Royals fans have seen their fair share of rebuild movements. Sometimes they pan out, like when they “flipped the switch” in 2011 with Salvador Perez, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar, and Lorenzo Cain, the group that went on to win two pennants and a championship. But more often than not, the youth movement has sputtered, prospects failed, people lost their jobs, and fans lost hope.
The Royals underwent a youth movement in 2018 when the core of their championship team left town, but the rebuild crashed and burned after April of 2022 when the team squandered a hot start and ended with a 97-loss season that cost Dayton Moore his job.