The story came on a morning last May, but it could have been an afternoon in June or an evening in July. Royals manager Ned Yost was sitting inside Safeco Field in Seattle and talking about Jason Vargas, the veteran left-hander who was recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Three years earlier, in September of 2013, Vargas was pitching for the Los Angeles Angels, and Yost and Royals general manager Dayton Moore found themselves in front of a television as Vargas made a start against the Astros in Houston. The sight, as Yost recalls, was not pretty. The Astros were mashing.