The 5 worst outfields in Royals history
Who’s number one?
The Kansas City Royals outfield has been a problem dating back to the start of last year. With young players failing to make developmental leaps and wily veterans fading faster than we had all hoped, there have been multiple reasons why the Royals have struggled to find productive players to patrol the Kauffman Stadium grass.
Has Kansas City’s outfield this year been as bad as it has seemed? Or is there some historical outfield offering a sort of salve to our woes that whispers in our ear, “Hey, it could be worse?” Let’s take a look.
We need some sort of north star of objectivity here, and so I am using my favorite offensive statistic: wRC+, which stands for weighted runs created plus. For those of you unaware, it’s an offensive stat that takes into account the objective value of a player’s contributions at the plate in the context of the leaguewide offensive environment. It is presented in points above or below 100, where 100 is the league average offense.
Independent of defense, a player’s wRC+ means a little something like this:
- 160: MVP favorite
- 150: MVP candidate
- 140: All-Star starter
- 130: All-Star reserve
- 120: Middle-of-the-order bat
- 110: Above average hitter
- 100: Average hitter
- 90: Below average hitter
- 80: Bench player
- 70: Fringe big leaguer
- 60: Emergency fill-in
Let’s count down the Royals’ worst outfields by combined wRC+, starting with the fifth-worst and going down to the worst. As a note: some of these players played other positions in addition to the outfield. But all appeared in the outfield in these seasons.
5. 1985
- wRC+: 80
- Worst offenders: Lynn Jones (169 PAs, 43 wRC+), Dane Iorg (138 PAs, 59 wRC+), Darryl Motley (408 PAs, 77 wRC+)
- Bright spots: Willie Wilson (642 PAs, 95 wRC+)
The 1985 Royals won the World Series, but the outfield was certainly not the team’s main strength. Royals Hall of Famer Willie Wilson played a solid center field all year, but the corners were a mess. Four Royals—Lynn Jones, Dane Iorg, Pat Sheridan, and Darryl Motley—played at least 64 games posted a wRC+ between 43 and 77.
Not a whole lot else to say. The squad won it all in spite of the outfield. A great infield and good pitching can cover up a lot. Sound familiar?
4. 2004
- wRC+: 78
- Worst offenders: Aaron Guiel (157 PAs, 42 wRC+), Desi Relaford (430 PAs, 52 wRC+), Dee Brown (209 PAs, 61 wRC+)
- Bright spots: Carlos Beltran (309 PAs, 122 wRC+), Matt Stairs (496 PAs, 102 wRC+), David DeJesus (413 PAs, 98 wRC+)
One year after “Nosotros Creemos” came the absolute train wreck that was the 2004 Royals season. What a mess. An eye-watering 14 outfielders accrued 10 or more plate appearances that year, and 10 of them had a wRC+ below 64. That is astounding. And they even had a nice trio between David DeJesus, Matt Stairs, and Carlos Beltran. It’s just that the bottom of their outfield depth chart was truly That Bad. How the Royals found so much playing time for Desi Relaford at so many positions is beyond me, but I guess that’s why they lost a billion games that year.
Beltran was a legitimate All-Star, but the Royals offloaded him at the trade deadline for what might as well have been a bag of sand, a couple of rusted pennies, and a broken music box. Ok, maybe that’s a little harsh, but that’s what it felt like a few years later (even though John Buck worked a very respectable 11-year career as a catcher). Had Beltran played more games, this team wouldn’t be on this list.
3. 2024 Royals
- wRC+: 78
- Worst offenders: Garrett Hampson (231 PAs, 59 wRC+), Adam Frazier (294 PAs, 63 wRC+), Nelson Velazquez (230 PAs, 76 wRC+)
- Bright spots: Dairon Blanco (132 PAs, 94 wRC+)
Last year’s Royals outfield was painful to watch. The only somewhat nice thing to say about the squad is that, other than utility guys Garrett Hampson and Adam Frazier who also spent time in the infield, they avoided the truly heinous play that the 2004 team had, for instance. MJ Melendez was merely subpar offensively. Hunter Renfroe was almost league average. Kyle Isbel was a fine player since he provided great defense in center field. It’s just nobody on the team was particularly good, and that became a problem.
2. 1996
- wRC+: 78
- Worst offenders: Johnny Damon (566 PAs, 69 wRC+), Tom Goodwin (587 PAs, 71 wRC+)
- Bright spots: Michael Tucker (393 PAs, 97 wRC+)
Hats off to Les Norman, who put up a wRC+ of 0 (zero) in his 56 PAs with the 1996 team.
Other than Les, the 1996 squad was characterized by a bunch of guys who played a lot but were just bad at hitting. Johnny Damon and Tom Goodwin combined for 288 games played but they had a wRC+ of 69 and 71, respectively. When two of your regular outfielders are that bad at the plate for so much playing time, man, it’s hard to overcome. Damon would eventually be good, but as a 22-year-old he was still a bit overmatched. Too bad, because he had a nice rookie season the year before.
1. 2025
- wRC+: 63
- Worst offenders: Hunter Renfroe (108 PAs, 31 wRC+), Mark Canha (109 PAs, 60 wRC+), Kyle Isbel (198 PAs, 68 wRC+)
- Bright spots: None (yet)
Oh. Oh no.
Look: we’ve not yet played half a season, and there’s so much room to improve. But if the season ended today, the 2025 Royals would be far and away the worst outfield in Royals history.
For an entire position group to have a combined wRC+ of 63 is almost impossible, and yet this year’s squad has done it. To be fair, it is still being dragged down by MJ Melendez’s -7 wRC+ in 52 PAs (yes, wRC+ can go negative), and John Rave will either improve his 42 wRC+ or he will be sent back to Omaha, and Hunter Renfroe and his 108 plate appearances’ worth of a 31 wRC+ is no longer on the team. Even replacing them with players in the 70-80 wRC+ range will eventually drag the teamwide figure up.
But it for sure looks bleak out there right now, which stinks because these Royals are easy to root for and I wish them the best. Still, you can’t argue with the numbers, and the outfield’s lack of teeth is a big reason why the team has a losing record right now.