With matching light-blue collars sticking out from under their crisp new Royals jerseys, James Shields and Wade Davis sat side by side at an introductory press conference as Shields espoused the virtues of healthy competition within a starting rotation. The beauty, he said, was that if he went out and threw eight innings one day, Davis would want to come back the next and toss nine.
“That’s the kind of culture I’ve always been accustomed to,” the former Tampa Bay Rays hurler said. “And that’s what I want to create here.”
It was only day one in Kansas City, but Shields’s handle on the situation mirrored the precision he has when gripping a baseball. As the best of three starters Kansas City acquired in the off-season, Shields is the biggest symbol of hope for a team that paid a heavy price to improve at the most important position on the diamond. And if GM Dayton Moore’s gamble pays off, the new arms will incite hysteria in a true-blue baseball city that’s already spent too much time dreaming of better days.
The Royals’ 72-90 record last year left them third in the AL Central, which is actually the highest they’ve finished since 2003, a campaign in which the team registered its only winning season in a 162-game schedule since 1993. With the farm fertilized by years of on-field ineptitude, Moore was dealing from a position of strength when he sent four prospects to the Rays for Shields and Davis in December.
Still, it was a wince-inducing moment for Royals fans to find out blue-chipper Wil Myers was part of the package headed to Tampa. The 22-year-old hits for average and power, can play the outfield and third base, and sits No. 4 on Baseball America’s 2013 ranking of the game’s top 100 prospects. He’s the kind of player teams and fans can patiently wait to see in the starting lineup, unless they’ve already been waiting forever for a winner.
“Kansas City is tired of losing Royals teams, and I think the front office finally got tired of it, too,” says Kansas City–based Yahoo baseball writer Jeff Passan. “They think it’s a risk they had to take.”
Former big-league manager and current MLB Network analyst Larry Bowa says teams have to bite down hard when moving a prospect of Myers’s calibre, but that doesn’t mean it’s a mistake. “Sometimes you don’t want to trade a guy, but when you can fill some needs, I think you have to do it,” he says.
In the case of the Royals, that need is clear. To note Kansas City lacked starting pitching last year is an understatement on par with theorizing that George Brett was a touch irritated that time he was tossed for having too much pine tar on his bat. The team got a quality start—defined as giving up three or fewer runs in at least six innings of work—just 43 percent of the time, a worse figure than all but two major league clubs. Of the six Royals pitchers to start more than 10 games in 2012, only Jeremy Guthrie—acquired from Colorado in July—posted a winning record. No. 1 starter Bruce Chen paced the team with 11 victories, but was also tagged for 14 losses and sported a 5.07 ERA.
The much-needed upgrade began when Moore got Ervin Santana from the Los Angeles Angels for career minor leaguer Brandon Sisk in October, before going all in on the deal with Tampa. Davis was more effective out of the bullpen last year, but figures to be a decent bottom-of-the-rotation guy.
Shields, the crown jewel from the Royals’ perspective, is a workhorse who’s chucked more than 200 innings each of the past six seasons and led the majors with 11 complete games and four shutouts in 2011, when he finished third in AL Cy Young voting. All three newcomers have pitched in the post-season and if things fall right, it’s not inconceivable they might be doing so again in 2013 with a franchise that hasn’t seen October baseball since winning the 1985 World Series. With the exception of the powerhouse Detroit Tigers, the AL Central is a soft division primed for the rise of an emerging club like the Royals.
And while starting pitching may have been a blight on the team, things look bright everywhere else, from the steadying influence of left-fielder Alex Gordon to the power of DH Billy Butler to the ascending stars of catcher Salvador Perez and shortstop Alcides Escobar. “The position players they’ve got now are good and are only going to get better,” says Passan.
The optimism around the club also rightfully carries a strong sense of urgency. Moore is entering his seventh full season with the team, so it’s not like his blueprint hasn’t had some time to become reality. Also, Shields is under contract for just two more years and there’s no guarantee he’ll stay in Kansas City beyond that.
“It’s time for them to make a move,” says Bowa. “The under-.500 should not be acceptable.”
At the press conference where he first put on a Royals cap, Shields noted Kauffman Stadium was a unique place to visit as an opposing player, because Midwestern spectators, instead of launching expletives, often extended an invitation, saying how great it would be if he came and played for the home side. Now that that’s come to pass, Shields finds himself in a traditional baseball market noted for knowledgeable, loyal fans. “It’s really nice to play for a city that’s passionate about baseball,” Shields said. Imagine how they’d feel about winning baseball.
This story originally appeared in Sportsnet magazine’s MLB Preview issue: