After the Kansas City Royals swept the Baltimore Orioles in two games in the Wild Card round, they earned themselves a matchup against the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series. Even though the Yankees are the No. 1 seed with the best regular season record in the AL, the Royals will still present a significant challenge.
Ahead of the ALDS, Yankees manager Aaron Boone broke down what the Royals' biggest strengths are in an appearance on his brother Bret Boone's podcast on Thursday.
“They can pitch, Ragans is real, Lugo is real, Wacha, who we faced a lot, who’s had a lot of success against us in different uniforms over the years, he’s real. Singer is real,” Boone said. “Their bullpen, which on balance over the course of the year has been kind of middle of the pack, has really down the stretch pitched really well. Obviously Erceg now being there anchoring the back end of that bullpen. We saw that bullpen against Baltimore.”
“They’ve got one of the games great young players in Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvy and his experience. Getting Pasquantino back, who when he went down it really changed there team there for a while,” Boone continued. “They’re pretty athletic, they’re going to run. They’re a well balanced team and they’re going to hand the ball to a real starter every game against us.”
With momentum on their side, an elite starting rotation and one of the best players in baseball in Witt Jr., Boone and the Yankees will have their hands full with a talented Royals side.
How the Kansas City Royals made it to the ALDS to face the New York Yankees
Not many expected the Royals to make it to the postseason. However, despite finishing the 2023 regular season with a 56-106 record, the Royals' front office got to work in the offseason.
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The Royals signed key contributors like starting pitchers Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, outfielder Hunter Renfroe and utilityman Adam Frazier. They also made a number of trades to bolster the bullpen, making a deal during the offseason with the Boston Red Sox for John Schrieber and acquiring Lucas Erceg, from the Oakland Athletics at the trade deadline, who has become one of the best closers in baseball.
Despite their busy offseason, the biggest reason the Royals were able to turn things around so quickly is because of Witt Jr. Their star 24-year-old shortstop had a great season last year, but has established himself as a top-three player in baseball alongside Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. Witt Jr. led the Major Leagues with a .332 batting average and 211 hits along with hitting 32 home runs, stealing 31 bases and playing Gold Glove-caliber defense at shortstop.
While the Yankees are certainly great, and have one of the best offensive duos of all time with Judge and Juan Soto, the Royals are impressive in their own right. Boone is absolutely correct to give them credit and acknowledge the accomplishments of his ALDS opponent.
