Kansas City floated with baseball’s worst record all season long in 2023, but a post-All Star break rally helped the Royals avoid MLB’s wooden spoon. Instead, a former Kansas City club, the Oakland Athletics, took the MLB’s worst record of 50-112.

Even with deflated expectations under new management, the Royals flunked the season and will be put in the club record books for one bad reason: tying the franchise’s worst-ever win-loss record. The 2023 Royals tied the historically bad 2005 Royals team that ended the year 56-106.

The team started the year with a 26-65 record, on track to smash the franchise’s worst-ever record, before rebounding for a respectable record in the second half of the season. The Royals finished MLB’s worst division 31 games back from the division-winning Minnesota Twins and 33 games back from a Wild Card spot. The Royals were not anything close to a competitive team for the majority of 2023.

A glorious return to playoff baseball

The Good News

The Royals were far from the worst team in MLB history. The 2003 Detroit Tigers had the worst record in recent history after concluding the year 43-119 with a .265 winning percentage. The worst record within the last century was the 1935 Boston Braves who went 38-115 for a .248 winning percentage. In the modern era (1901-present), the worst record recorded is the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics when they went 36-117 for a winning percentage of .235. The all-time worst record in MLB history, from 1886 until present, came in 1899 when the Cleveland Spiders went 20-134 with a winning percentage of .130.

There were some good takeaways from 2023 for the Royals. The Royals fought hard in the second half of the season to win 30 of their final 71 games. That is a winning percentage of 42.3%, much improved from winning 29% winning percentage before the All-Star Game. Plus the Royals did it with a weak bullpen after offloading several of their star relievers without any noteworthy acquisitions. They proved that they do have some talent despite their inexperience.

The most memorable takeaway is Bobby Witt Jr. The shortstop became the first Royal ever to join MLB’s 30-30 club. Witt hit 30 home runs and stole 49 bases in just his second big league season. The 23-year-old is now among an elite list that includes players who have recorded a minimum of 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in a single season that includes Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Mike Trout.

Bobby Witt Jr. is one of five players in Major League history to record a combination of 30 homers and 49 steals in a season, joining Eric Davis (1987), Barry Bonds (1990), Mike Trout (2012), and Ronald Acuña Jr. (2023).

He's the seventh player to record a 30/30 season in his… pic.twitter.com/PKPxpfht5l

— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) September 30, 2023

Royals manager Matt Quaretaro’s first season was not anything to admire, but it does instill a little bit of hope for the future. The Royals were unpredictable but discovered some success later in the season.

With more development and some offseason acquisitions, the future of the Royals can only be brighter.

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