards in 2015 with a 4.08 in just 163.1. Possibly worn out as he had never thrown more than 135 innings prior to 2014, Ventura was even worse in the playoffs.
Combined across all series, he allowed a 6.43 ERA in five games, but more importantly he went 0-2 and here, the record is important. In only one game, his final start against Toronto on October 23rd, did he give his team a reasonable chance to win by allowing less than three runs and pitching more than five innings and he made his worst start at the most important time, allowing the Mets to win their only match of the series when he allowed five runs in 3.1 innings. Ventura still has plenty of time to turn into the superstar he was supposed to become, but that timing didn’t work out well as it is hard to believe this particular Royals team will ever be better than it was this year.
NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 01: Salvador Perez #13 of the Kansas City Royals celebrates in the clubhouse as Kansas City Royals owner David D. Glass (L) holds the Commissioner’s Trophy after the Kansas City Royals defeat the New York Mets to win Game Five of the 2015 World Series at Citi Field on November 1, 2015 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. The Kansas City Royals defeated the New York Mets with a score of 7 to 2 to win the World Series. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
The Future: The Royals deserve a few days of joy before thinking about next year and given the recent history, the fans should be happy for about the next 25 years or so. Once they do move on to 2016, they will notice that two of their five primary starters, Cueto and Young, could be gone in free agency and their top two starters in AAA for the first half of the season, John Lamb and Aaron Brooks, were traded in season for Cueto and another outgoing free agent, Ben Zobrist respectively. While their incredible defense and relentless offense will likely be maintained (although possibly without outgoing free agent Alex Gordon), the starting rotation was the weakest part of the team all year and will only be weakened by the loss of Cueto and Young. While they didn’t use him in the playoffs, Jeremy Guthrie was a big part of the rotation in the regular season and they are unlikely to use his $10M option. Without him, they will have an even harder time setting a reliable rotation. Further hamstringing the rotation will be the fact that $16.5M is owed to Jason Vargas through 2017, despite the fact that he won’t be back until midway through 2016 at best because of Tommy John surgery.
Lauded as their best strength (by those who haven’t seen their defense), the Royals bullpen has already taken a hit. Greg Holland had Tommy John surgery and was since nontendered by KC while Ryan Madson, Franklin Morales, and Joba Chamberlain will have the opportunity to leave through free agency. While these won’t all kill the Royals bullpen, they will certainly decrease the depth of one of the best in baseball.
