Glazer: Color Royals GM Dayton Moore Gone

After nearly 10 years, Kansas City Royals GM Dayton Moore is not long for this world…

You know, our world…which Moore is clearly looking to leave. And why wouldn’t he? He’d be foolish not to.

Anybody remember a dude named John Schuerholz?

Schuerholz – who was just inducted into the baseball hall of fame primarily for his stewardship of the Atlanta Braves – spent 22 years in KC. Including 1985 when the Royals snagged their first World Series championship in 1985.

In 1990 he bailed out of KC and joined Atlanta, just like Moore is very likely about to.

Here’;s how Wikipedia describes Schuerholz’ exit:

“Schuerholz built a strong relationship with Royals owner Ewing Kauffman, but left the team as it began to struggle”

Sound familiar?

Moore is just 49 years old and with two World Series in 2014 and 2015 and a championship under his belt, it’s clearly an opportune time to find a new home in a larger market with a paycheck to match.

Royals owner David Glass has made it clear that he’s cutting payroll, simply trying to keep this team competitive for 2017 and beyond.

To that end, the Royals have already dumped several of its core players from the World Series teams, Kendreys Morales and Wade Davis to name two. And trust me, there’ll be more to come.

There’s trade talk surrounding Lorenzo Cain and even Danny Duffy.

Eric Hosmer will play his last season with Kansas City this next year and move on to a bigger name team in 2018 with a monster contract… assuming of course he has a solid season again.

Royals anchor, catcher Sal Perez has a long term deal with the team.

The Royals still have Ace Ventura and a group of good players, but it’s unlikely they will win the division this coming season. Yes, the Royals will bring up some younger players and trade for a few others, but with a budget cut, things will be tough.

It would appear that Glass wants to hang onto the two World Series seasons for years to come as a battle cry for fans to come out and support a team that likely will be decent but no longer a contender.

Dayton Moore gets credit for the Royals surprise rise to the top.

KC’s shown the league a new way to win, with defense, speed and going to the bullpen in innings 5-9 with strong relief pitching.

The Royals never had a killer batting lineup to match its bullpen or defense, yet the system worked in 2014 and 2015.

Last year was a big letdown for the Royals and Moore, who felt they could at least get into the playoffs again, and possibly do even better this coming season.

However, spending a boatload on longtime Royal favorite Alex Gordon didn’t pay off and some key injuries slowed the Royals in 2016, making them just a .500 team.

Still Moore is a hot general manager today and he needs to look at other offers while the Royals are still being talked about as coming out of nowhere the last two seasons.

Moore’s price tag will be high and he has to feel he did his job for Kansas City.

Moore can leave feeling great about his accomplishments for the Royals.

That said, clearly the Royals run is now at an end -or so it would seem.

Nobody will blame Moore. And he does sound a bit frustrated over the budget cuts he has to enforce from the owner.

Will the Royals return to nowhere land again?

Right now they have a good enough squad to be a decent team, but the post season is not looking likely.

And when they lose Hosmer and others it may be back to the drawing board.

Hey, they gave us two World Series in a row. Small market teams are always uphill when it comes to winning it all. Dayton Moore did not sign a new contract for the future in KC.

And mark my words, the Royals will not return to another World Series in most of our lifetimes.