Dayton Moore out as Royals club president

Dayton Moore has been relieved of his duties as club president of the Kansas City Royals, according to Andy McCullough of The Athletic. J.J. Picollo will take over baseball operations.

“I’m really thankful for the opportunity,” Moore told The Athletic. “I’m proud of our culture and what we accomplished in Kansas City. I’m disappointed we weren’t able to see it through. But I have confidence in John Sherman, J.J. Picollo and the entire baseball operations department to finish it off.”

Moore has been with the Royals since May 31, 2006, when he was named general manager, replacing Allard Baird. His teams had losing records in each of his first six full seasons, but the club surged to 86-wins and playoff contention in 2013. The Royals stunned the baseball world by winning a Wild Card spot in 2014 and going on an amazing post-season run that resulted in their first American League pennant in 29 years, losing to the San Francisco Giants in seven games. The team returned in 2015 to take the league by storm, finishing with the best record in the American League with 95 wins and defeating the New York Mets in the World Series in five games.

The Royals won 81 and 80 games in each of the next two seasons, respectively, before losing much of their core team to free agency including Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, and a year later, Mike Moustakas. The Royals lost 100 games in back-to-back years following their departure, and have not had a winning season since their 2015 championship season.

Moore was elevated to president of baseball operations in September of 2021, with longtime assistant J.J. Picollo taking over as general manager.

This will be Moore’s 16th full season leading the Royals, and 12 of them have been losing seasons. If the Royals lose one more game this year, it will be the eighth season under Moore the club has lost at least 90 games. The club encountered criticism this summer when ten players and three coaches were unable to travel to Toronto due to being unvaccinated for COVID. More recently, an article at The Athletic detailed why the club has had so much trouble developing starting pitching with stories of how the organization was struggling to integrate data into their coaching and development and were using a rigid approach that did not give players much flexibility or empowerment.

More to come as this story develops.