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KANSAS CITY, MO. — This time final yr, the Kansas Metropolis Royals have been already waiting for 2024 after placing collectively a 56-win marketing campaign and ending final within the American League Central.
Flash ahead to the present day, nonetheless, and the Royals are locked in an American League Division Sequence battle with the New York Yankees and taking part in their first dwelling 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 street within the wild-card spherical, Kansas Metropolis is embracing all the pieces that October baseball has to supply.
So how did the Royals flip issues round so rapidly and enhance by 30 video games in a single yr? Bobby Witt Jr. mentioned 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 mentioned. “Each time everybody got here into spring coaching, it simply felt like that staff was particular. Simply the camaraderie that we had, you simply felt it and simply knew it is a particular staff. How we bonded so nicely, it began from Opening Day and right here we’re immediately.”
These strikes embrace turning over virtually the complete roster, with only 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 actually helped increase the Royals in 2024, Witt mentioned 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 massive 11-year, $288.8 million extension.
“The last word aim in these conversations was that we wished to win and we wished to do it this yr,” Witt recalled. “The conversations went nicely, and so right here we’re immediately. It is simply a kind 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, regardless that we misplaced 100-plus video games. We simply knew the staff we had, and by including a few key additions, that we will be proper right here the place we’re immediately.”
The place the Royals are immediately is probably someplace that few pundits noticed as 2023 rolled to an in depth. Nevertheless, it is clear that Witt and Kansas Metropolis have believed they might be taking part in in October lengthy earlier than many others outdoors the clubhouse felt the identical.
All quotations obtained firsthand except in any other case famous.
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