KANSAS CITY, MO. — This time final yr, the Kansas Metropolis Royals have been already looking forward to 2024 after placing collectively a 56-win marketing campaign and ending final within the American League Central.
Flash ahead to the present day, nevertheless, and the Royals are locked in an American League Division Sequence battle with the New York Yankees and enjoying their first residence postseason video games since profitable the World Sequence in 2015. After going 86-76 within the common season and knocking off the Baltimore Orioles on the highway within the wild-card spherical, Kansas Metropolis is embracing all the things that October baseball has to supply.
So how did the Royals flip issues round so shortly and enhance by 30 video games in a single yr? Bobby Witt Jr. stated on Wednesday it has a lot to do with the chemistry discovered on the roster.
“I feel it began virtually earlier than spring coaching, simply with the strikes that we made,” Witt stated. “At any time when everybody got here into spring coaching, it simply felt like that crew was particular. Simply the camaraderie that we had, you simply felt it and simply knew it is a particular crew. How we bonded so nicely, it began from Opening Day and right here we’re right this moment.”
These strikes embody turning over virtually the complete roster, with solely seven Royals being on the Kansas Metropolis Opening Day roster in each 2023 and 2024. Among the many new additions have been beginning pitcher Seth Lugo, who earned his first-ever All-Star look this season and can take the mound for Wednesday’s pivotal Recreation 3 at Kauffman Stadium.
Whereas new additions definitely helped increase the Royals in 2024, Witt stated that he started sensing the significance of profitable within the current when he and common supervisor J.J. Picollo sat down earlier than the season started to hammer out Witt’s huge 11-year, $288.8 million extension.
“The final word purpose in these conversations was that we needed to win and we needed to do it this yr,” Witt recalled. “The conversations went nicely, and so right here we’re right this moment. It is simply a type of issues the place it is simply him coming to me, asking questions on what we predict and what is the subsequent step? And the following step was simply to win, as a result of we knew how shut we have been final yr, though we misplaced 100-plus video games. We simply knew the crew we had, and by including a few key additions, that we will be proper right here the place we’re right this moment.”
The place the Royals are right this moment is maybe someplace that few pundits noticed as 2023 rolled to an in depth. Nonetheless, it is clear that Witt and Kansas Metropolis have believed they may very well be enjoying in October lengthy earlier than many others outdoors the clubhouse felt the identical.
All quotations obtained firsthand until in any other case famous.
