KC Royals’ Dayton Moore criticizes report about organization’s development of pitchers

The Royals surprised some at the 2018 MLB Draft when they used all four of their top-40 picks on college pitchers.

The general expectation is that college pitchers will be ready for the majors faster than those taken from high school. But four years later, Brady Singer is the lone member of that quartet to have become a dependable performer in the major leagues.

Kris Bubic, Daniel Lynch and Jackson Kowar have all struggled, as has the Royals’ pitching staff in general.

The Royals’ team ERA (4.73) ranks last in the American League, while the staff’s WHIP (1.479) is the worst in baseball. The rotation has the worst ERA in the AL and the bullpen has the worst ERA in baseball.

The Athletic’s Andy McCullough, Rustin Dodd and Alec Lewis spoke with scouts, former pitchers and executives on other teams for a story about the Royals’ struggle to develop pitching.

The story published last Thursday and was widely shared by Royals fans.

On Sunday, Royals broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre spoke with president of baseball operations Dayton Moore about the story, and Moore’s comments angered many fans.

Josh Vernier, Royals Insider for KCSP (610 AM), transcribed the conversation and shared it on Twitter.

Lefebvre asked: “How do you decide what is valid criticism and what’s just somebody shooting their mouth off?”

Moore was critical of anonymous sources used in the Athletic story and suggested some people were trying to kick the Royals, who haven’t had a winning season since 2015 and are on pace to lose 98 games, when they’re down.

“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,” Moore told Lefebvre.

“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.”

Fan reaction

Here is a sample of what was being said by Royals fans in response to Moore’s comments.

A Reddit user wrote: “How he can be so smug and talk about how good he feels about the ‘progress’ we’ve seen from our young pitchers is insane.

“We have seen absolutely zero progress from the pitchers who have debuted since 2020 besides Singer, and in fact they have all gotten worse. Kowar is already a lost cause and Lacy looks to be one too. The Royals failed to develop Junis, he goes to a far more competent org in the Giants, and LITERALLY IMMEDIATELY looks like a stud. The fact that he feels good about some imaginary progress they’ve had is exactly the problem.”

Another wrote: “It’d be fair to say you’re being kicked while you’re down if it were still 2018-2019 and undeniably early in the rebuild. It’s 2022 and the rookies are being called up. The only veterans in the lineup are Perez, Dozier, and MAT. The rotation is Greinke and 4 rookies/young guns early in their careers. ...

“I used to defend Dayton Moore but this is just ridiculous. Read the room and be honest with us or pack your bags.”

A fan wrote on Reddit: “every year this dude thinks we are in a good position going forward. Every year we buy into it.. well, not this year. sorry buddy, time for Dayton to head out.”

Another wrote of what Moore said: “How can anyone read that comment and be okay with it?”