No postmortem of the disastrous 2019 KC Royals’ season is complete without determining why the club lost over 100 games, a sad record that fell short of the American League Central’s worst mark only because the Detroit Tigers played in the same division. The question of causation has many answers.
First and foremost, the club was destined for failure, doomed from the start by the shortcomings of its own roster. The 2018 team, stripped by free agency of many of its remaining championship core players, lost 104 games; then, club management didn’t take significant steps to improve the club, opting instead to reunite with Lucas Duda and add fringe players like Chris Owings and Brad Boxberger.