Retired numbers: Kansas City Royals
K.C. has been sparing with honors, inspiring a long list of worthy candidates
The major leagues added four clubs in the expansion of 1969. A case could be made that the Kansas City Royals have been the most successful of the lot.
The Royals earned eight divisional titles during their first 52 seasons, dwarfing the five apiece won by the San Diego Padres and Washington Nationals (the latter born as the Montreal Expos) and the four taken by the Milwaukee Brewers (initially the Seattle Pilots).
Kansas City also boasts the most league pennants (four) and World Series championships (two) in the 1969 cohort. Its three classmates hold a combined total of four pennants and one championship (the Nationals in 2019).
And yet, in a strange reversal, the Royals have been the most reluctant member of the Class of 1969 when it comes to honoring past heroes.
Kansas City has retired the numbers of only two ex-players and a former manager, as we’ll see in today’s installment — the 26th — of my every-other-Friday rundown of jersey retirements.
The Royals’ less successful contemporaries have been more generous. Washington has retired five numbers, Milwaukee six, and San Diego seven.
What is the likelihood of redressing the balance? The Royals have plenty of deserving candidates for retirement ceremonies — I’ve assembled a list of 11 — though it remains to be seen if the franchise has the necessary desire to follow through.
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Royals’ numbers already retired
The following are the three local numbers displayed beyond the left field fence in Kauffman Stadium (joined, of course, by the No. 42 that honors Jackie Robinson in all big-league ballparks):
No. 5 George Brett (1973-1993) is unquestionably the greatest player in Royals history. The third baseman’s 88.6 wins above replacement make him more than 40 WAR better than anybody else who played for the club. His 3,154 hits are 1,148 ahead of Kansas City’s runner-up. Brett is also the team’s all-time leader in games played (2,707), runs scored (1,583), home runs (317), and runs batted in (1,596). And don’t forget his three American League batting titles and his 1980 Most Valuable Player Award.
No. 10 Dick Howser was a serviceable infielder for three big-league clubs in the 1960s, including the old Kansas City Athletics. But the Royals honored him for a subsequent managerial stint (1981-1986) that peaked with the franchise’s first world championship in 1985. A brain tumor forced Howser’s abrupt retirement the following year. He died in 1987.
No. 20 Frank White (1973-1990) was a wizard at second base, where he won eight Gold Glove Awards. He is the club’s all-time leader in defensive WAR (21.9), and he ranks second to Brett in several of the Royals’ career categories, including games played (2,324), plate appearances (8,468), and hits (2,006).
Royals’ candidates for retired numbers
Kansas City has no shortage of plausible candidates for retirement ceremonies. I’ve put together a list of 11, listed here in numerical order.
No. 3 Ned Yost is the losingest manager in Royals history, landing in the L column 839 times. But that’s insignificant in comparison to three other numbers — 10 years (2010-2019), 746 wins, and one world title. The Royals have had 20 managers, and Yost tops them all in longevity and victories. His 2015 World Series championship was the club’s second, coming exactly 30 years after Howser’s.
Several young players formed the core of Yost’s title squad, but only No. 4 Alex Gordon stayed in Kansas City for his entire career (2007-2020) before retiring. He was outstanding in left field, where he won eight Gold Gloves. He also accumulated 1,643 hits, sixth-most among all Royals. Gordon ranks fourth in franchise history for homers (190) and fifth for doubles (357).
No. 6 Willie Wilson (1976-1990) remains the club’s all-time leader in stolen bases (612), but the outfielder was much more than a speedster. He topped the American League with a .332 batting average in 1982 and exceeded .300 four other times. Wilson starred in the 1985 World Series, rapping a team-leading 11 hits.
Joining Gordon as a key component of the 2015 championship team was No. 13 Salvador Perez, who remains active today (2011-2021). Perez has won five Gold Gloves as a catcher, and he has gained power with age. This year’s total of 34 home runs (as of Thursday) is already the highest of his career. He currently ranks fifth on the club’s all-time list for homers (186), but will almost certainly climb to second by early next season.
It’s often forgotten that No. 15 Carlos Beltran began his 20-year career with the Royals (1998-2004). The center fielder won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1999 and climbed as high as ninth in MVP voting in 2003. The Royals traded him to the Astros in June 2004, starting Beltran on a journey that would conclude with 2,725 hits for seven clubs.
No. 17 Kevin Appier (1989-1999, 2003-2004) ranks second to Brett among all Royals players in career WAR (47.0). The righthanded starter won 115 games for Kansas City, peaking with an 18-8 mark in 1993, the year he won the American League’s ERA crown at 2.56. Appier remains the club’s all-time leader in strikeouts (1,458).
No Kansas City pitcher has ever been more efficient than No. 18 Bret Saberhagen, who yielded just 1.134 walks and hits per inning pitched (WHIP) during his eight seasons with the Royals (1984-1991). Saberhagen won a pair of Cy Young Awards in a K.C. uniform, going 20-6 in 1985 and 23-6 with a league-leading 2.16 ERA in 1989.
The early returns weren’t promising for No. 23 Zack Greinke, who led the American League with 17 losses in 2005, his second year with the Royals. But he emerged as a dominant pitcher by the end of his Kansas City stint (2004-2010), winning the 2009 Cy Young Award for his 16-8 record and sparkling 2.16 ERA. The Royals shipped him to Milwaukee in 2011.
No. 26 Amos Otis patrolled center field for the Royals for 14 seasons (1970-1983), winning three Gold Gloves and making five All-Star teams along the way. His best season was 1973, when he batted an even .300, drove in 93 runs, and finished third in AL MVP voting. Otis is second in Royals history in runs scored (1,074) and third in hits (1,977).
No. 29 Dan Quisenberry (1979-1988) posted the lowest career ERA (2.55) for any pitcher who worked more than 500 innings for the Royals. He led the American League in saves in 1980 and every season from 1982 through 1985, finishing among the top five votegetters for the Cy Young Award all five years.
No. 29 Mike Sweeney finished his 13 years in Kansas City (1995-2007) with a .299 batting average and a .492 slugging average. The former ranks third in franchise history; the latter is second. Only Brett has hit more home runs for the Royals than Sweeney’s 197. The first baseman crested in 2000 with 29 homers, 144 RBIs, and a .333 BA.
The outlook
Several clubs suffer from a paucity of candidates for future retirement ceremonies. Not Kansas City. Yet the Royals haven’t pulled a jersey from circulation since 1995 (when White was honored), a reticence that is difficult to understand.
All three of the club’s current honorees played key roles in securing the first world title in 1985, but teammates Wilson, Saberhagen, and Quisenberry also starred that year. The latter three enjoyed productive careers in Kansas City, but have been ignored for decades. It seems doubtful that the club will suddenly change its collective mind.
Appier, Otis, and Sweeney lack such a championship pedigree, though their statistics are compelling. Appier was recognized as one of the American League’s best pitchers of his era, Otis was instrumental in the Royals’ competitive rise in the 1970s, and Sweeney transformed from a budding superstar to a solid everyday player. But none of them appears likely to be tapped.
(Yet a contrary note should be appended to the previous two paragraphs: Nobody has been assigned No. 29, which was shared by Quisenberry and Sweeney, since the latter’s departure 14 years ago. A sign, perhaps?)
Beltran and Greinke might seem like curious additions to my list of candidates, but the odds favor their future Hall of Fame inductions. Their tenures in Kansas City were relatively brief, yet the Royals might feel compelled to retire their numbers if they are elected to Cooperstown. Who knows?
That leaves the group most likely to be honored — the heroes who brought Kansas City its second world title six years ago. The consensus favors Yost as a solid first choice, with Gordon and Perez waiting in the wings. The latter, of course, will have to retire first, an event that could be several years away.