In the modern era of baseball, in the age of 30 teams and revenue sharing and expanded playoff formats, the only thing more difficult than winning a championship is doing it again.
The 2016 Royals have learned this the hard way, of course, internalizing the reality over a brutal 162-game season. They know it all by now. They know that injuries can suffocate an offense, and statistical regression is inevitable, and bodies will wear down, and that luck — however you judge it in the confines of baseball — will even out over time.
They understand it now.