The Turnaround Season of the 2024 Royals Has Come to a Close

The Royals’ starting staff, outside of ace Cole Ragans, did not look like they did in the regular season.

Seth Lugo was one of 10 qualified MLB starters to post an ERA of 3.00 or lower in 2024, positioning himself to have a legitimate case to be a finalist for the AL Cy Young Award this year.

But after a 4.1-inning start in the Wild Card series versus Baltimore that bore mixed results, he was ultimately not the Lugo we came to know in 2024 in Game 3 of the ALDS.

In five innings of work, despite only surrendering two hits, Lugo issued as many walks as he had in all of his September starts combined (4) while surrendering two earned runs in a 3-2 loss.

And after Michael Wacha posted an impressive 3.35 ERA in his age-33 campaign, he wasn’t nearly the same guy we saw throughout the regular season in his two ALDS starts.

Game 1 saw Wacha go just four innings while surrendering three earned runs on four hits and three walks in a 6-5 loss.

And in the series-deciding game, Wacha went 4.2 innings and was on the hook for two earned runs on six hits and one walk.

This team lived and died by their ace in Ragans. Having just one starter from your postseason rotation perform well is definitely not a recipe for success or longevity in October.

The Bullpen

After a final month of the regular season that saw the Royals ‘pen sit fourth in ERA (2.77), WHIP (1.02) and AVG against (.196), there was reason to have high hopes in the new Lucas Erceg-led bullpen heading into October.

And after they threw 7.2 innings of shutout ball in their Wild Card series sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, the bullpen looked to continue to play a key role in quieting the Yankees’ bats in the ALDS.

But the bullpen was a shell of its recent self once the series kicked off.

In 17.1 innings of work across four games, the Royals’ relief corps surrendered six earned runs on 13 hits and 14 walks.

The Offense

At the end of the day the Royals offense was the most glaring issue in their ALDS defeat.

After a Wild Card series where they managed to pull off a sweep despite only scoring three runs in two games, the Royals looked to have gotten themselves back on the right track in the run-scoring department, scoring nine runs across the first two games of the series in the Bronx.

But after heading home, their offensive showing in the Bronx proved to be just a facade. They posted yet another two-game stretch of scoring just three combined runs in their back-to-back losses in Games 3 and 4.

The writing, though, might have been on the wall for the Royals offense after they limped their way into October.

From Aug. 28 to the end of the season, the Royals went 11-18. And in that 29-game span, 18 of those games saw them score three runs or fewer.

As a team, they ranked last in MLB in wRC+ (59), AVG (.200), OBP (.268) and SLG (.303) during that 29-game span to close the season, according to FanGraphs.

In terms of the ALDS in particular, what wasn’t as expected was the silence of the two main bats in the Royals’ lineup: Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino.

After a year that put him in the AL MVP conversation with a .332 AVG, a .977 OPS, 32 HR and 109 RBI, followed by a Wild Card series that saw him drive home two of the Royals’ three runs, Witt was virtually nowhere to be found in the ALDS.

He started the series by going 0-for-10 with four strikeouts in New York, before finally getting on base in the fifth inning of Game 3 via a walk and then registering his first hit in the series in the eighth inning.

And despite recording another hit in Game 4, Witt only managed to go 2-for-17 in the series.

Despite missing time with injury late in the season, Pasquantino still had a very productive year, hitting .262 while driving in 97 runs in just 131 games.

And even though he did what Witt couldn’t do in the series, drive in a run, he ended the series going 1-for-16, registering his first and only hit in the sixth inning of Game 4.

It’s a tall task to ask any lineup to pull off a series win when their two main sources of offense go a combined 3-for-33 with just one RBI, one run scored and two walks, while punching out 12 times.

2024 Was Still a Year To Remember for the Royals

The ultimate goal for any postseason team is winning a World Series, so anything short of that is undeniably disappointing.

Yet, while it may sting now, once the dust settles it will become undoubtedly apparent that the 2024 season was nothing if not an overall wild success for the Royals.

In their 30-win turnaround from 2023 to 2024, the Royals discovered new life in their offense led by their MVP-caliber shortstop, Witt, alongside Pasquantino and a longtime veteran backstop who showed no signs of slowing down, Salvador Perez.

And the postseason revealed key pieces in the lineup to lean on even further in 2025, like Michael Massey and Maikel Garcia.

Their starting rotation was one of the best in baseball in 2024, finishing second in MLB in fWAR, and featured four starters who posted sub-4.00 ERAs in Ragans, Lugo, Wacha and Brady Singer.

And there’s no doubting the acquisition of Lucas Erceg at the deadline revitalized Kansas City’s bullpen for the future. The return of fellow trade deadline acquisition Hunter Harvey for 2025 will only stand to improve the ‘pen that much more.

So while it may be sad now, Royals fans have a lot to be excited about moving forward. In less than five months, this team will be back to start their quest to right the wrongs of 2024 and go for it again in a brand new season. And if this Royals’ season taught us anything, it’s that anything is possible.