Author’s Note: The Flashback articles on here I originally wrote for the website royalsbaseball.net. That website has now become defunct, so I thought I would move them over here to Bleeding Royal Blue. I’d like to thank Joel Matheny for giving me the opportunity to write for his website, even if it was for just a few months. So enjoy, and go Royals!
2012 is a very pivotal year for the Kansas City Royals, especially for those of us that have been following “the process”. This is the year in which we find out whether or not all the time and money that has been put in developing the new crop of Royals will pay off or not. Now, that is not to say Kansas City is playoff bound(although it could be interesting in the lackluster American League Central), but we should know by the end of the season just how close the team is to contending. Predictions have always been that 2012 we would start to see improvement, and be on the brink of contending, with 2013 as the possible arrival date. If all goes as planned, the Royals might be a team just in need of a solid #1 starter, one guy who can dominate every fifth day when he takes the mound. Is that guy Zack Greinke?
Now, I probably just threw out a no-no. How dare I mention Judas! Look, I’m with all of you; if anyone was not happy with Zack’s attitude when he left, it was me. I’m a huge proponent of locker room chemistry and what a solid character guy(like Jeff Franceour) or a cancer(see Guillen, Jose) can do and what it means to a winning team. By the end of his tenure in Kansas City, Greinke had become a cancer in that locker room, a less than solid influence for the younger players to look up to. It showed in his pitching, as he looked uninterested in taking the mound for the Royals. He went from a one of a kind year in 2009, one that very few pitchers ever experience, to a year of mediocrity. As Royals fans, we understand his frustration in the team continuing to lose. Look, I’ve been a fan since 1984, and the last 15 years has taken it’s toll on me. But at the end of the day, I still bleed Royal blue, through and through. Why couldn’t Zack see the future was coming?
The part of the whole deal that killed me is the team stuck with him through his issues and let him come back at his own pace. They didn’t rush him, letting him play in the minors with no pressure and learn what he loved about the game in the first place. So to have him then turn around and want to leave when things were tough really left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. After years of awful pitching, the Royals had a guy they could put up there with Leonard, Splittorff, Saberhagen, Cone and Appier.
Just like that, he was gone. Now, most of us will agree that the return for Zack softened the blow. This year we’ll get to see just how good Lorenzo Cain, and Shortstop Jesus has made the trade of Greinke seem like a great move. Soon, we’ll get to see Jake Odorizzi who has been compared to Greinke in alot of circles. Trading Zack helped make “the process” seem even more plausible. But what if at the end of this year there is still that one piece of the puzzle to acquire?
Every team that yearns to reach the World Series knows they need a good #1 starter if they have any chance of making it deep into the playoffs. Detroit has one in Justin Verlander, a guy who can go out every fifth day and pretty much guarantee his team a ‘W’. That is what the Royals will eventually need if they are serious. As much as we might hope he is Danny Duffy or Mike Montgomery or even Jake Odorizzi, know of those guys will be in a position to fill that slot to start off 2013. Zack Greinke will be a free agent after this season and when his head is on straight, he is a number one guy.
So should the Royals go after the guy who spurned them just one year ago? I think it should at least be looked into. Greinke will never survive in a major market like New York or Boston. Philadelphia would eat him for lunch. His best bet is to stay in a smaller market where the scrutiny won’t be so harsh. He is familiar with Kansas City and already knows what to expect from management. He would have to mend some fences, and prove to some people that he isn’t going to bail out at the next sign of trouble, but it could be done. The Royals should at least invest into the thought of whether or not he could help return them to the playoffs. It might be a smarter move than originally expected.
Bleeding Royal Blue 
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