Royals Hit Rock Bottom in Pair of Recent MLB Power Rankings
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The 2022 MLB season is past the quarter mark, and most teams are what they are in regards to the contender or pretender conversation. Sure, hot stretches and cold spells can occur, but the majority of the league has a decent clue of whether this is a year that will end in either a push for the postseason or positioning for a good draft pick in 2023.
Unfortunately for the Kansas City Royals, their fate was all but decided before the month of May had even fully run its course. The club has bottomed out in 2022 despite coming into the season with the expectation of being competitive. Many facets of the team need improvement, and national media outlets aren't cutting Kansas City any slack whatsoever.
Apr 12, 2022; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals manager Mike Matheny (22) looks on from the dugout before a game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
MLB power rankings aren't the be-all and end-all of baseball hierarchies, but they give a pretty sound indication of where teams are at. The Royals recently checked in at the very last spot — No. 30 — in lists from both Bleacher Report and CBS Sports. Here's what B/R, which had the Royals 27th in the previous week, has to say:
The Royals snapped a six-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday, and they split the four-game set with the American League Central leaders, but that was not enough to keep them from sliding to the bottom. Expect Andrew Benintendi, Scott Barlow, Josh Staumont to be mentioned frequently in trade rumors in the coming months.
And, secondly, CBS' MLB site. The Royals were 27th in last week's rankings here as well:
Maybe I forced the Reds out of the 30 spot a week early last time around, but this time it's fully earned by the Royals. Since starting the season 5-5, the Royals have played at a 162-game pace of 50 wins. They are pitiful.
May 16, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez (13) blows a bubble in the dugout during the second inning against the Chicago White Sox at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports
Entering Tuesday's play, the Royals are tied with the Cincinnati Reds at 16-31 for the worst record in all of baseball. They trail only the Pittsburgh Pirates (20-27) in run differential. They're 2-8 in their last 10 games, with nearly identical records at home and on the road this season. Kansas City is a bottom-five team in runs scored and also a bottom-five one in runs allowed.
Not much is going right for the Royals. Now multiple months into the season, it would take a miracle for the team to finish with an even .500 record (or even get within a few games of it). The 2022 campaign is going down the drain, and that wasn't supposed to be the case. As such, the world is taking notice of this underperformance relative to not only prior expectations, but also the rest of baseball.
