Lessons the front office can learn from this year

The Royals had one of the best off-seasons in baseball last year, improving a 106-loss team enough to make the playoffs and advance to the ALDS. By adding Seth Lugo and Michael Wacah, the Royals featured one of the best rotations in baseball, and although some other acquisitions - Hunter Renfroe, Adam Frazier, Garrett Hampson, Will Smith, Chris Stratton, and Nick Anderson - had mixed results, the result was a much improved ballclub.

Improving a team from being god awful to pretty good is one thing, but this off-season, the front office will have to take the team to the next level - serious contender. They do so with a solid base - an MVP candidate in Bobby Witt Jr., solid hitters like…