The impending sale of the Royals from David Glass to John Sherman has created a lot of speculation about the team’s future, though one key face within the organization doesn’t appear to be changing. According to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman in the latest edition of the Big Time Baseball podcast (audio link), current Royals GM Dayton Moore “will receive a long extension and be there for a long time” once Sherman officially takes control of the franchise. As a minority owner of the Indians, Sherman is no stranger to the AL Central, and thus “knows Dayton Moore well” and “is an admirer” of the GM and his work in Kansas City.
A new contract would keep Moore at the helm throughout the Royals’ ongoing rebuild, which would be the second time Moore has overhauled the club since first taking the general manager job in 2006. That first rebuild, lengthy as it was though losing seasons from 2007-12, eventually paid off in major fashion. K.C. won the American League pennant in both 2014 and 2015, and captured the franchise’s second-ever World Series title in 2015.
That success wasn’t sustained, however, and the Royals haven’t since topped the .500 mark. In fact, over Moore’s 13 full seasons as general manager, Kansas City has only three winning seasons, so K.C. fans surely hope the team will be a bit quicker this time in returning to contention. Nonetheless, Moore is a well-respected executive throughout baseball, and he has a proven track record in shepherding a small-market team all the way to championship glory.
It isn’t yet known how Sherman will operate the franchise or whether he’ll authorize a higher payroll, though Moore has already demonstrated that his front office can identify and develop young talent. In fairness to Glass, he was willing to boost spending to try and extend the Royals’ contention window, though many of Moore’s big signings from the 2015-16 offseason (Alex Gordon, Ian Kennedy, Chris Young) didn’t pan out.
Moore’s current deal is believed to run through the 2020 season, though the exact terms of his 2016 extension weren’t officially revealed. Heyman thinks the Royals may have given Moore another extension in the aftermath of the 2017 offseason, when the Braves heavily pursued Moore (who worked in Atlanta’s front office prior to taking Kansas City’s GM job) to run their vacant baseball operations department after John Coppolella’s shocking resignation as general manager.
While Moore may not be going anywhere, the same might not be true of manager Ned Yost, as Heyman said “the likelihood is that [the Royals] will move on.” Though Moore has given his skipper more or less permanent job security, the 65-year-old Yost has indicated in the past that he is taking things on a year-to-year basis, even once citing the end of the 2019 season as a potential endpoint. Yost is nearing the end of his 16th season as a Major League, and his 10th in Kansas City. Yost will soon meet with Royals officials to discuss his future, Heyman said, with these meetings possibly taking place as early as this week.
More years of mediocrity and poor deals
Won a World Series.
He’s been GM for almost 14 years and aside from that two year stretch that culminated in a WS, he’s 775-985 in the other seasons (0.440 win percentage). He managed to catch lightning in a bottle, but he’s been awful in almost every other season. 270-356 since the WS without even a sniff at the postseason, and they show no signs of competing anytime soon.
Maybe this will change with new ownership that is willing to spend, but he hasn’t been great.
Not saying he’s been great, but pretty sure most fans would take a WS in 14 years even with the other years being poor.
Not if 12 of those 14 years were bad. I just can’t imagine 5+ year stretches of my team being bad, one world series wouldn’t be worth it. That being said, Royals don’t look too far off from being competitive right now. The top of the order is looking real good and some of the starters look promising. I’d say he’s definitely earned another 5 years to see if he can repeat that playoff success.
Though you do have to question the mental fitness of anyone that would sign off on that Ian Kennedy contract….
As a Phillies fan, I’d have to agree, Although our current rebuild is absolutely frustrating, 2 NL Pennants and a WS win, (just like KC) was well worth the ensuing decade of mediocrity.
Only difference is that Moore was able to do it without the deep pockets the Phillies have.
If anything, perhaps the Royals should drop their concessions a little bit and properly market that awesome ballpark they have. I went there this year for the Phillies series and was blown away with how nice the stadium was from what I thought it was going to be. However, the concessions were way out of line pricewise for KC. No wonder drawing 25k is a problem.
Honestly, due to my overall experience at “The K”, the Royals are now my “AL team”
Sigh…….. I sure would.
If you’re happy with 1 Championship in 14 years you’re a fool.
2 AL pennants in last 6 years. Not many teams can say that.
I’m no Moore fan but to call it lightning in a bottle is disrespectful and incorrect. It took years of tanking and building to create a franchise-altering roster. You don’t get to back-to-back world series’ by accident. He built a really good core with Cain, Gordon, Hosmer, and Moustakas and surrounded them with great role players and a premier pen.
Guess you’re pretty sad then, HaloHonk
He rebuilt the team from ashes once before and I think he can do it again. At the very least he deserves a chance to do it again. Let him try it out for another run and if it fails then cut ties and give him the adulation he deserves.
Sadly, the concessions aren’t run by the stadium. That’s contracted out to a third party and those prices are dictated by them.
Dayton Moore frustrates me frequently, but I vehemently disagree with the assessment that he has a track record of “poor deals.” That’s not to say he’s never made any bad deals. Ian Kennedy is really the only deal he’s signed that I would argue was really bad both at the time and in hindsight. The Gordon deal certainly didn’t pan out in hindsight, but I don’t think anyone expected Alex to be as bad as he was. Even that being said, on the whole he was a serviceable player for the life of that contract, albeit an overpaid one.
Moore has NEVER made a bad trade, IMO. He’s made some “meh” trades and some seemingly pointless trades, but none of those involved players on either side that were of any real consequences. There is not a single prospect Moore has traded away, even in his trades that were criticized at the time, that any Royals fan lays awake wishing we hadn’t traded. He made two blockbuster trades in his tenure that were unequivocal successes.
Gordon has been worth 4.4 bWAR (0.9, 0.1, 2.4, 1.0) in the four years of his contract. Again, not worth the money he gave him, but hardly a waste of a roster spot and you can’t judge every transaction with 20/20 hindsight. I was happy we re-signed him at the time and it’s not like it illicited a chorus of “WTF IS HE THINKING!?” from the talking heads. The Kennedy deal was just bad, not so much signing him or even how much we paid him, but because of the length of the contract.
Whit is wasting away on that roster and his value is never going to be higher, so a non-trade for me personally is a big loss. Tough to swallow to let someone like that go, but what other value does he bring you besides worsening your draft pick next year?
Makes Royals fans feel all warm and fuzzy. Same reason the Giants didn’t want to trade Bumgarner this summer, even though they really should have.
That being said, I do agree that his trades are generally equal to favorable. Just baffling to see them cling to WM
The fans need someone to root for. It is, after all
entertainment…..
They got Brady Singer and Bobby Witt Jr.
I always thought the Gordon signing was an overpay. Almost like they were negotiating against themselves but they they love him. And who could have predicted his slide…..
Completely disagree. Got nothing for Mouse. Got nothing for Soria. Released Brian Goodwin to sign Duda. Drafted Starling when Lindor, Baez, Springer and other now-stars were available. More 100 loss seasons in the 2000s than any other team. Farm system bare. Worst scouting department in MLB. Don’t tell me about money when Tampa Bay and Oakland get by on much less. GMDM is a good Christian, but a poor talent evaluator.
Better make good moves
Why?
Sherman must not be a big fan of porn either. Meh.
What?
2 WS appearances this decade with a medium-sized market team (and one that’s on the lower side of “medium market)….that’s a pretty successful GM. If Moore was guilty of anything, it was to desperately hang on to a formula that was likely only to work in the short term. OTOH, it’s a market that wants to “like” it’s players, versus one that lust for victory, and doesn’t care who gets them there (see Boston, NY, etc.).
Moore’s done a pretty good job. Not a GREAT one, but his rating has to be on the upper side of any ranking.
That said, sometimes you make a change just to make a change. And I doubt Moore would go jobless for anything longer than a month.
no kidding, a franchise like Milwaukee would have loved Moore’s success.
Probably could be said for most of the clubs around the league. I’d love to see what he could do with the Phillies deep pockets.
Since the World Series win over the last four seasons they have average a record of 70-92 yeah let’s give the GM a huge extension
They should trade Merrifield before he gets too old. A shame to waste him on a losing team!
The AL central is bad, the Royals could contend sooner rather than later.
Shoutout to Dayton Moore’s son, Robert Moore, headed to play at Arkansas next year. #WooPig
Matheny’s been the mgr in waiting, but with new ownership, things could change. I’d like to see Pedro Grifol or Raul Ibanez get a shot at managing the team.
Man so many people complaining about moore. People dont remember how bad of a team they were before he took over. The lineup looks really good with perez coming back and look at all the high draft picks in high A and double A putting up incredible numbers. This team isnt as far away from being competitive than people think.
Dayton has done an excellent job considering the owner was never concerned about winning. Mr Glass was all about the bottom dollar. Hope the new owner will invest in his investment and try to field a competitive each and every year.
Ned “Dutch” Yost may be adequate as a “club house” manager, but he is the most dreadful “field” manager I have had the most painful experience of watching since the 1950s in MLB! A very good team, such as the Royals were from 2013 thru 2015, had the ability to prevent him from plunging them into a defeat on a daily basis, however an average team cannot servive his inept logic and generally poor decions. For example, the 2019 Royals are really a much better team than their record indicates, as “Dutch” has cost them at least 15 wins and perhaps as many as 25! He fatally lacks the ability to manage this team to a “win.” He just cannot handle pitching, similarly to his failure in Milwaukee, where team ownership had to fire him to make the playoffs! He has established a reputation for leaving his starting pitcher in an inning too long, and he compounds this problem by his failure to develop a concept of how to use his relievers; it is the same nightmare with almost every game. He actually appears to think that not pitiching the bullpen provides them with “rest.” I am embarrassed for him and feel sorry fo our team when Royal announcers say that an incoming reliever has not pitched in 4 to as many as 7 days!? Is it any wonder that these players cannot find home plate.!?
I have been an 81-game season ticket holder (4 to 6 seats) since 2003 and until last year attended normally all but about 4-6 games per year. I have had enough! When David Glass did not fire him in April of this year (Glass should have fired him in April of 2018!), I decided to wait a little longer to make a decision on the season. When Glass did not fire Yost at the All Star break, I gave the rest myseason tickets to Royals Chaities.
Unless John Sherman makes Glass fire Yost at the end of the season (the least he should do for $1 billion) myself and a whole lot of season ticket holders are not going to renew for 2020! If it takes firing Datong Moore to get this done then do it NOW!!!!
What I gathered from that post is your clearly rich, angry and have a sense of entitlement.
As to all the points you made…can you honestly clarify how you aggregated the 15-25 wins he cost the team? I suppose you attempted to cite misuse of pitching, but what pitching has the man been given?
I think manager impact is over stated. The game basically boils down to a one on one match up between batter and pitcher. For the most part, it is their talent that will dictate the outcomes. You can really believe that royals are all of a sudden a playoff team if Torre managed them? They wouldn’t even be a playoff team if he was standing behind the pitcher whispering advice in his ear.
It’s hard to argue the job he has done. A team should be expected to win two league titles and one world series every 30 years.
Honestly…would you rather win 83 games a year for 10 years (yay, above .500!) Or lose 100 a year for 8 years and then go on a magical two year playoff/ws run?
I am always amazed by the inability of the general public to read and comprehend the written and spoken word. First, I rather like Dayton Moore, and I generally agreed with most of his trades, particularly the very important ones that lead to two World Series years. In my blog I never mention Moore until the very end when without a stylist and using a fat finger I botched the spelling of his name. I only mentioned getting rid of Moore if he stood in the way of replacing Ned Yost. Apparently, you confused what I said with someone who wrote about Moore!? Second, while you were miss reading my blog, your comments about my not having any evidence to state that Yost cost the team 15 to 25 wins, which I thought was a conservative generalization, demonstrates to me that you apparently do not attend or faithfully watch or listen to too many Royals games!? Since I do not think MLR would like for me to write an extremely detailed essay on this subject, I would refer you to just how Yost mishandled two (2) players that helped accumulate most of the losses I am citing. One was Brad Boxberger, who according to HUD had a change up as his best pitch! This was Dutch’s closer for way too long! I would refer you to his statistics during his short but too long of a stay with the Royals, particularly the number of blown saves and flat out losses. It finally got to the point where Dutch would only bring the BOX into a game if he could only face the bottom of the batting order. If you had been watching you would have seen this, and I would not have had to waste my time explaining this to you. Then there was Chris Owings. Dutch had Moore sign Owings as a “utility player” for ar least $3 million. He then tried to make a “regular” out of him. He had always played as a utility player with a small batting average for the DB. For the Royals he very early in the season accumulated, if memory serves me correctly, 135 at bats, striking out 55 times and leaving 63 runners on base, while hitting a huge .131, maybe less, I think it was finally David Glass who stepped up and put an end to this and demanded the call up of Nicky Lopez, which Dutch had opposed.
I could go on indefinitely with Dutch’s failed “gut” decisions, but why do all this. He does the same things every year. In 2018 his two “pets” were Blaine Boyer and Justin Grimm among others who quickly grew ERAs of something like 13 and 11. When asked by a sports writer why they were still on the team, the Sage of Blue Ridge responded with “They provided a veterans presence in the pen.” That Ned is a ganius!
Try watching some games and look at player game data. You might actually learn something!