The late afternoon sacrifice fly off Brett Phillips‘ bat that gave the KC Royals a walk-off season finale win over Minnesota on September 29 marked more than the end of another dismal Kansas City campaign. The offseason began the instant the winning run crossed the plate–there were things to repair and others to replace, the kind of tasks made necessary by a 103 loss season.
It is hard to imagine General Manager Dayton Moore taking much time off before he set about putting as much of the Royals’ house in order as possible. There was a manager to hire.