Royals Honor Retiring 2015 World Series Champ, Fan-Favorite With One-Day Contract
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The 2015 season was a special one for the Kansas City Royals, and plenty of the members of that team will go down in franchise history forever.
The core of that team was made up of homegrown young talent, and those players played key roles in the eventual World Series title. Salvador Perez is building a national Hall of Fame case, while Eric Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain appear destined to go into the Royals' Hall of Fame someday.
Then, there's third baseman Mike Moustakas, who the Royals took with the second-overall selection in the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft.
After a 13-year career that included three All-Star selections, two as a member of the Royals, the former Kansas City fan-favorite is officially calling it a career at age 36. He last appeared in the majors in 2023 with the Los Angeles Angels.
On Monday, the Royals announced that they would honor Moustakas, who played parts of eight seasons in Kansas City, with a one-day contract and pregame ceremony before their matchup with the Detroit Tigers at Kauffman Stadium on May 31.
During his time with the Royals, Moustakas slashed .251/.306/.430 with 139 home runs, 441 RBI, and 595 runs scored. His 38 home runs in 2017 marked a new single-season franchise record, only to be outdone by Jorge Soler's 48 two years later.
Moustakas was then traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in 2018, where he was part of two postseason runs and made his final All-Star appearance in 2019.
Though Moustakas won't go down as one of the all-time greats in the game of baseball, he'll always have a special place in Royals fans' hearts. And on May 31, those fans will have one final chance to express their love for the former Kansas City slugger.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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