Dayton Moore’s recent comments show that the organization is beyond repair

It has been no secret that the Kansas City Royals have struggled to develop pitching, and especially starting pitching. This year, their starters have the fourth-worst ERA in baseball, the sixth-worst FIP in baseball, and the second-worst K-BB% in baseball. Since 2016—over the last seven seasons—Royals starters have had the third-worst ERA in baseball, the third-worst FIP in baseball, and the third-worst K-BB% in baseball.

Moreover, after winning the 2015 World Series, the Royals have been one of the worst teams in baseball. They are on track to lose 100 or more games for the third time in the last five seasons, and should the Seattle Mariners and Philadelphia Phillies hold onto their Wild Card positions, the Royals’ seven-season playoff drought will be tied for the second-longest in the league.

It is with this context that a trio of former Royals beat writers published a piece exploring what went wrong with the Royals’ pitching. A fascinating read, this well-reported piece by Rustin Dodd, Andy McCullough, and Alec Lewis featured quotes from Royals staff, opposing scouts, rival executives, and Royals minor league pitchers. The piece itself is behind a paywall, but in our coverage of the piece, Max Rieper summarized that the piece outlined the Royals’ rigidity in pitching process and lack of individualization, a lack of player empowerment, and a use of technology that is behind the curve of other organizations.

On Sunday, announcer Ryan Lefebvre asked President of Baseball Operations Dayton Moore in their weekly dugout talk about the article. 610’s Josh Vernier transcribed the question and the answer and sent it out on Twitter. For those of you using screen readers and in case the Tweet ever gets deleted, I’ve typed it out below as well.

Ryan: How do you decide what is valid criticism and what’s just somebody shooting their mouth off?

Dayton: We’ve always been very accepting and really willing to take criticism, especially from those that are looking at it with a critical eye and help us uncover blind spots. We welcome that type of debate and that type of information, but you’re right.

Anytime somebody does something anonymously, first of all I think it’s disrespectful, lacks integrity, and I think most of those comments come from somebody criticizing simply with a critical spirit, and they want to kick people when they’re down, so to speak, and again, I think we’re in a really good position going forward. So, I just kind of let it go in one ear and out the other and try to stay positive with our people.

Of course, we had a lot of people in the organization disappointed in that piece because it wasn’t factual, and it left out a lot of important things that, I think, speak to the upside of where we are and where we’re going with our pitchers. You just learn to move on from it, that’s just the nature unfortunately of the business that we’re in, but as I mentioned before, the time that we have with these pitchers, the growth that we’re seeing, and I don’t think anybody who watches this game and understands this game feels like that our pitchers have peaked out.

They feel like there’s strong days ahead of them and a great future with this group, and they’re going to help us win a lot of baseball games. We’re not disappointed one bit. We are really excited about where we are, where we’re going. We’ve gotten young players up here. That’s what we set out to do after 2017 was raise the next generation of players that was going to help us win another championship, and we are now seeing that take place. We’re seeing these young players who are up here, are getting a chance to play, to establish themselves as productive Major League players, and it’s going to be fun. We’re looking forward to it.

Moore’s answer is a lot to process. It is extremely difficult to read this without feeling angry and insulted, and in a long list of questionable things that Moore has told the media, this might just be the single worst thing he’s said publicly. Most of all, these are the type of comments that show how much the current front office is out of touch and how badly John Sherman needs to clean house.

These comments come down to one thing: denial. The 2022 Royals are flirting with 100 losses which, again, would be the third 100-loss season in five years. Faced with this frequency and volume of losing, and considering that The Athletic piece revealed that Kansas City thought they would be about a .500 team this year, a smart team would welcome criticism and do some soul-searching.

But Moore and the front office don’t seem to be interested in introspection. Instead, who is at fault? Those pesky critical spirits. And the front office thinks they are in a good spot and are actively ignoring criticism.

Anytime somebody does something anonymously, first of all I think it’s disrespectful, lacks integrity, and I think most of those comments come from somebody criticizing simply with a critical spirit, and they want to kick people when they’re down, so to speak, and again, I think we’re in a really good position going forward. So, I just kind of let it go in one ear and out the other and try to stay positive with our people.

I’m sure what Moore is saying here is that he isn’t avoiding all criticism, just the kinds that he thinks are coming from “critical spirits.” Unfortunately for Moore, he’s not responded to a comment fired off from mizzou_tiger69 on Twitter. He’s responding to a reported piece by not one, not two, but three former Royals beat writers who Moore knows personally, published on one of the most well-respected sports journalism outlets in American sports journalism. He’s responding to criticism cited from multiple opposing scouts, executives, and analysts. And he’s responding to criticism about objectively poor performance from his own team.

This is the real kicker though: the Royals are an embarrassment of a baseball team in 2022 and have been for the past half decade. Yet all is well.

We’re not disappointed one bit. We are really excited about where we are, where we’re going.

I have no doubt that Moore would consider me a critical spirit, and perhaps I deserve it. But I am not stepping down from my standards. The Royals’ baseball performance has been flatly unacceptable this year and over the last seven years. They blew their chance to make a playoffs for a third time with the mid-2010s core group and then embarked on a painful and apparently endless rebuild that they are comfortable with even though there are red flags waving everywhere. There’s no winning in sight, either—do you think the 2023 Royals are playoff material? Almost assuredly not. What about the 2024 Royals? With one of the worst farm systems in baseball, it’s certainly not guaranteed.

To hear the man in charge of the Royals baseball operations department say that they’re not disappointed in where they are? It is sad and deflating, a betrayal, even, of the team’s fans.

Finally, there is another bit from Moore’s response that is, at best, unprofessional. Moore sharply criticizes those who spoke to Dodd, McCullough, & Lewis anonymously before declaring the piece not factual. Royals Farm Report said it best: Moore is calling people liars and belittling his own employees for speaking their opinions to reporters. That is a simple failure of leadership.

While I have been as critical of the Royals front office as anyone, I had hoped that the current brain trust—well-respected around the league and consistently lauded by players and staff around baseball alike for operating with integrity—would see the light, swallow their pride, and make the changes they needed to.

They have failed the test. A thoroughly-reported article highlighted why the team was struggling with multiple points of view, painstakingly providing context at every turn. In response, the man in charge of the team denied there was a problem at all and placed the blame on both reporters and those with whom the reporters spoke—right before the Boston Red Sox hung 13 runs across four members of the Royals’ pitching staff.

There’s no repairing this. Whether the lack of accountability extends through owner John Sherman himself is the only question that matters now.