This was not how Dayton Moore planned to remake the Royals’ starting rotation, of course. He did not expect tragedy. He could not predict this group. He could not forecast the furious final weeks of the offseason, when the organization zeroed in on the free-agent market after spending most of the winter passing on the available arms.
There was no way to prepare for this, no script to follow, no way replace the smile and electric fastball of Yordano Ventura. But something strange happened in the final days before spring training, something that perhaps surprised even Moore. The Royals entered the offseason needing to fill three open spots in the rotation and then had to replace one after Ventura’s death in a car crash in the Dominican Republic.