Kansas City Royals: Column
Gridlocked in limbo between rebuilds, the Royals on Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium fell for the seventh time in eight games and drooped to 13-30 overall.
For context, thats the third-worst start in club history and plenty on trajectory to the 100-plus loss seasons that ensued in 2006 (10-33 en route to 62-100) and 2005 (12-31 on the way to 56-106) …
With the best team in baseball, the New York Yankees, coming to town this weekend.
No one prides himself on staying upbeat with his team more than manager Ned Yost.
Even amid this funk, he started his day with the media in his office by playfully cranking up the Yanny vs. Laurel meme thats been going viral and getting the impressions of everyone in the room, not to mention some of his coaching staff and trainers and players.
But after the Royals 5-3 loss to Tampa Bay, even Yost was acknowledging the challenge of staying gung-ho.
He mustered a little chuckle, then said, Its something youve got to work at; it doesnt come natural. Youve got to sit yourself down, and Ive had to do it in the middle of a game: Sit myself down and tell me to shut the hell up.
You just got to understand the process that were trying to accomplish and what the boys are going through and how theyre working hard at it and how theyre trying and theyre fighting right to the end.
You know the economics of why it has come to this, know the decisions that some of us admired and others protested as the franchise tried to cling to and wring more from a unique core.
But now a team greater than the sum of its considerable parts along the way to the revival of 2014 and 2015 is more like a random bunch of fine pieces that just arent in sync … and alternately break down.
During one stretch, the bullpen sabotaged everything. More recently, and again Wednesday, the starting pitching has been incapacitating.
Other times, its been an inability to drive in runners in scoring position on a team that has scored three runs or fewer 23 times and is 3-20 in those games. On Tuesday, closer Kelvin Herrera toted his 0.61 ERA into the ninth inning … and took a loss.
The flux is only beginning, too.
The extreme makeover wont begin in earnest until the June MLB draft (in which the Royals have five of the top 58 picks).
More to the immediate point, you can expect a change in inventory on the major-league level as the July 31 trade deadline approaches and the Royals entertain offers for established players so they can further focus on reinvestment.
