Royals clinch playoff berth as AL Wild Card team

ATLANTA — The Royals don’t like talking about last year. This entire season, they’ve insisted that they don’t think about 2023. All that matters, manager Matt Quatraro says, is today.

But on the night they clinched their first postseason berth since 2015 with the Twins’ loss to the Orioles on Friday night, the 2023 season was brought up many times.

And just how far the Royals have come from it.

“This is the moment to take it in,” Vinnie Pasquantino said. “We were really bad last year. This year, we’re really good. And you get kind of emotional thinking about it. I’m super excited to be in this locker room right now. We’re happy to be here. And we’re not satisfied.”

Nine years after the Royals won it all and brought Kansas City its second World Series title in franchise history, the Royals are back in the postseason. They’ll play in the Wild Card Series next week in either Baltimore or Houston, with seeding still to be determined over the final two days of the regular season.

In 2024, they became just the third team since the start of the expansion era (‘61) to advance to the postseason after losing at least 100 games the previous year, along with the 2017 Twins and 2020 Marlins — but the first to lose 106+ and make it.

“To get to where we were from where we are, there’s so many people involved,” general manager J.J. Picollo, the architect of the turnaround, said. “So many people played a part in this. To see it all happen is kind of surreal. We felt like it was going to happen. But until it did, you just didn’t know.”

It finally happened on Friday, despite having to wait for the Twins to lose to the Orioles after the Royals dropped their series opener to the Braves at Truist Park. But that didn’t matter much when champagne was spraying and beers were flowing and Bobby Witt Jr. had two empty beer cans strapped to his head with a cigar hanging out of his mouth with a goofy smile only a 24-year-old baseball-loving superstar can wear.

“This is what I dreamed of as a kid,” Witt said. “I saw the pictures. I bought the shirts. Now I’m in the pictures. And I have the shirt.

“It’s amazing what the front office and coaching staff did. And this team. I’m forever thankful. I’m glad to be here.”

All of this the result of an aggressive offseason planned and executed by a front office hell-bent on avoiding another 106-loss disaster like 2023, bringing in veteran players to help the Royals take a step forward while the young core set the foundation for a winner.

“It’s an incredible accomplishment,” Royals chairman/CEO John Sherman said. “And I’m happy for them. Look how happy they are. They deserve this moment.”

The Royals reinvented themselves in more ways than one in 2024. First with ownership’s commitment to invest in the talent on the field like never before and the front office’s execution of a roster remake that included $110 million in free agency and a mega-extension for Witt, keeping a generational talent in small-market Kansas City long term.

And then on the field with one of the best rotations in baseball, headlined by Cole Ragans’ emergence as a young ace and Seth Lugo proving he — and his nine-plus pitches — are sticking as a veteran starter.

With the establishment of Witt as one of the game’s all-around superstars and his MVP-caliber season.

With the continued, remarkable production and leadership from Salvador Perez, who finally got his team back to the postseason nine years after being named the 2015 World Series MVP.

And the production of Pasquantino sandwiched in between them, the Royals’ most important run producer until he broke his right thumb on a defensive play in Houston on Aug. 29. Following the the biggest blow to the season, given what Pasquantino means to the lineup and the clubhouse, the Royals continued to add to their roster with veteran waiver claims but still encountered two separate seven-game losing streaks in the last month.

They lost a six-game lead in the standings but still held on, buoyed by a sweep of the Nationals this week — and helped some by the Twins’ collapse.

“It’s not a linear path any time you’re chasing something like this,” second baseman Michael Massey said. “There’s ups and downs. Adversity. We’ve been through our fair share. We don’t celebrate like this if it’s easy.”

All of that only one year after they won just 56 games as the second-worst team in baseball. The Royals surpassed their entire win total from 2023 with win No. 57 on July 26 at Kauffman Stadium. With it, a plea followed from Quatraro and some players:

Can we stop talking about last year?

“Respectfully, all of you guys can shut up now,” Pasquantino said then, looking around the media scrum. “Which is exciting. I’m sure it’s exciting for you guys, too. The book, it’s closed.”

On Friday, a new story was written.

“Where the Royals were last year and what happened, I think everybody came to Spring Training expecting nothing was going to carry over from previous years,” Lugo said. “This is just a product of all the dedication from every player wanting to win. Days like this, you cherish.”

Quatraro’s focus — his insistence, really — on “today” has trickled down to every facet of the team. Players have embraced it and lived it. It was never more present than in the clubhouse Friday night with eyes burning and shirts wet from the celebration.