Share your story idea with Tod<\/u><\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n\u2014<\/i><\/p>\n
New Royals hitting coach Connor Dawson never really displayed big-league talent at the plate as a high school or junior college baseball player.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn’t a remarkable player at all, but he was a very high-IQ guy, if that makes sense,\u201d said Steve Murry, who is in his 40th season as Neosho County\u2019s head baseball coach and coached Dawson at the juco level. \u201cConnor was kind of a coach on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Olathe North baseball coach Matt Smith \u2014 who coached Dawson and was an assistant when his brothers, Tanner and Eric, played for the Eagles \u2014 described him much the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn’t a great hitter, but he concentrated so much on all of it, all aspects of the game and all aspects of hitting,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
He made the Eagles\u2019 varsity squad as a utility player his sophomore season, able to play any position, and settled at shortstop the next two years, but he was a light-hitting prospect at the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis baseball IQ was so high,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe always had an idea of what the coaching staff \u2014 what I \u2014 was thinking. He played so many positions and just kind of understood the game. … He always knew what we needed, whether it’s get a bunt down, move a runner over, hit a sac fly, whatever. He was always a team-first guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s among the ways Dawson did stand out.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always slight of size, so he just wasn’t as physical as other players,\u201d Murry, one of the winningest junior college coaches of all-time, said. \u201cHe was not a bad player by any means, but … the game-day assignment for Connor was literally to keep the charts on the other pitchers \u2014 what they were going to, you know, throw in certain situations \u2014 and he did that with amazing success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within a few innings, Dawson could diagnose an opposing pitcher\u2019s tendencies and relay those to the rest of the dugout.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could tell you by the third inning what this dude was going to throw in a 2-0 count or an 0-1 count or whatever … so he was light years ahead of most people’s thought process when it came to hitting,\u201d Murry said.<\/p>\n
After retiring as a player following his time with the Panthers, Dawson spent time as an academy coach. He worked with St. Thomas Aquinas\u2019 baseball program in Overland Park before serving as pitching and hitting coach for Marshalltown (Iowa) Community College in 2019.<\/p>\n
That led to a job in the Seattle Mariners\u2019 minor league system, where he rose through the ranks before the Milwaukee Brewers poached him<\/u><\/a> for their MLB staff in 2022.<\/p>\nDawson spent the last four years in Milwaukee, which averaged 92 wins during that span and made the playoffs each of the last three seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn’t shock me at all that he’s doing what he’s doing,\u201d Murry said.<\/p>\n
The Brewers ranked 27th among 30 MLB teams with a .233 average and averaged 4.56 runs per game in 2021, the year before Dawson\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee climbed to 22nd (.235) in 2022, remained 23rd (.240) in 2023, jumped to eighth (.248) in 2024 and peaked at third (.258) last season.<\/p>\n
The Brewers, who led MLB with 97 wins last season, finished third in the league, averaging 4.98 runs per game, behind only the New York Yankees (5.24) and the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers (5.09) in 2025.<\/p>\n
The Royals ranked 26th in runs scored last season, averaging 4.02 runs per game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s worked,\u201d Smith said of Dawson\u2019s analytics-driven approach. \u201cYou’ve seen it work in Seattle. You’ve seen it work with the Brewers. Hopefully, it can work with the Royals as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether Dawson is a home-run hire for the Royals, Smith couldn\u2019t help himself: \u201cDefinitely,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cI guess we’ll see you, though. I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014<\/p>\n