Club Broadcaster Discusses the Royals Chances to Contend

The Kansas City Royals are off to a good start led by Bobby Witt Jr. and a young core. Since the Royals won the World Series in 2015, they’ve not had a single winning season. Coming off a season last year where they lost 106 games, that’s got nothing to do with this year where they’ve won 13 of their last 21. If the season ended today, the Royals would be in the postseason. There’s still plenty of baseball left to be played, but the Royals are on the verge of a strong breakout campaign. At the front of it all is club broadcaster and former major leaguer Rex Hudler. Hudler joined Monday’s edition of the The Windup podcast to discuss the team’s chances to contend.

Can the Royals Contend This Season?

Hudler, who has seen lost happen in the last three weeks, believes there’s a good reason why the Royals are in the come up.

“The organization, after suffering the worst lost record in franchise history, wants to build a new ballpark downtown. The new ownership [John Sherman and co.] said ‘You know what? We have to improve this team. We’re going to have a hard time putting a new stadium in if we can’t win our games. We need to invest in our team and we got to get our team better.’ That’s exactly what they did in the offseason.”

The Royals went out and spent money on the right free agents. Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha have helped soldify the rotation based on their experience. Brady Singer has great stuff and he learned to throw a four-seam fastball and changeup to mix in with his two-seam fastball and slider. Then, there’s the trade deadline acquisition of Cole Ragans, who was picked up from the Texas Rangers for Aroldis Chapman.

Behind the Royals Early Success

14 new players arrived at Royals spring training. They have all bonded well to the point where they have such good chemsitry. Vinnie Pasquantino is healthy and Salvador Perez is playing like he’s 23-years-old again. Their defence ranks a top of some major league statistics while their bullpen and starting pitching continue to be key to the success.

“The bullpen and starting pitching are the main currency in the game,” Hudler said. “They polished up their bullpen to go along with the talent on the field. They signed Bobby Witt Jr. to a life contract that has everyone saying ‘Well, we gotta win.’

If the Royals continue to pitch and play the way they are now, we could see a first-to-first situation right here in Kansas City.”

The Royals entered this homestand with one of the most succesful rotations in baseball with their 2.28 ERA ranking second in the league. Royals starters have allowed at least four runs each in three of last four games. There’s bound to be a regression and they won’t be panicking anytime soon. Now though, it’s time for the offense to pick up the pitching, and this week is a good test.