KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There has been an assumption surrounding the Kansas City Royals for years that their window to compete for a championship would close after this season, when the core group of players that ushered the long-downtrodden franchise to a pair of World Series hits free agency.
Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain, and a bunch of others who not only managed to restore the franchise to respectability but succeeded in winning a championship.
General manager Dayton Moore has never subscribed to that belief.
Everyone else pointed to the challenge of retaining those stars, and the fiscal hurdles he would need to overcome.