Royals Rumblings

Royals Rumblings - News for October 2, 2023

The season is over.

By Max Rieper@maxrieper Oct 2, 2023, 8:00am EDT

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Zack Greinke got a curtain call after his last start of the season.

“Chills the whole time,” Witt said.

Then Greinke got a curtain call, and he obliged, stepping out from the dugout to wave one more time at the crowd of 20,662.

Greinke pocketed the ball that put him in line for the win, and then he went to the side of the dugout to see his sons and wife, Emily.

“It was nice,” Greinke said with a small grin. “There were a lot of people here today, so that was good.”

September was more fun for Greinke.

“Everything about all of it was great,” Greinke said of the finale. “These last couple of months were a lot better than the first. It’s been fun lately.”

The Royals did tie the club record for losses in a season with 106.

“Losing is tough,” Quatraro said. “I don’t care if you win 100 games, the 62 you lose is going to stink. To be on the flip side of that is truly disappointing. It’s something that none of us want to have happen. We don’t think it’s good enough to play this way, and everybody in the room understands that. Now, you can talk about it all you want. But until you affect real change out there, it’s just hollow words. That’s where we have to dig down deeper and figure out what the solutions are and what went wrong.”

The players want to improve.

“The fans, we’ve got to show them more,” Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. said. “We lost over 100 games, and it’s not really acceptable. We’ve gotta get back to work this offseason and get ready to prepare for the next year and get after it.”

Sam McDowell writes that Bobby Witt Jr. has arrived, but the Royals need to put a team around him.

Let’s face it: This season has tested him like never before, and not just in the way that all baseball players are tested at this level like never before. Witt spent his entire life winning a lot of baseball games before he arrived in Kansas City. Which even included the Royals’ minor leagues. And, well, “losing sucks,” he said.

So at some point this season, Picollo said, Witt started to enact some discussions with his teammates. What can we do to get better. What’s our responsibility? How do we hold one another accountable?

“They know that we gotta change something — something’s gotta be changed — and I feel like it has to come from us players,” Witt said. “I think everyone’s really buying into that. I feel like it’s coming from us and the players.”

Anne Rogers writes about Tyler Tolbert, who won top hitter honors in the minors.

Former Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield dies from cancer at the age of 57.

The playoff field is set with the Marlins in the playoffs for the first time since 2003.

The Mets fire manager Buck Showalter.

Cubs manager David Ross is on the hot seat after a late-season collapse.

Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh apologizes after calling the team out for a loss.

How the Orioles made one of the most radical turnarounds.

Here are the 2023 stat leaders.

Luis Arraez becomes the first player to win back-to-back hitting titles in each league.

The Braves tie a MLB record with 307 home runs as a team.

A ranking of the top 25 free agents this off-season.

Tim Anderson is willing to move to second base.