How MLB's WORST Team Became "Cheating Accusation" Level Good

If you asked the average baseball fan who the most dreadful team had been in the game for the last five or so years, for the longest time people would have either said the Kansas City Royals or Baltimore Orioles, and that's because it would have been true. Things have since changed for both franchises, but specifically for Kansas City, not only have things changed more recently, but also more swiftly, to the point where people are rigging up accusations of cheating. Just because they're good? No, baseball fans aren't that stupid and naive to just look at least most of them aren't, but there's a lot more to this one in particular. More to how this team got good enough to even start getting any accusations thrown their way, whether they deserve it or not. When the 2017 Houston Astros cheating was exposed in 2020, that basically was the baseball equivalent to if it was revealed to the world that Jesus Christ was gay or something. Everything changed that day. The whole concept of how or what we perceived to be true or real about baseball and how fair it was changed. Nobody really knew what to think, and only other stuff would follow. Like the Boston Red Sox, they were immediately investigated considering they had Alex Cora as their manager, a bench coach from the 2017 Astros. Several other teams were accused of cheating and using some sort of unfair advantage to get ahead with hitting, particularly at home. And although the Red Sox were found with some wrongdoing, they and no other team have since been proven of doing anything notably close to what the Astros did. Trying to steal signs had always been a baseball thing, and as long as it's done naturally, it's always been okay. But it's to the extent technology was being used that made this instance illegal. Because when tech gets used, things get to a point where your signs are pretty much as unhideable as finding out who took the cookie out of the cookie jar and a fat kid is one of the suspects. You can try whatever you want, but people are going to find out. And so MLB has since cracked down on the access of technology during games, ways to just prevent another Astros-esque scheme from happening. And even though it's unlikely anybody is actually doing something as advanced as the Astros were proven to be doing, that doesn't stop baseball fans from throwing out those accusations. It's not everyone, but that scandal was such a big bombshell that it's almost poisoned the minds of baseball fans to the point where anything can be linked to cheating, at least according to some tinfoil hats. The Kansas City Royals were the second worst team in all of baseball in 2023. They were bad, but if you look even broader than that, they were the worst from 2018 through 2023. 2018 was the true start to the franchise's rebuild after winning it all in 2015 and two mediocre years that followed. But in 2018, they won 58 games. That's it. In 2019, 59 games. And even though they did actually somewhat improve the next couple of years, winning as many as 74 games in 2021, by 2022, they regressed by nine games, going on to only regress nine more in 2023. So when you look at the 2024 Royals, a team that's already ahead of 2023's amount of wins and a legitimate postseason contender, how is this even possible? Well, a lot has happened to get to this point, which includes the making of the much better performing roster we have now in 2024. Go back to 2018. While being the Royals' first of many miserable seasons, it was also the first of the franchise rebuilding from the ground up, starting with their first round draft pick that year and starting pitcher Brady Singer, an incredibly highly touted arm, along with outfielder Kyle Isbell. A year later, the Royals had what might eventually go down as the most important and significant draft in history, getting shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. with the second overall pick, second baseman Michael Massey with the fourth round pick, and first baseman Vinny Pasquantino with their 11th round pick, three guys who are as important as ever in 2024. But a lot of this improvement has been through some key trades and free agent signings by J.J. Picollo, the man who took over as Royals' general manager after Dayton Moore, the man who was leading the ship for over 15 years, in 2022. The biggest trade by Picollo and the Royals is probably the one they made with the Rangers in 2023, one that to this day doesn't make much sense from a Rangers standpoint. Before the 2023 season, the Royals signed a role as Chapman in an obvious way to just buy prospects. The Royals weren't expecting to contend, and having a guy like Chapman could get you some talent by a desperate team come the deadline. And, well, in crystal ball fashion, that exact scenario happened, with the Rangers playing the role of that desperate team as they needed bullpen help. And you can look at this two ways, that the Rangers were so desperate they sent away their former number one draft pick from 2016 to the Royals, or you can credit Picollo and the Royals for taking advantage of this situation and getting the best out of it. Because although the Rangers did go on and win their first championship ever in 2023, Chapman really wasn't a big part of it. If anything, he almost sabotaged it with how unreliable he was. In the long run, though, Chapman was now a free agent in Reagans who went on to have a fantastic time with the Royals as a starting pitcher to end 2023 is under team control for 6 more years. And Reagans has only continued that success, just now in an even bigger sample size. And before this season, Kansas City also spent a lot of money. Well, at least for their standards. They didn't necessarily spend Dodger type money, but it's unfair to compare the two. The Dodgers spending what they did was like Elon Musk buying a country and a massive yacht. Does he need that? No, but he can do it. The Royals spending what they did was like, I don't know, Britney Spears spending money on how to not be crazy, except take away it being Britney Spears and the money spent on being ways to get less crazy and replace that with the Royals spending on ways to get better. Because just like Britney Spears needs to get help with being psychotic, the Royals needed help to improve their overall roster. And that's exactly what they did. Britney should take some advice. Spending over 100 million on free agency contracts, the most ever spent in an off season by the team, getting themselves two starting pitchers, two relief pitchers and two hitters while also dropping not just the biggest contract in Royals history, but one of the biggest contracts in baseball history. With their extension of Bobby Witt Jr. for 11 guaranteed seasons with $288.7 million also being guaranteed, along with a three-year option that can make the deal as long as 14 years and as much as $377.7 million. So despite losing even more games than they did at the start of their rebuild, looking like they were almost going backwards in development over the course of five years, the Royals were making a statement. A statement that they at least expect to improve and get back to better days sooner than later. And come to find out, those better days have come even sooner than that. The Royals have been in contention all season long this year. And although may not necessarily be the best, are very good and more impressively, very good in arguably baseball's best division. The division that was once looked at as the game's most mid has become really, really competitive with the Guardians and Twins also being at the top. Bobby is an MVP candidate and arguably the best shortstop in baseball. The 2019 draft trio have all been important to the offense with baseball's most Italian player, Vinny Pasquantino, putting up good numbers and Michael Massey has been good in the limited time he's been able to play because of injuries. The best thing about this Royals team has to be the lone man from Kansas City's last playoff team nine years ago, Salvador Perez. Still on this roster and the only difference, he's just nine years older and a leader. The perfect kind of guy to have on any team, let alone this one. It's the only one he knows and for him to still be here after all these losing years, finally winning again is awesome. And I'm talking about the hitters and specifically with the Royals offense, this is where you get into some of the more interesting splits and vast improvements that have led to not everyone, but some fans at least bringing up accusations and suspicions of cheating. The Royals as an offense have been great at home this year, one of the best in all of baseball. Just from an overall team standpoint, no specific players, the Royals are at the top of every important offensive category at home. They're number one in batting average, top 10 and on base percentage, top five in slugging percentage, meaning they hit for more power. You look at the same stats for the Royals on the road this year and it's night and day. They go from number one in batting average to number 18. They go from top 10 and on base percentage to 26th in all baseball and then from top five in slugging to 19th. None of these are small differences and their overall record at home is far better than on the road. So much that away from home this year, they're a losing team. And if you look at some of these hitters individually, let's start with Vinny Pasquantino. His batting average is almost 300 at home, on the road down to 230 and his other stats have just about as much of a difference. Michael Massey is basically another person at home compared to on the road. There's only one player who isn't going with this trend and it's Salvi as he's actually shown the exact opposite and his numbers are considerably better on the road. But then Bobby Witt Jr, he has the craziest home versus away stats and the most blatant example of the Royals hitting this year in a nutshell. At Coffman Stadium this year, Bobby is hitting over 400, has an on base percentage of over 450, a slugging percentage of over 720, which is all great by the way. If you're not familiar with those stats, that's all you need to know. It's incredible. Now on the road, even though he still has good numbers, it's a noticeable drop off as his batting average goes from over 400 to under 300. His on base goes to below 330 and his slugging drops almost 300 points. So what does all this suggest? That the Royals are cheating? Well, I'm going to go with no, considering we have zero evidence of that other than this extreme split. Yes, it could be suspicious if you think about it that way, but if anything, this just shows how swiftly and drastically the Royals have changed things and they're just having a lot of fun at home. Going from the worst team in baseball for half a decade to a certain level of success, particularly at home, to the point where people are pointing to cheating. That's a good thing. If they're not cheating, that is, which there's no evidence of. If anything, this is a compliment to how much things have changed in Kansas City for the better. It's not just all about Patrick Mahomes and Taylor Swift anymore. There's some new bad boys in town and they're especially better in town. Let me know what you think. Thank you for watching. I'll see you soon.