I never anticipated Ned Yost being on the hot seat this season. He was a Moore-approved guy and was seemingly brought in to a perfect situation. The Royals had been bad for a long time, and he replaced a manager who was widely understood to be incompetent. The Major League team was receiving a talent upgrade, and the expectations weren't too weighty. Do slightly better, get close to 77 wins or so, be standing there from some exciting wins and the praise would come. Here was old and wise Ned Yost teaching the Royals how to win.
The Royals are now 3-14. The team is burning through "how to end the losing streak" cliches almost as fast as the losses are piling up. They're also finding new ways to lose. As Rany so eloquently pointed out yesterday, Yost has doubled down on some pretty bad strategies, and he's played a role in the meltdown.
It is now almost certain that the Royals will have an ugly record for the All-Star Game in Kansas City, and nearly certain that they will have an ugly record at season's end. The window-dressing stuff: looking competent and sniffing .500 to demonstrate progress, is looking harder and harder to reach.
Still, Yost has some built in excuses. Sure, greater expectations were there, we're only talking about getting to .500. The talent he has to work with is legitimately pretty weak, especially the starting pitching. And hey, those injuries. Sal Perez is a career .300 hitter, donchaknow!
I doubt the Royals want an embattled manager to be a story during All-Star week, but they likely don't want to be a recently fired one to be story either. The ASG is an interesting factor in the "Should Yost Be Fired?" story that we can't fully anticipate one way or the other. There's also the Dayton Moore factor. Does Moore burn Yost to try to save himself? Does he fight for Yost? Does ownership make the call over his head? Is anybody even upset right now?
We don't know. We can only guess.