Alex Gordon has been a staple in left field for a decade. Only four players in Major League Baseball have played more innings in the outfield than Gordon since 2010, and none of them have played more of them for a single team than Gordon has. But the winds of change are inevitable when it comes to that pesky truth of life called aging. Gordon is on a one-year deal, and while it’s possible he could sign another short deal with Kansas City next year, Gordon’s eventual departure is only part of a larger outfield overhaul.
Since 2018, the first year of the Royals’ current period of extreme suckitude, the top of the outfield innings leaderboard reads like you might think: Alex Gordon, then Whit Merrifield, then Jorge Soler.