A trip down Interstate 70 from St. Louis to Kansas City could be described several ways. In baseball terms, it just might be aptly characterized as looking into a crystal ball.
Just a few hours away, the plans the Cardinals have set in motion this fall are already playing out on a national stage.
Regardless of whether the Kansas City Royals advance past the New York Yankees — they faced an elimination game on Thursday night — their turnaround from 106-loss club to vying for a division title, making the playoffs and winning a wild-card series holds some lessons for baseball followers on this side of the state.
Particularly in an offseason when Cardinals leadership has declared an intention to focus resources toward upgrading the team’s player development system, it should not go unnoticed that the Royals took the field Wednesday night in front of a packed home crowd at Kauffman Stadium with a lineup that included seven homegrown players.
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That group includes one holdover from their most recent World Series run in 2015, .
The recent admission of Cardinals Chairman and CEO Bill DeWitt Jr. may not have echoed in your ears when the Royals advanced to the American League Division Series, but they should have.
“We’ve always prided ourselves on drafting and developing our own players,” DeWitt said during the club’s end-of-season news conference. “It’s clear that we need to make significant changes to get back to this model.”
The Royals had winning seasons from 2013-16 and built a two-year thrill ride that included back-to-back pennants in 2014 and 2015 and a World Series championship in 2015 on a foundation of one of the best farm systems ever assembled.
By the way, that farm system praise was based on Baseball America’s assessment at the time, not just hyperbole to underscore my point.
The Royals had the top farm system in baseball in 2011. In fact, they became the first organization ever to place nine players among the top 100 of Baseball America’s top prospects rankings, five among the top 20. Back then, .
That Royals 2011 farm system ranked as the best in Baseball America’s history, having beat out systems like the Atlanta Braves in the early 1990s and the Tampa Bay Rays in 2010.
Not only did that farm system produce stars and key pieces of their success like Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Danny Duffy, Yordano Ventura, Kelvin Herrera, Christian Colon and Perez, but it also produced vital trade chips that helped bolster that roster into a championship contender.
A few years later — and this is the part that should resonate with Cardinals followers — the Royals concluded they needed to restructure and revamp their entire player development system.
The results of that new approach to player development have been on display this season.
Take for example AL MVP contender and , the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 MLB draft. Yes, the same one who turned in 32 home runs and 31 stolen bases to go along with an AL batting title (.332).
The revamp began just as Witt began his professional career in the minors.
Of course, Witt is a singular talent — perhaps 1 of 1 — and you could make the case his ability was bound to flourish regardless of the farm system changes.
Well, others who were in the farm system when the Royals changed their player development strategy include starting first baseman/designated hitter Vinnie Pasquantino, starting second baseman Michael Massey, starting third baseman Maikel Garcia, starting center fielder Kyle Isbel and starting left fielder MJ Melendez.
The Royals made sweeping changes to their player development structure following the 2019 season. That included a holistic approach and an emphasis on individualized player development plans.
New coaches and coordinators were hired. They made changes to their internal system to better communicate and share reports across departments to assure none operated in isolation.
Performance science, strength and conditioning, analytics, the minor league coaching staff and the front office were all in the same loop. Everything from offseason training videos, in-depth analytical data and metrics to pregame preparation to injury and rehab concerns were centralized.
The fall of 2019 served as the initial rollout, and the alternate training site during the pandemic served as the next phase. It went into full effect when the minors resumed play in 2021.
The next season, Witt broke camp with the big club, and later that year, Garcia, Massey, Melendez, Pasquantino and backup catcher Freddy Fermin each made debuts.
Does this mean Cardinals should expect immediate return on the investment they’re making in minor leagues this winter? No. Baseball rarely works that way.
If you’re a Cardinals fan, perhaps it means more quickly identifying and setting in motion the swing changes speedster Victor Scott II made late this season.
Maybe it means a different approach to facilitate the adjustments highly regarded slugger Jordan Walker has been working through at the plate.
It could mean earlier implementation of a plan to clean up some of catcher Ivan Herrera’s shortcomings behind the plate.
None of this is to say the Royals’ changes turned them into a player development factory.
They haven’t hit on 100% of their young players, and they augmented those homegrown players both on the position player side and the pitching side with additions via trade and free agency. Veteran voices, several with ties to the Cardinals were brought into the fold (see Michael Wacha, Paul DeJong and Tommy Pham).
But keep an eye on the progress of those I-70 rivals. It should make you see some possibilities.