Kansas City Royals by Marc Normandin

They’ll have Yordano Ventura to play for, and I want that to be enough. In a just world, that would push them well above third place, where they're likely to finish. The rotation is still quality, somehow, even if there aren’t a lot of exciting names with upside behind Danny Duffy. We saw how a team with a dominant bullpen can make up for a lot of sins with last year’s Orioles and Indians, and, well, the Royals before that. It’s silly to write them off completely.

Here, however, is last year’s adjusted OPS for every projected player in the starting lineup, where 100 is the league average, and under means the hitter was below league average:

70
108
98
101
89
84
105
105
90

It doesn’t matter which names are attached to which players. I can make arguments for players like Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain, who have been better than their 2016 season suggests. Mike Moustakas coming back is a positive, and as a Giants observer, I’m curio-jealous about the Jorge Soler acquisition, which was a fantastic way to fill a hole and plan for the future at the same time.

Where are the runs going to come from, though? We’re almost three years removed from the slap-and-swipe revolution that helped make the Royals a force, which means everyone’s legs are almost three years older. They’ll need some help from a rotation that is remarkably boring and ill-equipped to overcome deficiencies on other parts of the roster. This is a rotation that would work if those other parts of the roster were clear strengths.

Again, they shouldn’t have to feel like that. This should be a discussion about how Ventura is ready to put it all together and dominate. There’s no way around that, and I hope the Royals kick this prediction right in the butt.