Kansas City Royals

The Kansas City Royals enter the offseason with a few needs, and upgrading right field or second base ranks high on their list.

A reunion with Carlos Beltran, whom the team drafted in 1995, would certainly answer one of those needs.  A trade with the Cincinnati Reds for Brandon Phillips would address the other.  It appears that both of those options have been discussed.

The Kansas City Royals took a step forward as a successful franchise in 2013.  They produced a winning season for the first time in 10 years.  They continued to be relevant late into the season.  They had people talking about the possibility of them in the postseason.  The season has come to an end and the baseball world continues to talk about the Kansas City Royals.

As I awaited the beginning of St.

Losers of two straight games, the Kansas City Royals turn to staff ace James Shields to get back on the winning track against his former team, the Tampa Bay Rays, Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.

The competition to become the No. 5 starter for the Kansas City Royals in 2013 began with five names: Luke Hochevar, Bruce Chen, Luis Mendoza, Will Smith and Yordano Ventura. With less than a week before Opening Day, the team has announced a winner.

Coming into spring training, the Kansas City Royals had very few position battles to work out as the 2013 season approached—which is remarkably odd for a team coming off a 72-win season.

Other than the perennial lobbying for bullpen spots, the Royals were primarily focused on who would be the team’s No. 5 starting pitcher and who would emerge as their starting second baseman.

Coming off a season that yielded just 72 wins, it may surprise some that the Kansas City Royals entered spring training with very few positions up for grabs.

Still, they need to decide who will be pegged to see the most time at second base, and who will emerge as the team’s fifth starter.

The Kansas City Royals’ farm system has served as a pipeline to the major leagues in recent years, producing former top prospects such as Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez and Danny Duffy, as well as a slew of late-inning arms.

The struggles are well-documented, and the forecast has been rather bleak for the Kansas City Royals recently. With only four winning seasons since 1990, this franchise has been mired in one of the longest funks in professional sports history.

Small-market baseball franchises are often pigeon-holed into a compulsory allegiance to mediocre (at best) talent when it comes to filling out rosters. Second-rate ballplayers are relied on to be the leaders of teams that annually inhabit the bottom portion of the standings.