Baseball Prospectus co-founder tells Royals fans success is more than playoffs

With the Kansas City Royals teetering on playoff elimination, their focus has shifted to a smaller but meaningful target: finishing at .500. At 78–78 with six games remaining, matching last year’s 86-win total is off the table, but three wins in their final two series against the Angels and Athletics would secure a non-losing record.

For a franchise trying to climb back to relevance, avoiding that losing tag would mark progress. And as Baseball Prospectus co-founder Rany Jazayerli pointed out, even if Kansas City falls short of that symbolic milestone, there’s still reason for solace heading into the offseason.

The 2025 Royals have already done something most of their predecessors failed at.

Every franchise carries its own grading curve, and Kansas City’s is tilted more toward the losing side. The Royals’ all-time record sits at 4,286–4,700, with 33 losing seasons in their history.

They’ve endured more years with 97 or more losses (12) than postseason appearances. There have been shining moments, sure—but outside of those peaks, Kansas City hasn’t built the kind of sustained reputation for competitive baseball that resonates across the league.

Jazayerli’s point, while accurate, underscores just how rough much of Royals history has been. Only 21 Kansas City teams have finished with a winning record, and just five of those have come in this century—three tied to playoff runs.

The consistent winner that fans dream about isn’t easy to build, and even the model franchises go through lulls. The question now is whether 2025 is merely a dip or the start of a longer slide. How the front office approaches the offseason will go a long way in determining that answer.

The Houston Astros or Cleveland Guardians can officially eliminate the Royals with just one more win, and banking on both to drop six straight down the stretch isn’t realistic. What Kansas City can control, though, is how the record book reflects their season.

They head out on their final road trip with a chance to finish strong, already closing their Kauffman slate on a positive note, taking a series from the Toronto Blue Jays and locking in a winning home record.

While the win total in 2025 is a step back from 2024, the positives from this season should not be lost. The overall trend is that of a team rising from their multiple 100-loss seasons to at least being a respectable club, albeit not a contending one.

As exciting as a “playoffs or bust” mentality can be, the reality is that most teams end up on the outside looking in. Royals fans would probably sign up for an 89-win season in a heartbeat, but even that wasn’t enough to get the Arizona Diamondbacks into the postseason last year. In the Wild Card Era, we’ve seen clubs like the 96-win Cincinnati Reds or 93-win Cleveland Guardians miss out entirely. The postseason is the ultimate goal, but it isn’t the only measure of progress or success.