Just around the corner, Salvador Perez said, is where it first seemed real. He was sitting at his locker in the visitors’ clubhouse at Citi Field Friday night, unwrapping the tape from his wrists after a game. It was in that clubhouse hallway, he said, that he first had the chance to be a part of something special.
It was 2013, his first All-Star Game — he’s eight now — and Perez was just 23 years old. Before the game, in the hallway, American League manager Jim Leyland told Perez he would make history. Perez wasn’t sure what he meant until the eighth inning, when Leyland told him he would catch the great Mariano Rivera in his final All-Star appearance.
“Go have fun, kid,” Leyland said, patting Perez on the leg with the back of his hand. Goosebumps.
“I never forgot that,” Perez said. “I tell my kids that now: ‘Go have fun, kid.'”
Two years later, in the same place, Perez had the greatest fun a baseball player can have: he splashed champagne with his Kansas City Royals teammates to celebrate a World Series title. Perez was the most valuable player in a five-game win over the Mets. He loves it here and homered in his first at-bat Friday.
“It reminded me that when I came in today, this moment in 2015, I was super excited,” Perez said. “That’s something no one can take away from me.”
The result is proof that even in a league with no salary cap, a small-market team can win it all. Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to maintain success.
Since Wade Davis struck out Wilmer Flores to win the 2015 championship, the Royals have gone 508-700 without a winning season. This is the worst record in the majors over this period, and last season seemed to be the worst.
The Royals went 56-106 in 2023, matching their worst record ever. They started this season 9-5 after Friday’s 6-1 loss to the Mets, and while trends can change without warning in April, optimism trumps the alternative.
“I don’t think last year really had anything to do with (today),” left fielder MJ Melendez said. “Even though people see things like that, I mean, the Orioles were a 100-loss team a few years ago, and now they’re a 100-win team. Yes, there will be growing pains in between, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for you to be a really good team — and be a playoff team — after suffering 100 losses.
The Royals’ quick start allowed them to dream. Friday’s loss followed sweeps of the White Sox and Astros at Kauffman Stadium, giving Kansas City its first undefeated homestand of at least seven games since June 1988. Bill Buckner was the designated hitter then, and none of the current Royals ‘was born.
They entered this weekend with a plus-39 point differential, the best in the majors and the best in franchise history through 13 games. And even after the Mets beat Michael Wacha on Friday, the Royals still led the majors in quality starts with nine.
Last year, the staff had the second-worst start in baseball, ahead of Oakland. And even though some reject quality starts because the requirements seem ordinary (at least six innings, no more than three earned runs allowed), managers will always accept them.
“If you’re going six or seven innings with every out, you’re using (only) a few guys out of the bullpen,” the Royals’ Matt Quatraro said. “It keeps everyone cool.” This doesn’t let things snowball in the wrong direction. If you get that far, you’re in the games – and when you have a chance to win a game late, everyone’s awareness is heightened.
The Royals added four veteran pitchers last winter (starters Seth Lugo and Michel Wacha and relievers Will Smith and Chris Stratton), as well as two other veterans to the lineup, second baseman Adam Frazier and right fielder Hunter Renfroe. General manager JJ Picollo said he hopes the moves will help the Royals compete better in the short term.
Long term, they made a good impression on Bobby Witt Jr., their primary shortstop, who agreed to an 11-year, $288.7 million contract extension in February.
“That’s one of the reasons I wanted to stay here, just because I’ve seen the moves they’ve made and what they’re doing,” Witt said. “That was a huge key for me to make it my home.”
Pressure, it seems, was not part of the deal for Witt. He led the majors in total bases heading into Friday’s games, with 40, and excels in both traditional and modern stats: He’s hitting .333 and entered the weekend as the only hitter in the majors with exit velocity. average of 100 miles per hour (minimum 25 balls in play).
“Our long-term success over the course of the season will really be a continued development of Bobby,” Picollo said. “But then when you look at MJ and (Maikel) Garcia and Vinnie (Pasquantino) in the lineup and you put those young guys around some of the veterans that we’ve added, I think that’s really going to be the story of our success. “
Witt, Melendez, Pasquantino and Garcia are all between 23 and 26 years old. Opening Day starter Cole Ragans is 26 and Brady Singer is 27. This is a solid collection of rookie talent that makes competition plausible in the American League Central.
“You have the young guys maturing and you add new guys at the top,” Singer said. “So we expected to be better.”
The Royals now seemed well engaged, but with a different cast. In 2018, they used their four first-round picks on college starters, hoping they could develop quickly and shorten the team’s path back to contention.
Only Singer – who is 2-0 with a 0.98 ERA in three starts – is now on the active major league roster. Daniel Lynch IV in the Triple-A rotation, Kris Bubic is recovering from Tommy John surgery and Jackson Kowar was traded to Atlanta (then Seattle) in the offseason.
“I think what happened with this group, there were such high expectations,” Picollo said. “We were trying to get them all to the big leagues at the same time and we brought them all into rotation. I think that’s why there was so much criticism. But history is still far from being written.”
However, to make the message better, Picollo thought it was important to add pitchers like Lugo and Wacha, who were not only productive, but also approachable and willing to lead.
“We’ve tried to teach the guys that you don’t have to strike out everyone,” said Lugo, who has a 1.45 ERA but just nine strikeouts in 18 2/3 of sleeves. “Pitch to weak contact and you can manage to get hit. Just one pitch can get you out of trouble. Especially with the ballpark we have at home, let them hit. The field is big enough and our defense is fast and athletic, so let the boys play.
Ragans, who starts Sunday, was the steal of last summer’s trade deadline when Picollo got him from Texas for reliever Aroldis Chapman. In 15 starts for the Royals, Ragans has a 2.63 ERA with just 66 hits allowed in 89 innings. Picollo called him as competitive as any player he has known.
“Obviously I’m very, very competitive in baseball, but that’s nonsense,” Ragans said. “I don’t care if I play a card game with my wife, I don’t care if I play wiffle ball with my nieces and nephews and brothers in the backyard on Thanksgiving. I’m just a super competitive person. Winning is fun. It is difficult to debate this.
Thirty-three teams have lost 106 games in a season since a 162-game schedule was introduced in 1961. Only one has had more than 83 wins the following season: the 1989 Baltimore Orioles, who won a score of 87-75 for a score of 32-1. Game improvement /2 compared to 1988.
No team has ever reached the playoffs a season after losing 106.
“To go from 56 wins to – let’s just say – 86 wins, that’s a big gain, that’s a big ask,” Picollo said. “In reality, we know it’s going to be very difficult to achieve this. But at the same time, we feel like we have a radically different team that will compete at a higher level.
Ragans is one of 19 players on the 2024 Opening Day roster who were not on the roster last Opening Day. That fact, and the blistering start, gives at least some hope that these Royals really are different.
Perhaps the opportunity to make history is around the corner again.
“If you don’t think we’re going to make it to the World Series, you’re in the wrong sport,” Perez said. “No matter who you play, no matter where we are, we always think we’re going to win every night. You don’t have that kind of mentality, you should go somewhere else.
(Top photo of Salvador Perez after hitting a second-inning home run Friday: Adam Hunger/Getty Images)