Royals Authority

RHP ∙ 1969—72

Mike Hedlund was an original Royal, acquired during the 1968 expansion draft. He had made just nine brief relief appearances for Cleveland before impressing KC decision makers at 1969 spring training with a good fastball, command, and the ability to change speeds. That earned him a spot on the first Opening Day Royals roster. He wound up as a swing-man that year, making 16 starts and 18 relief appearances and doing an excellent job keeping the opposition off the board in both roles. The 22-year-old ended up throwing only 125 innings, so he and the club agreed he could benefit from some more work in the Venezuelan winter league. Hedlund dominated the league like no pitcher had before. He started the winter with 38 scoreless frames, and ended with a 0.75 ERA in 140 innings of work. He was expected to be an important part of the Royals staff for 1970.

Hedlund picked up valuable experience in Venezuela, but unfortunately he also picked up a nasty virus. The sickness knocked a ton of weight off of him. (He lost a little more weight after manager Charlie Metro required him to shorten his bright orange sideburns. “The ear is the cutting-off place,” Metro ordered.[i]) The effects of the illness lingered and lingered. Hedlund’s strength was sapped, and it showed with diminished zip on his pitches. “I didn’t have my fast ball because I was tired,” Hedlund admitted.” “I tried to be too fine…I got all psyched out.”[ii] After just 15 relief innings over the first month of the season, Hedlund was sent down to Omaha where he stayed for the remainder of the year trying to regain his form. He later called it “a wasted year.”[iii]

After some much needed off-season rest, Hedlund was back to full strength and full velocity for 1971 and slotted back into the big league rotation from the get-go. It was a splendid season for him and the Royals. Hedlund and Dick Drago formed an excellent one-two punch at the top of the rotation as the Royals recorded their first winning season. Hedlund was supremely reliable all year, leading the way to a 20-10 record in games he started. He did not do it with power, striking out just 76. He managed a complete game shutout of the Indians while striking out just one on April 24. He allowed the opposition to put the ball in play throughout his career, and seemed to have a knack to induce soft contact. He was also quick to credit his fielders: “We had a great infield with Freddie Patek and Cookie Rojas up the center…so if I could get it on the ground we had chances of getting the out or getting the double play.”[iv] It all worked beautifully in 1971.

Hedlund then worked an off-season job doing promotion and ticket sales for his hometown Texas Rangers. This led to natural speculation about the chance of him pitching for the Rangers someday, but Hedlund replied, “I’m real happy where I am. It’s a young club that is really getting everything together. I kind of pride myself on being with an expansion club that has come along like this one has and finished in second place. And I want to be there when the Royals win a pennant, because we will, there’s no doubt in my mind about that. There’s a great outlook in the organization.”[v]

Hedlund was correct that the young organization was on a relatively fast track, but unfortunately he and the team hit a stumbling block in 1972. He actually slightly improved both his strikeout and walk rates, but the batting average on balls in play bumped up closer to the norm, and the results were much less pretty. After the team dropped six of his first seven starts, he lost his regular turn in the rotation. He had to settle for just eight more spot starts and 13 relief appearances for the rest of the year. During the ’72-’73 off-season Hedlund was traded to his original team in Cleveland in exchange for utility man Kurt Bevacqua, and he never was able to break back into the big leagues.

[i] Sid Bordman, “Hedlund Looks Royal Minus Sideburns,” The Sporting News, March 14, 1970.

[ii] Bob Williams, “Hedlund Bounces Back After Bouts With Flu, Fatigue,” The Sporting News, August 8, 1970.

[iii] Joe McGuff, “Question-Mark K.C. Pitching Turns Into Exclamation Point,” The Sporting News, June 19, 1971.

[iv] MondayNightSports14, “Mike Hedlund – Former MLB Pitcher,” YouTube.com, August 8, 2013.

[v] Randy Galloway, “K.C. Hurler Makes Pitch For Rangers,” The Sporting News, January 8, 1972.

RHP ∙ 1992—98

Hipolito Pichardo has a great name for a pitcher. Pitch-hard-o! He also represents the best Latin American signing the Royals organization made before Dayton Moore came to town. For the first 36 years of the franchise, the Royals took a look at the high-risk/high-reward practice of signing young Latin American talent and said, “Nah, we’re good.” Occasionally they would offer tiny contracts to guys that other teams weren’t pursuing heavily, a strategy that worked out about as well you’d expect. After Pichardo, Robinson Tejeda (#100 on this list as of this writing) and Carlos Febles (#145) were the most productive Latin signings for KC. (With Salvador Perez, Kelvin Herrera, and Yordano Ventura, Moore already has the three best Latin American free agents in team history.)

Pichardo hails from the Dominican Republic. John Schuerholz’s front office signed him in 1987, and Pichardo worked his way through the system between 1988 to the beginning of 1992. That he never pitched even 100 innings in a single minor league season suggests the possibility of health troubles, but I can’t confirm that hunch. Two weeks into the 1992 season, he got the call to the big leagues. He got his feet wet with some relief appearances before making his first start on May 20 at Comiskey Park. He kept a strong White Sox lineup off the board for all five innings he worked, and remained a reasonably effective piece of the rotation for the rest of the season. The Royals “like(d) the movement on his sinker and his poise.”[i] That low-90s, groundball-inducing sinker was his best pitch, complemented with a slider and a change. Pitching coach Guy Hansen explained that Pichardo earned the nickname “Double D,” which stood for debajo dinero, or “down” and “money” in English, because, “If he keeps the ball down, he’ll make lots of money.”[ii] He was almost perfect on July 21, 1992 when he allowed just one base-runner to the Red Sox in a shutout.

He slotted right back into the rotation in ’93, and, for the most part, continued his run as a solid number three starter. It was the best year of his career, but stamina problems cropped up as Pichardo had difficulty pitching deep into games and also missed time with shoulder fatigue. Those issues pushed Pichardo to pitch exclusively out of the ‘pen for the next four seasons. That 1994—97 stretch was spent mostly setting up for closer Jeff Montgomery and was a mess of occasional strong pitching, occasional terrible pitching, and occasional elbow and shoulder problems. That inglorious run inspired manager Tony Muser to make the curious decision to turn Pichardo back into a starter for 1998. His performances were generally decent, but, not surprisingly, he usually couldn’t go deep into starts, and then on August 20 he strained elbow ligaments that kept him off the mound for the rest of the season and all of 1999, and ended his time with the Royals.

[i] Dick Kaegel, “Kansas City Royals,” The Sporting News, June 1, 1992.

[ii] Ibid.

RHP ∙ 2011—present

Kelvin Herrera signed with the Royals in December, 2006 as a 16 year old kid in the Dominican. Dayton Moore had just started as GM in June of that year, and immediately began ramping up scouting and signing in international markets. He hired Rene Francisco to lead international operations in August, 2006, and Francisco and his scouts have had tremendous success with signings including Herrera, Salvador Perez, and Yordano Ventura. The team tried Herrera as a starter in rookie league and Class A ball between 2007—10 before converting him to a reliever for the 2011 season. Herrera’s wicked fastball, now unleashed with max effort, carried him all the way through Classes A, AA, AAA, and then two September innings in the show that 2011 season.

He made the bullpen out of spring training in 2012, and in his second appearance of that season lit up the gun with a 103. He was excellent for that entire year, establishing his niche and modus operandi that continue to serve the team so well. Herrera protects close leads in the seventh or eighth innings with that incredible fastball complemented by an equally nasty change-up usually thrown around 88 MPH and sometimes touching 90. Since Herrera has never been given the limiting role of closer, manager Ned Yost feels more freedom on when he can call on him, and Herrera leads the bullpen in appearances and innings since the start of 2012.

Herrera suffered a set-back in the early going of 2013 when his command went AWOL and he yielded eight homers during a stretch of 14 innings. Towards the end of June, his ERA had ballooned to 5.20 and he was sent down to Omaha to get his groove back. He returned to KC a few weeks later and has been back to cruising ever since. In his career to date, Herrera has struck out nearly one-fourth of the batters he’s faced, and that fastball has averaged 98 MPH. He’s definitely the hardest throwing Royal since the advent of PITCHf/x, and probably the fastest in team history.

He got even better in 2014. He was locked into the seventh inning role, and combined with eighth inning maestro Wade Davis and closer extraordinaire Greg Holland to form an almost unbeatable late innings machine. Herrera allowed zero home runs to the 285 batters he stared down in the regular season and was an integral player in getting KC back to the playoffs.

Those playoffs started off a little rocky for Herrera in the Wild Card game when he was called in to stop the bleeding that James Shields and Yordano Ventura had started in the sixth inning. Herrera yielded three softly hit singles before getting out of the inning after the A’s mounted a 7-3 advantage. But Yost brought Herrera back to pitch a spotless seventh, a mark of the trust Yost has in Herrera and a sign of pitching coach Dave Eiland’s and Yost’s playoff strategy to sometimes count on both Herrera and Davis for more than one inning per game that served the team well all October. Things took a worrisome turn in game one of the ALDS when Herrera walked the only batter he faced, winced in pain, and exited with tightness in his right forearm and numbness in the index and middle fingers. An MRI revealed no damage and everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Herrera came back to pitch a perfect frame in game three. Herrera shined brightest in the ALCS, hurling 5.2 crucial, scoreless innings. He came up big in the World Series as well, with Yost leaning on him hard in game seven, squeezing eight outs of the hardy reliever.

Herrera serves as an instructive lesson on the franchise as a whole over the last nine years. Whereas the Royals had basically ignored the international market before, Dayton Moore immediately made it a focus in 2006 and hit big with Herrera and others. Herrera took time to develop and mature but payed off big in 2014, right along with the rest of Moore’s long-term strategy. In an era where power reliever success is so often fleeting, Herrera is working on his fourth straight season as a remarkably reliable and resilient rocket arm.

RHP ∙ 1970

Bob Johnson was involved in two brilliant trades by wizard/Royals GM Cedric Tallis. In the ’69—’70 off-season, the Mets had their eye on Royals third baseman Joe Foy. In what was called at the time a calculated risk, the Royals sent the Mets Foy, a steady, known quantity, for two prospects, Johnson and Amos Otis. In retrospect, it is one of the game’s great lopsided trades. Foy faded while Otis famously went on to stardom with KC. Tallis also got one excellent season out of the little remembered Johnson and then packaged him in another steal of a trade.

The 27 year-old Johnson impressed the Royals with his power arm in spring training and earned a spot in the bullpen to start the 1970 season. After a few relief appearances in April and some casualties in the starting rotation, Johnson was tapped for his first big league start on May 2 and shined with 10 strikeouts to just one walk in eight innings of work. He earned his first win in his next start, after which manager Charlie Metro let Johnson burn a $100 check he’d written as a fine for missing curfew a few nights prior. “Thank God for strong arms,” pitching coach Bob Lemon said after the game. “The guy made 155 pitches and was still throwing hard at the finish.”[i] Johnson anchored the Royals pitching for the rest of the season. After a string of good starts, he was shifted back to the bullpen in mid-June, but this time as the fireman. He pitched well, but was “going crazy…I’m better suited as a starter. I have to get psyched up for a game. I really get keyed up. In relief, I had to get up every day, and that’s tough.”[ii] That experiment lasted just a couple of weeks before Johnson got his wish and returned to the rotation. He suffered from poor run support on a bad Royals team, but just went out and put together fantastic start after fantastic start. Right handed hitters might as well have not even stepped into the box against him. He especially racked up strikeouts in historic fashion. In his last game of the year, he fanned 10 Twins to finish with 206 strikeouts. He was just the ninth rookie to reach 200 Ks since 1901. He was also the first major leaguer in Kansas City to strike out 200 in a season, and only Dennis Leonard, Kevin Appier, and Zack Greinke have pulled the trick since.

With Johnson’s value sky-high after such a promising rookie year, Tallis made the gutsy move to ship him to Pittsburgh along with Jim Campanis and Jackie Hernandez in exchange for Bruce Dal Canton, Jerry May, and Freddie Patek. Tallis was wary about how the fans would react to losing Johnson, but “was pleased to discover that most of the fans were willing to accept the idea that the Royals needed a shortstop and a catcher even more than they needed a pitcher of Johnson’s potential.”[iii] Tallis certainly deserved the benefit of any doubt, and the trade wound up being another master stroke. Patek of course became a franchise cornerstone while Johnson never came close to finding his 1970 form again.

[i] “Johnson Puts $100 Fine to the Torch,” The Sporting News, May 23, 1970.

[ii] Sid Bordman, “Kaycee’s Big 4 of ’69 Royal Flop This Year,” The Sporting News, August 29, 1970.

[iii] Joe McGuff, “Royals Delighted At Fans’ Support Of Johnson Deal,” The Sporting News, December 26, 1970.

RF ∙ 1977—81

The Royals selected Clint Hurdle with the ninth overall pick in the June, 1975 amateur draft and quickly shipped him to the Gulf Coast rookie league to squeeze in his first pro games before the ’75 season ran out. Hurdle then headed to Florida to get some reps in the winter instructional league, where he was observed by Royals skipper Whitey Herzog. “I don’t like to go overboard on an 18-year-old kid just out of a rookie league,” Herzog said before going on to do just that: “…I’ve been going to the winter instructional league since 1964…and Hurdle is the best 18-year-old hitter I’ve seen.”[i] Hurdle had been in the organization for less than half a year before hype and expectations were being placed on his shoulders.

Hurdle put together a good 1976 season in Class A, and then looked so good at the following spring training that the team sped up their plans and jumped Hurdle all the way to Class AAA Omaha for ’77. The leap did not seem to faze Hurdle as he continued to inspire hyperbole. Omaha teammate Joe Lahoud gushed, “Clint Hurdle is going to be a super star. He’s only 19 and he’ll have an armored truck to carry his pay checks to the bank before he’s finished in this game.”[ii] His performance in Omaha earned him the American Association MVP award and a September call-up to the show. In his MLB debut on September 18, 1977, Hurdle, at 20 years and 50 days, was the youngest player to appear for Kansas City, and homered in his second trip to the plate. He got in nine games that September, and became perhaps the first Royals prospect to endure the curse of George Brett comparisons when Herzog said, “From what I’ve seen, Hurdle is a lot like George Brett.”[iii]

Sports Illustrated piled on with their March 20, 1978 cover featuring Hurdle and the words “THIS YEAR’S PHENOM” and a feature story that almost reads like a parody of going overboard about a prospect. Even George Brett makes a George Brett comparison in the article. Hurdle was a candidate to take over either first base or one of the outfield corners in ’78, but it was a crowded picture with John Mayberry at first and Al Cowens, Amos Otis, and fellow hot prospect Willie Wilson all in the mix in the outfield. So sure were the Royals of Hurdle that they allowed Mayberry to go to Toronto for peanuts a few days before Opening Day and Hurdle took over first base duties. Hurdle failed to follow the script by not setting the league on fire. In July he shifted to the outfield for the remainder of the year, where his range was limited but he could utilize his powerful throwing arm. His hitting picked up slightly. In mid-season, perhaps showing signs of the undue pressure placed on him, Hurdle cracked, “If I had done everything I was supposed to up to now, I’d be leading in homers, have the highest batting average, given $1,000 to the cancer fund and married Marie Osmond.”[iv] Instead, he was more like an almost average major leaguer, not too shabby for a 20 year old rookie, but it could only feel like a disappointment after all the hype. “This has been a tough year for a young guy,” admitted Hurdle. “Things were not smooth from the start of spring training for me. There was that controversy about John Mayberry…There was all of that noise about how much I had done in the minors and winter ball. But people don’t realize there’s a lot of difference between the minors and the big leagues…One of these days I think I’ll do what a lot of people predicted me to do.”[v] He got his first taste of playoff baseball as the Royals fell to the Yankees in four games.

Hurdle earned the starting left field spot heading into 1979, but couldn’t get going with the bat. By June, Willie Wilson took over in left and Hurdle headed down to Omaha. Herzog explained, “We want him to go to Omaha and try to get back his stroke. He’s had trouble pulling the trigger on fast balls. He’s doing too much lunging…I know when he first joined us in September of 1977, Hurdle had his stroke. Somehow he lost it. I think he can get it back.”[vi] Unfortunately the slump followed Hurdle to Nebraska. He got the call back to KC in time to get into a few late season games, but overall just played 59 MLB games in ’79.

The Royals were not ready to give up on Hurdle, and in fact traded away Al Cowens with the idea that right field now belonged to Hurdle. “I’m a prospect again, huh?” Hurdle joked.[vii] 1980 turned into something like a success for him, or at least the closest he would get as a big league player. It was the only season he was able to enjoy some positional stability (though he was still benched against some lefty starters), and his .349 OBP and .458 SLG were helpful in getting the team the division title. He only got into the ALCS for two plate appearances, but was the starting right fielder in four of the six World Series games. He reached base in half of his 14 World Series plate appearances, but it was mostly in vain as he scored just one run in the series and drove in none.

1981 held some promise considering Hurdle was still just 23 years old and he had finally put together a decent year in ’80. And Hurdle did absolutely destroy the ball in 1981. But forces conspired to limit that damage to just 28 games played. Back spasms and pain took him out of the lineup after just five games. After rest wasn’t taking care of it, a muscle tear was finally discovered. In early June he was finally able to start swinging the bat again, and joked, “It was like I had my old swing back—the swing that got me sent to Omaha in 1979.”[viii] He was back in the lineup on May 30 and knocked a 430 footer out of Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis. But just six games later a strike kicked Hurdle (and everyone else) off the field again. Hurdle and the Royals came back to have a good “second season” after the strike, and faced the A’s in the ALDS. The Royals were swept easily, and Hurdle observed, “We stunk. Good God were we awful.”[ix] Hurdle was responsible for one of the low points of the series when he was picked off of second base at a crucial moment.

The Royals were finally out of patience with Hurdle and traded him to the Reds for minor league pitcher Scott Brown. Hurdle battled health problems, subpar hitting, and minimal playing time through 1987 before calling it a career as a player. His story is certainly one of unmet expectations, and a prime reminder that there is no such thing as a sure thing in baseball. We’d all do better not to place undue expectations on any prospect. But his story is also one of redemption, since Hurdle has found success in the majors as a manager, most notably with a World Series appearance and a manager of the year award.

[i] Joe McGuff, “Herzog Jumps For Joy Over Hurdle,” The Sporting News, November 15, 1975.

[ii] “American Assn.,” The Sporting News, August 6, 1977.

[iii] Del Black, “Heirs Apparent Make Instant Hit With Royals,” The Sporting News, October 22, 1977.

[iv] “Insiders Say,” The Sporting News, August 5, 1978.

[v] Sid Bordman, “Clint Clearing Hurdle With Royals,” The Sporting News, September 2, 1978.

[vi] Del Black, “Brett Boosts His Bat Mark With Torrid Month,” The Sporting News, June 16, 1979.

[vii] Del Black, “Clint Faces New Hurdle As Royals’ Right Fielder,” The Sporting News, January 12, 1980.

[viii] Mike McKenzie, “Quisenberry Discoveries ‘Delivery in My Flaw,’” The Sporting News, June 6, 1981.

[ix] Kit Stier, “Up-and-Coming A’s Frustrate Royals,” The Sporting News, October 24, 1981.

3B/RF ∙ 2005—09

Mark Teahen was picked by the A’s in the 2002 Moneyball draft based mostly on his strong hitting numbers in college, and was still in the A’s minor league system in mid-2004 when he was shipped to the Royals in the three-team deal that sent Carlos Beltran to Houston (and also brought John Buck to KC). The Royals sent him to Omaha to finish the 2004 season, but Teahen was in the show as the starting third baseman on 2005 Opening Day. He remained a fixture in the team’s lineup for five full seasons. 2005 was an adjustment year for Teahen, during which he showed flashes of promise but did not put together a good overall year. He finished strong though, earning the team’s player of the month honor for September.

Things really clicked in 2006, though not right away. After struggling during the season’s first month, he spent most of the second month in Omaha. He worked on his swing some, but said the time in Omaha helped mentally more than physically.[i] After his recall to the bigs, Teahen played like an All-Star, hammering the ball and taking his walks to the tune of a .941 OPS. The good times came to an end early for a season-ending shoulder surgery. Despite missing two months of the season, he was rightfully recognized as the team’s player of the year. After the season he said, “I don’t feel it was a complete year, but I was happy with what I contributed.”[ii]

Despite that success, Teahen found himself at a new position at camp in 2007. To make way for über-prospect Alex Gordon, Teahen spent the spring learning right field despite never having played outside the infield at any level. He admitted later that he wasn’t thrilled about the move at first, but eventually was glad to gain positional flexibility and learned to enjoy the outfield.[iii] (Regarding Gordon, Teahen was prescient in saying, “…it’s important that people not put too much pressure on Alex to make an immediate impact. He needs time to develop just like anyone, rather than putting the weight of the entire organization on his shoulders.”[iv]) Teahen handled the huge Kauffman outfield well for a newbie, though his hitting took a step backward to close to league average in 2007. His average and OBP remained good, but the tantalizing power he flashed in 2006 never returned. 2008 and 2009 were struggles on the field as he battled back issues, the Royals mercilessly jerked him from position to position, and both his offense and defense declined. He spent some time at every position except for pitcher, catcher, and shortstop. He was traded to the White Sox in the ’09—’10 off-season in exchange for Josh Fields and Chris Getz.

Even when he was struggling, it was impossible not to like and root for Teahen, whose dedication could never be questioned. He was generous with charitable causes, particularly the Little League/YMCA Challenger program that brings sports to special needs children. The Mark Teahen Challenger Baseball Field remains in KC as a testament to his good deeds. His sheepishly goofy sense of humor (still on display on Twitter) helped make him a fan favorite as well. The admiration seems to go both ways. Teahen said in 2013, “My heart will always be in Kansas City…It’s a great city to play in. The town really got behind the team when we would play well, and if they win I will be excited to see what kind of baseball town it can be.”[v] True to his word, he traveled to Kauffman Stadium to catch the 2014 World Series in person.

[i] Jeff Moeller, “Q&A With Royals’ Mark Teahen,” http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/1514391/

[ii] Dick Kaegel, “Teahen named Player of the Year,” http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/1734874/

[iii] David Laurila, “Prospectus Q&A,” http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=12068, September 24, 2010.

[iv] “Teahen chats mechanics, confidence,” http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/1578400/

[v] Jeremy Deckard, “Hoping to play like it is 2005: ‘Horsehide Q&A’ with former Kansas City Royal Mark Teahen,” http://cjonline.com/blog-post/jeremy-deckard/2013-03-11/hoping-play-it-2005-%E2%80%9Chorsehide-qa%E2%80%9D-former-kansas-city-royal-mark, March 11, 2013.

RHP ∙ 2012—present

Between the 2011 and 2012 seasons, the Royals swapped outfielder Melky Cabrera, coming off a bounce-back year, for pitcher Jonathan Sanchez in the hopes that Sanchez would have a bounce-back year of his own. Instead, Sanchez was an absolute mess for the Royals. That bad situation ended better than anyone had reason to hope when in late July the Colorado Rockies agreed to take Sanchez in exchange for another pitcher who was struggling at the time, Jeremy Guthrie. Just moving on from Sanchez was a plus, but getting an actual useful player in return was a coup for GM Dayton Moore. Guthrie won’t ever set the league on fire, but he had some value for Baltimore for five consecutive seasons before 2012. Royals pitching coach Dave Eiland saw some things he thought he could tweak with Guthrie in the hopes of getting him back to that level or maybe even better. There was no reason not to take a flier. Guthrie said at the time, “…as I looked at what was in my future and I look at the Royals, I see a perfect fit there…I really hope to come in there and be a large part of good things that we can do here in the near future.”[i] Also, “I like the powder blue tops…I’m excited about that.”[ii]

Eiland wanted to just observe Guthrie for a couple of starts before tinkering, and those two games went just as badly as things had been going in Colorado. Then Eiland got to work. Guthrie’s next start was OK, and then things really clicked on August 8 in Chicago. Guthrie rolled through eight scoreless innings without allowing a walk, and then did not yield an earned run in either of his next two starts either. On August 19 he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. The team won 10 of his last 11 starts that year. So what changed? “He’s made a couple of little tweaks in his mechanics that helps him load a little bit more, hide the ball a little bit more. Nothing major, just very subtle tweaks. He’s just comfortable, I think,” Ned Yost said.[iii]

Eiland adjusted Guthrie’s shoulder tuck, changed his foot on the rubber, moved his hands down, worked on his balance. “All that was designed to get him down in the zone and add a little deception,” Eiland said. “He bought into it right away and worked on it hard, and continues to work on it to this day every day. Now he’s down in the zone and when he misses, he misses down. Pitching from thigh to belt-high like he used to, when he missed he missed up. Now when he’s from thigh down, his misses are down. And he gained some confidence. And once a guy with that pitchability gains some confidence, this is what happens.”[iv]

Guthrie was a free agent after 2012, but after his two sterling months in KC, both sides wanted to keep him in the fold. A big three-year deal with a team option for a fourth was signed soon after the season. Two years later, Guthrie has filled an unglamorous but valuable role as an innings eater with average run prevention. Homers remain an issue, but Guthrie has kept walks in check and let his elite defense do their thing. 2013 was highlighted by his first and second career shutouts. He also set a team record with 18 straight starts without earning a loss (dating to the end of 2012).

His 2014 regular season featured fewer highs, but a continuation of that steady presence that is more often than not enough to get the team a win. The Royals are a surprising 48-31 in Guthrie starts from 2012—14. The highlight that year of course was the playoff run. Guthrie, at age 35, made his playoff debut in the third game of the ALCS in a start against Baltimore. He delivered with five innings and one run allowed. He took the mound again in game three of the World Series, and came through with another performance just good enough for the team to win. His turn came again in game seven, and he started with a perfect first inning. Things went haywire in the second as he loaded the bases before recording an out, but limited the damage to two runs in the frame. He seemed to have righted the ship with a perfect third, but got into another jam in the fourth with runners on the corners and one out before being lifted. “When I walked back into the clubhouse after game seven having lost the game 3-2 and feeling responsible personally because I gave up the three runs, I walked in with my head held high,” he said. “I expected to be a little more sad than I was, but I think there was really nothing more that I could have done.” And to the fans, “We had a blast doing it with you and had a blast doing it for you and hope to do it again very, very soon.”[v]

[i] Vinnie Duber, “Royals acquire Guthrie from Rockies for Sanchez,” http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120720&content_id=35241892&vkey=news_kc&c_id=kc, July 20, 2012.

[ii] “Guthrie excited to be part of Royals’ rotation,” http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/35319822/, July 21, 2012.

[iii] “Guthrie looking to make winning fit with KC,” http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/36758860/, August 15, 2012.

[iv] Dick Kaegel, “Guthrie enjoys marked turnaround under Eiland,” http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/46674802/, May 5, 2013.

[v] Roxie Hammill, “Royals pitcher Jeremy Guthrie shares his faith at church homecoming in Platte City,” http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/community/816/article3558841.html, November 4, 2014.

1B ∙ 1997—99

After eight up and down years with Pittsburgh, Jeff King was traded to the Royals prior to the 1997 season. The Royals also got Jay Bell, while Pittsburgh picked up Joe Randa, Jeff Granger, Jeff Wallace, and Jeff Martin. It was the Jeffiest trade in history. King and his Fu Manchu took over first base in ’97 and put together a strong season. Rate-wise, his bat was barely better than average, but he managed to stay healthy enough to play 155 games, and his offensive value added up. He belted 28 homers and drove in a team-leading 112 runs. King piled on more value with smart base running and smooth defense. He managed to be a small bright spot while the team floundered their way to a 94-loss season. June was an especially hot month, when he bashed 10 homers, a 1.209 OPS, and was named AL player of the month.

The Royals and King agreed to a two year contract to keep him in KC for ’98 and ’99. Unfortunately King never did recapture his ’97 form. ’98 was decent, but all aspects of his game dropped off slightly, potentially due to health struggles with his back that started early in the year and never let up. The Sporting News reported that King’s back pain started after he felt a “twinge” picking up one of his kids.[i] He battled through it to still get into 133 games and knock 24 dingers.

The back problem was much more than just a twinge, and was still dogging him as the 1999 season started. But there was a bigger problem for King: His heart was no longer in the game. At the end of May, he stunned everyone by suddenly retiring, walking away from around three million dollars left on his contract. Joe Posnanski has intimated that King never liked baseball and retired the day after qualifying for his pension.[ii] Maybe, but I’m not sure it was that simple. King was “fighting back tears” when he told reporters, “My head is here, my heart is not. I played the game with integrity, played hard, and played hurt. I’m ready to turn the page, close the chapter and begin a new one. It comes down to integrity. The struggle I’ve had with it, I think it’s affected the way I’ve played.”[iii] His heart was with his wife and kids on their ranch in Montana. So that’s where he went.[iv]

[i] Luciana Chavez, “Kansas City,” The Sporting News, April 27, 1998, 28.

[ii] Joe Posnanski, “Reluctant King,” http://pitchersandpoets.com/2011/05/11/reluctant-king-by-joe-posnanski/, May 11, 2011.

[iii] AP, “Jeff King Calls It Quits,” May 23, 1999.

[iv] Steve Riach, Life Lessons From Baseball (Honor Books, 2004), 65.

LF 1985—87

photo via Around the Horn in KC

Heading into 1985, the St. Louis Cardinals found themselves with one of those good baseball problems: They had too many outfielders. In addition to Lonnie Smith, Andy Van Slyke, and Tito Landrum, top prospect Vince Coleman was ready for prime time. Smith had been an excellent hitter between 1980—83 before having an off-year in ’84 that he admitted was the result of several personal problems he was facing at the time, including trying to come clean after years of cocaine abuse. 1985 was not starting off great either after Smith bumped and shoved an umpire during a spring training game. Smith became the odd man out when he was dealt to KC in mid-May. (The Royals gave up minor league outfielder John Morris, a well-regarded prospect at the time who never found success in the majors.)

Smith immediately became the everyday left fielder in KC, though manager Dick Howser liked to replace him with Lynn Jones late in games when the Royals had the lead. Though Smith was speedy, his defense was notorious. He was stuck with the nickname “Skates” due to his adventures in the outfield. Smith’s hitting did not recover from the dip that started in 1984, but he managed to be one of the leading run scorers on the team thanks to taking the occasional walk, stealing 40 bases in 47 attempts, and batting in front of George Brett and Hal McRae. Overall though, it was a fairly disappointing regular season. “I haven’t played the way I’m capable of,” he said after his first couple months with the team. “I’ve struggled a great deal.” He was impressed by his teammates though: “I’m really amazed at the talent. It’s a finer team than the one I left, really.”[i]

Smith hit second in the lineup almost all year, but Howser made him the lead-off man for the last few games of the season and left him there for all 14 playoff games too. Whatever disappointments there were in the regular season were more than made up for in that charmed championship run. Smith provided an excellent .361 OBP against tough pitching in those 14 games. Probably his best moment came in game three of the World Series when he knocked a two-RBI double to give the Royals a lead they maintained. Smith was the first player to ever face a team he started the season with in the World Series.

Though a sprained ankle bothered him almost all season, Smith remained the everyday left fielder in 1986, and his hitting improved to better than league average. In a reversal of the ’85 regular season, Smith was individually pretty good, but the team had a disappointing year. Usually hitting first or second in the order, Smith led the team with 80 runs scored. Smith had to donate 10% of his 1986 salary to anti-drug causes, perform community service, and was subject to random drug tests to avoid suspension related to his earlier cocaine use.

Despite the decent year, the Royals declined to exercise their option to bring Smith back at a salary of $950,000 for 1987, even though they had to buy him out for $200,000. GM John Schuerholz still hoped to keep Smith and offered him a contract in the neighborhood of $450,000. “We don’t consider it a viable offer,” said Smith’s agent Jim Bunning.[ii] But Smith found no interest on the free agent market, and came back with his tail between his legs to accept a minor league deal with KC in late May for around $375,000. “There were times I felt bitter that I was sitting out not making money…At times, I felt bitter towards management, but every player goes through that.”[iii] (It came out later that owners were guilty of some collusion in the ’86-’87 off-season.)

After beating up AAA pitching for five weeks, Smith was called back up to Kansas City, where he got into just 48 games and did not do so hot. Kevin Seitzer has shared at least one good memory from a mostly miserable ’87 for Smith: Seitzer had hit 5-for-5 so far in an early August game. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning and the Royals with a big lead, Smith, hitting one spot in front of Seitzer, told Seitzer, “I’ve never seen anybody get six hits before. You’re going to get a chance.” Seitzer: “I didn’t think anything about it until that sucker got a base hit to left field. I got goose bumps. I walked to the plate thinking, ‘This dude’s giving me a chance to get another AB.’…It’s like Babe Ruth calling his shot.”[iv] (Seitzer doubled.)

But frustrations for Smith boiled over on the last day of the ’87 season. Not in the starting lineup, Smith headed to the locker room after pregame warm-ups, showered, packed his bags, and put on his street clothes. As Smith told it, “About the second inning, one of the coaches came in and said, ‘John (Wathan) wants you to come and step in for (Gary) Thurman’…I told him no. He said, ‘What do you want me to tell him?’ I said, ‘Well, tell him I got non-playingitis and I’m out of here.’ That was it for Kansas City.”[v]

Smith already carried a grudge against the Royals front office, but that grudge turned to rage once Smith started looking for a new team to sign with for 1988. No team was interested, and Smith believed Schuerholz had blackballed him (which Schuerholz has denied[vi]). Smith’s thinking got so twisted that he purchased a gun for the purpose of possibly murdering Schuerholz. Smith himself does not seem to know how serious he was, but it was much more than just a fantasy: “If I couldn’t get back into baseball,” Smith later said, “I was going to take him with me. I was going to wait for him in the parking lot of the stadium and pop him. If I got caught, I got caught. If not, I’d come on back home. If I did, you know, the thing, at least I took somebody out who was to blame.”[vii] Thankfully, the Braves came to him with a minor league offer a few days after he purchased the gun, and the volatile career of Lonnie Smith moved on.

[i] Mike Fish, “Adjusting to A.L. Difficult for Smith,” The Sporting News, July 8, 1985.

[ii] “Royals,” The Sporting News, December 8, 1986.

[iii] “Royals,” The Sporting News, July 20, 1987.

[iv] Denny Matthews, Hi, Anybody! (Ascend Books, June 15, 2009), 57-58.

[v] Mike Fish, “Bittersweet memories of ’85 for Smith,” http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=5572278, September 16, 2010.

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Kent Babb, “Battle Scars,” The State, November 5, 2005, C1.

RHP ∙ 2001—04

The Royals first acquired Jason Grimsley in mid-1997 in a minor league trade after Grimsley had pitched in the bigs between 1989—96 as a mostly ineffective starter. Grimsley got into just seven games for Omaha in 1997 before becoming a free agent at the end of the year. Grimsley then became a full-time reliever and started a cocktail of amphetamines, steroids, and human growth hormone to aid his return as a viable major league pitcher for the Yankees in 1999 and 2000. The Royals acquired him for a second time as a free agent before the 2001 season, and he went on to pitch the best three and a half years of his career for KC. His role never shifted in that time: never a mop-up man and never a closer, Grimsley pitched most often in the seventh and eighth innings of close games. 2001 and 2002 were his best years. He led the team in appearances both seasons, had the best ERA in 2001 and the second best in 2002. He was clearly the team’s best reliever both years, so why he never got a shot to take over as closer from Roberto Hernandez, I do not know. There seems to be little remarkable about those years. He did give up the Scott Hatteberg home run in the wild game that gave the A’s 20 straight wins in ’02, but mostly Grimsley was just a good set-up man on some terrible teams. Only a crazy person dedicates a blog post to that 12 years later, but here we are.

After those two solid years, Grimsley faltered in 2003 while the Royals went on their improbable pennant chase. He still appeared in at least 70 games for the third straight season, but his bread-and-butter fastball was not working as well. Grimsley was a free agent at the end of the year, but wanted to stay in KC. Though he had two-year offers on the table from other teams, Grimsley gave the Royals a bit of a home-town discount and signed for one year. “I sat down with my wife and we talked about how our kids are here and our home is here now,” Grimsley said. “What kind of a price are we going to put on that? That pretty much made my decision right there.”[i]

Grimsley went back to pitching effectively in 2004 but had a scary collision with Royals first baseman Ken Harvey in early June. On a slow roller between them, the two players read the play completely differently. Grimsley was charging to cover first while Harvey picked up the ball and was going to whip it home to try for an out. Harvey’s forearm and the ball smashed into Grimsley’s head, and Grimsley lay motionless on the grass for quite a while. Fortunately, Grimsley came away with nothing worse than bruises and knots on his forehead and jaw and was only kept out of action for a few games. His time with the Royals concluded at the end of June when he was dealt to Baltimore for minor league pitcher Denny Bautista. After leading the team in relief appearances for three straight years, Grimsley was again in the lead in 2004 at the time of the trade. His 251 relief appearances rank sixth in Royals history. Grimsley’s career after that spiraled into controversy stemming from his performance enhancing drug use and an affidavit in which he allegedly named other players using. There was also a bizarre and tragic accident in 2005 when a small plane crashed into Grimsley’s Overland Park home, killing all five persons on the plane but sparing Grimsley’s wife and daughter who were home at the time.

[i] Robert Falkoff, “KC is Grimsley’s home, sweet home,” http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20040128&content_id=631580&vkey=news_kc&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc, January 28, 2004.