Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2015 Royals land in this spot?
The Royals have a reputation as lucking their way into a championship with seeing-eye singles, but that’s not fair. They won 95 games because they were a really good baseball team.
The offense didn’t stand out, but .269/.322/.412 in a league batting .254/.317/.405 isn’t nothing, especially considering that they had a top-five pitching staff in no small part thanks to the defense of the hitters that put up that line. Lorenzo Cain was a vacuum out in center, and Salvador Perez’s reputation behind the plate was already deserved. Alcides Escobar, Jarrod Dyson and Omar Infante weren’t lighting up the scoreboard, but they made up for that deficiency with their defense. Kendrys Morales mashed plenty at DH, and players like Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer did well on both sides of the ball, like Cain, with Hosmer even winning a Gold Glove.
All of this powered a pitching staff led by an impossible bullpen, the kind that helped influence the ones you see in the modern game. Wade Davis was the best reliever on the team and its most valuable pitcher, despite being a setup man. In 67.1 innings, he posted a 0.94 ERA, making him the only pitcher on the staff to receive any Cy Young votes, as well as the only pitcher out of five Royals players to pick up any MVP votes. Kelvin Herrera and Ryan Madson weren’t Wade Davis-level good, but no one was: they were excellent in a vacuum. On top of that core, there was the actual closer, Greg Holland (3.83 ERA), as well as Franklin Morales (3.18 ERA) and former starter Luke Hochevar. The pen had enough going for it that the Royals could deal Brandon Finnegan and his 2.96 ERA at the deadline for upgrades elsewhere without skipping a beat.
And it wasn’t just the bullpen: Edinson Volquez had the second-best season of his career, while Yordano Ventura and Danny Duffy managed to be above-average, and the oft-injured Chris Young shined in the starts he was able to make. Jeremy Guthrie was rough in the regular season but a non-factor in the playoffs, a little bit of addition by subtraction. Johnny Cueto was added at the trade deadline, and while he wasn’t the ace that the Royals were hoping for, he was still an improvement over the likes of Guthrie.
This was a deep pitching staff that upgraded its weakest part, supported by a high-quality defense and a lineup that was going to be more productive than not. This was a better team than the 2014 edition, which also made it to the World Series — there was no fluke here, just a good plan seen through to the end. There were seeing-eye singles, sure, but hit by the kind of batters who were brought in for that sort of thing. They won the ALCS handily against the Blue Jays in six games before taking out the Mets in five in the World Series.
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