Royals make playoffs a year after 106-loss season
ATLANTA — The Kansas City Royals completed one of the most remarkable turnarounds in major league history Friday night, clinching an American League wild card despite a 3-0 loss to the Atlanta Braves.
A year ago, the Royals matched a franchise record with 106 losses. Now, they are headed to the postseason for the first time since winning the 2015 World Series.
“We’re just so proud of everyone,” said shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., the face of the revitalized franchise. “This is just the beginning of something special.”
The celebration was delayed by a masterful performance from Atlanta pitcher Max Fried. But the Royals finally popped the champagne corks in the visitors’ clubhouse at Truist Park when the Minnesota Twins were eliminated with a 7-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
“This isn’t how we ideally wanted it,” Witt said. “But we’re here. We did it. We’re so proud of each other. We can’t let one game control our season.”
Led by second-year manager Matt Quatraro, Kansas City is the first team in baseball history to make the playoffs after posting such a dismal mark the previous season.
In fact, since the start of the expansion era in 1961, the Royals are just the third team to advance to the postseason after losing at least 100 games the previous year.
The Twins earned a wild card in 2017 after going 59-103 a year earlier, and the 2020 Florida Marlins qualified for a wild card during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign coming off a 57-105 debacle.
The Royals quickly fell on hard times after claiming back-to-back AL pennants in 2014 and 2015 and their first World Series title in 30 years. They had not recorded a winning season since their championship run, losing at least 100 games in three of the past six, and were a laughingstock just a year ago.
That all changed this season with a team led by Witt, who became the first shortstop in major league history with multiple seasons of at least 30 homers and 30 steals.
“You can’t help but be proud,” general manager J.J. Picollo said. “It was a battle all year long. We overcame a lot of odds.”
The Royals have struggled down the stretch, enduring a pair of seven-game losing streaks.
It didn’t stop them in the end.
“We had some adversity here the last month of the season,” Picollo said. “But this is a tough, resilient group and we got through and here we are celebrating this moment.”
Witt tops the majors with 210 hits and a .332 batting average, to go along with 32 homers, 109 RBIs and 31 stolen bases.
Veteran catcher Salvador Perez also is having a huge offensive season with 27 homers and 104 RBIs. The Royals made the playoffs even after losing first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, who had 97 RBIs before breaking his right thumb and undergoing surgery.
There is a chance Pasquantino could return during the playoffs if the Royals make an extended run.
Amazingly, Picollo didn’t have to break the bank to build a small-market winner.
The players who have led Kansas City to heights not seen in nearly a decade were either on the team last year and just needed a little more time to grow or were free agent signings and trade acquisitions who underscored Picollo’s baseball savvy.
Just check out the rotation.
Seth Lugo, who is 16-9 with a 3.03 ERA, signed a modest three-year, $45 million free agent deal. Michael Wacha signed a similar two-year, $32 million deal and is 13-8 with a 3.35 ERA.
Cole Ragans has contributed 11 wins with 223 strikeouts after being acquired from the Texas Rangers in a trade last season. Brady Singer bounced back from a disappointing 2023, and Michael Lorenzen is 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA in six starts since his arrival just before the trade deadline.
The bullpen has been entirely rebuilt, too, with Lucas Erceg earning 11 saves since the Royals landed him in a trade with Milwaukee.
Owner John Sherman said he was thrilled that the fans of Kansas City have a winning team to cheer for again.
“I remember we talked about this a lot, maybe in spring training, that all we want to do is play meaningful baseball in August and September and have a chance to play in October,” Sherman said. “Here we are.”
Nobody seems to be having more fun than Witt, who has put together a historic season after signing an 11-year deal worth $288.7 million to serve as the cornerstone of the franchise.
“I remember we talked about this a lot, maybe in spring training, that all we want to do is play meaningful baseball in August and September and have a chance to play in October. Here we are.”
Royals owner John Sherman
The son of longtime big league pitcher Bobby Witt is the first player in major league history with multiple 30-30 seasons in his first three years in the majors. Advanced metrics grade him as not only one of baseball’s best defenders but also one of its fastest players.
“He’s the best player in baseball,” Ragans said recently. “A special talent, a special human being.”
While fans in Kansas City have seen Witt’s stardom blossoming for several seasons, his coming-out party might have come this summer during the Home Run Derby at Globe Life Field in Arlington, not far from where he grew up in Colleyville, Texas.
Witt reached the finals before losing 14-13 to Teoscar Hernandez of the Dodgers in a dramatic showdown that came down to the final swings.
Now, Witt can look forward to an even bigger stage.
The postseason.
Penn State quarterback Drew Allar is set to play in Saturday’s key Big Ten matchup against No. 4 Ohio State.
Allar missed the second half of last week’s win over Wisconsin after suffering a left knee injury, but he was not listed on the injury report for the No. 3 Nittany Lions on Saturday morning.
Penn State coach James Franklin said earlier this week that Allar could be a game-time decision and that backup Beau Pribula would take snaps with Allar in practice.
Allar ranks 10th nationally with a QBR of 83.6. He has completed 71.3% of his passes for 1,640 yards and totaled 15 touchdowns with four interceptions.
Penn State starting defensive lineman Dani Dennis-Sutton will be a game-time decision, a source told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Dennis-Sutton, who is listed as questionable, is expected to warm up and try to play.
Information from ESPN’s Jake Trotter was used in this report.
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Chris Low, ESPN Senior Writer
WEST POINT, N.Y. — Army star quarterback Bryson Daily will miss Saturday’s game against Air Force with an undisclosed injury/illness, Army officials told ESPN.
Daily leads the country with 19 rushing touchdowns and leads all FBS quarterbacks with 909 rushing yards. He was unable to practice this week. The No. 21 Black Knights had a bye last weekend after beating East Carolina 45-28 on Oct. 19 to win their seventh straight game this season.
In the win over ECU, Daily carried the ball 31 times for a career-high 171 yards and accounted for six touchdowns, five rushing and one passing. The 6-foot, 221-pound senior has already set Army single-season records for touchdowns responsible for (26) and rushing touchdowns (19) in seven games.
With Daily sidelined, junior Dewayne Coleman will fill in at quarterback and make his first career start. Daily, one of four team captains, has been Army’s starting quarterback over the past two seasons and the main cog in a Black Knights offense that has eclipsed 400 yards of total offense in all seven games this season.
Army (7-0, 6-0) travels to North Texas next week for an AAC contest. They get a bye week on Nov. 16 and then face Notre Dame on Nov. 23 at Yankee Stadium.
There’s no timetable at this point on how long Daily might be out of the lineup, but Army officials don’t think it’s a season-ending setback.
Army, off to its best start in nearly 30 years, will be one of the top contenders for the Group of 5’s spot in the College Football Playoff if the Black Knights can win the American Athletic Conference championship.
The 2024 World Series ended with the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the championship in a stunning comeback in Game 5, with Walker Buehler the unlikely pitcher to close out the 7-6 win over the New York Yankees. First baseman Freddie Freeman was handed the World Series MVP award for his record-tying 12-RBI performance.
But that doesn’t tell the full story of everyone who played a starring role in October — a postseason that featured a record six grand slams, among other wildness. So, to honor the best of the entire postseason, we’ve created our first MLB All-October Team.
From wild-card-round sensations to World Series standouts, here are the players our ESPN MLB panel of experts voted as the best of the best at every position along with some award hardware for the brightest stars of October.
2024 All-October Team
Catcher: Kyle Higashioka, San Diego Padres
Why he’s here: To be honest, it wasn’t a great playoffs for catchers — they hit just .184/.254/.310. Higashioka is the one catcher who did hit, belting three home runs and driving in five runs in the seven games the Padres played.
Honorable mention: Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers
1B: Freddie Freeman, Los Angeles Dodgers
Why he’s here: Freeman didn’t have an extra-base hit and drove in just one run in the first two rounds of the playoffs as he tried to play through the severely sprained ankle he suffered at the end of the regular season. He didn’t even play in two games of the NLCS and required hours of physical therapy before each game just to get on the field. But the five days off before the World Series clearly helped, and he homered in the first four games, including his dramatic walk-off grand slam in Game 1 that will go down as not only the signature World Series moment of 2024 — but a World Series moment for the ages.
Honorable mention: Pete Alonso, New York Mets
2B: Gleyber Torres, New York Yankees
Why he’s here: Torres had a solid October as he heads into free agency, although he had little competition here. Indeed, second basemen collectively hit just .219 with three home runs the entire playoffs — two of those from Torres — and drove in 24 runs, with Torres driving in eight himself. He had three multihit games and scored five runs in five games in the ALCS, while also taking walks to help set the table for Juan Soto.
Honorable mention: Brice Turang, Milwaukee Brewers
3B: Mark Vientos, New York Mets
Why he’s here: Max Muncy set a record when he reached base 17 times in the NLCS, including a single-postseason-record 12 times in a row, but he went hitless in the World Series. Vientos, meanwhile, had a stellar first trip to the postseason, hitting .327/.362/.636 with five home runs and 14 RBIs in 13 games. That followed a breakout regular season in which he posted an .837 OPS with 27 home runs in just 111 games. He looks like he’ll be a fixture in the middle of the Mets’ lineup for years to come.
Honorable mention: Muncy, Los Angeles Dodgers
SS: Tommy Edman, Los Angeles Dodgers
Why he’s here: Edman was an under-the-radar pickup at the trade deadline, in part because he was still injured and hadn’t yet played for the St. Louis Cardinals. Most of Edman’s starts came at shortstop, especially after Miguel Rojas was injured in the NLDS, but his bat got him here. Edman was the NLCS MVP after hitting .407 with a record-tying 11 RBIs in the series. He had started at cleanup just twice in his career but was slotted there twice against the Mets, driving in seven runs in those two games. Then he went 2-for-4 in each of the first two games of the World Series, including a home run in Game 2, and finished the Fall Classic hitting .294/.400/.588 with six runs.
Honorable mention: Francisco Lindor, New York Mets
OF: Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers
OF: Juan Soto, New York Yankees
OF: Enrique Hernandez, Los Angeles Dodgers
Why they’re here: Betts entered this postseason in a 3-for-38 postseason slump going back to the end of the 2021 NLCS — and it initially looked like it would be more of the same when he went 0-for-6 the first two games of the NLDS, including being robbed of a home run courtesy of Jurickson Profar. Everything turned in Game 3 when Profar almost robbed him of another home run — but didn’t. After that, Betts was in the middle of most of the Dodgers’ big rallies, hitting .321/.394/.625 with four home runs and 16 RBIs over the Dodgers’ final 14 playoff games.
Soto’s at-bats spoke for themselves: He never seemed to have a bad one. His big at-bat was the three-run home run in the 10th inning of Game 5 of the ALCS to send the Yankees to the World Series. Getting intentionally walked twice while batting in front of Aaron Judge speaks to Judge’s struggles, yes — but also to how locked in Soto was all postseason. He finished the postseason slashing .327/.469/.633 with 4 home runs, 9 RBIs and 14 walks in 14 games.
Hernandez actually began October on the bench, but we’ve seen him perform big in the postseason before, and he stepped up when Rojas was injured in the NLDS. Hernandez homered in the Dodgers’ 2-0 victory to close out the Padres in the NLDS, had a big two-run home run against the Mets in Game 3 of the NLCS and got the series-turning five-run rally against the Yankees in Game 5 started with a leadoff single in the fifth as well as the series-winning rally in the eighth with another leadoff base hit. Overall, he hit .294/.357/.451 with 11 runs and six RBIs.
Honorable mentions: Steven Kwan, Cleveland Guardians; Teoscar Hernandez, Los Angeles Dodgers; Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres
DH: Giancarlo Stanton, New York Yankees
Why he’s here: The Yankees were often a two-man show in the postseason, just like they were in the regular season — except it was Soto and Stanton, not Soto and Judge. Stanton blasted seven home runs in the playoffs, including in the final three games of the ALCS (earning MVP honors) and in Games 1 and 5 of the World Series. He finished the playoffs hitting .273/.339/.709, and those seven homers are the most in a single postseason in Yankees history.
Honorable mention: Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers; David Fry, Cleveland Guardians
SP: Gerrit Cole, New York Yankees
SP: Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers
Why they’re here: Certainly, it seems as if the status of the starting pitcher in the postseason continues to decline — although, that doesn’t mean they’re not important. There were certainly some stellar individual outings along the way: Corbin Burnes allowed one run in eight innings (but lost 1-0) for the Baltimore Orioles; Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler allowed one hit in seven scoreless innings (but that would be his only start); and the Padres’ Michael King fanned 12 to beat the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS. Skubal had two scoreless starts against the Houston Astros in the wild-card series and Cleveland Guardians in the ALDS, confirming his status as one of the best in the game — or maybe the best, as his soon-to-be AL Cy Young Award will attest.
Cole was really the one consistent starter throughout the postseason, making five starts with a 2.17 ERA. Unfortunately, that ERA doesn’t register the five unearned runs from the final game of the World Series when the Yankees’ defense turned into a comedy of errors — including Cole himself opening up the floodgates by failing to cover first base to get what would have been the inning-ending out.
Honorable mention: Walker Buehler, Los Angeles Dodgers; Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Los Angeles Dodgers; Sean Manaea, New York Mets; Seth Lugo, Kansas City Royals
RP: Luke Weaver, New York Yankees
RP: Blake Treinen, Los Angeles Dodgers
Why they’re here: It also wasn’t the best of postseasons for closers — not even great ones. The Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase allowed five earned runs all regular season — and then eight in the playoffs. Milwaukee Brewers closer Devin Williams blew that wild-card game against the Mets. All-Star Jeff Hoffman lost two games for the Phillies. Weaver, however, was the one consistent late-game performer and was great while often pitching more than one inning. He posted a 1.76 ERA across 15⅓ innings. Who knows how the World Series ends if Yankees manager Aaron Boone keeps Weaver in the game in the 10th inning of Game 1. (Weaver had thrown just 19 pitches.)
Treinen, meanwhile, capped his comeback season — he had missed almost all of 2022 and then all of 2023 — with a 2.19 ERA across 12⅓ innings, winning two games and saving three others. In the World Series clincher, he recorded seven outs and got out of a two-on, no-out jam in the eighth inning to preserve the Dodgers’ 7-6 lead before handing the ball to Buehler to close out the ninth.
Honorable mention: Cade Smith, Cleveland Guardians; Michael Kopech, Los Angeles Dodgers; Beau Brieske, Detroit Tigers
All-October Award Winners
October MVP: Freddie Freeman
Pitchers of the month: Gerrit Cole, Walker Buehler (tie)
Best October introduction: Mark Vientos
Clutch performer: Freeman
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