Royals fire president of baseball ops Dayton Moore amid 6th straight losing season
Winning a World Series will give you plenty of leeway, but it was no longer enough for Kansas City Royals president of baseball operations Dayton Moore to keep his job.
The Royals have fired their longtime front office leader amid a sixth straight losing season, and seven years after they hoisted the Commissioner's Trophy, Royals owner John Sherman announced Wednesday:
“Dayton’s 16 years of leadership here will always mark the transformation into a World Championship club,” Sherman said in a statement. “Our fans, our region and our community will never forget the excitement we shared in back-to-back pennants and the World Series championship in 2015. He always put the Kansas City Royals first, and we’re stronger today because of it.”
The Royals will seemingly not be going for a full overhaul. General manager John Picollo, a longtime Moore assistant, will take over the baseball decision-making for the Royals, Sherman said. Per MLB.com's Anne Rogers, Moore and Piccolo's experience together goes back to their time as scouts for the Atlanta Braves and players at George Mason University.
Dayton Moore's Royals tenure saw an incredible high and plenty of lows
Had it not been for the 2014 and 2015 seasons, the only question about Moore's firing would be why it hadn't happened sooner.
Moore ascended to general manager in 2006. Since then, Kansas City has posted a losing record in all but three seasons. Overall, his teams have posted a 1,126-1,350 record.
That languishing was interrupted starting in 2013, when the team posted its first winning record since 1994. The good times continued into 2014, when the Royals reached their first World Series since their 1985 title, only to lose to the San Francisco Giants, and 2015, when the team finally won a championship over the New York Mets.
Long maligned by some as an old-school, stats-eschewing general manager, Moore's success was a win for the anti-Moneyball crowd, but it did not last. One year later, the team fell back to .500, and they haven't posted a winning record since.
While it was generally accepted the team was going through a rebuilding cycle, the team saw no more success this year when its prospects finally started to reach the majors. Moore had received a vote of confidence this time last year when Sherman promoted him to president of baseball ops, but all that did was give the team a ready succession plan with Picollo, who was promoted into Moore's old spot.
