1998 Kansas City Royals season

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1998 Kansas City Royals
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s)David Glass
General manager(s)Herk Robinson
Manager(s)Tony Muser
Local televisionKMBC-TV
KCWB
Fox Sports Rocky Mountain
(Paul Splittorff, Bob Davis)
Local radioWKBZ
(Denny Matthews, Fred White)
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The 1998 Kansas City Royals season was a season in American baseball. It involved the Royals finishing 3rd in the American League Central with a record of 72 wins and 89 losses.

Offseason[]

  • November 18, 1997: Yamil Benitez was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks from the Kansas City Royals as the 19th pick in the 1997 expansion draft.[1]
  • January 20, 1998: Terry Pendleton was signed as a Free Agent with the Kansas City Royals.[2]
  • January 20, 1998: Lee Smith signed as a Free Agent with the Kansas City Royals.[3]
  • March 17, 1998: Ernie Young was purchased by the Kansas City Royals from the Oakland Athletics.[4]

Regular season[]

Before the 1998 regular season began, two new teams—the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays—were added by Major League Baseball. This resulted in the American League and National League having fifteen teams. However, in order for MLB officials to continue primarily intraleague play, both leagues would need to carry a number of teams that was divisible by two, so the decision was made to move one club from the AL Central to the NL Central.

This realignment was widely considered to have great financial benefit to the club moving. However, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, Commissioner (then club owner) Bud Selig decided another team should have the first chance to switch leagues. The choice was offered to the Kansas City Royals, who ultimately decided to stay in the American League and bypassing the opportunity to build a full-time rivalry with the St. Louis Cardinals.[5] The choice then fell to the Brewers, who, on November 6, 1997, elected to move to the National League. Had the Brewers elected not to move to the National League, the Minnesota Twins would have been offered the opportunity to switch leagues.[6]

Season standings[]

AL Central W L Pct. GB Home Road
Cleveland Indians 89 73 0.549 46–35 43–38
Chicago White Sox 80 82 0.494 9 44–37 36–45
Kansas City Royals 72 89 0.447 16½ 29–51 43–38
Minnesota Twins 70 92 0.432 19 35–46 35–46
Detroit Tigers 65 97 0.401 24 32–49 33–48

Record vs. opponents[]


Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team ANA BAL BOS CWS CLE DET KC MIN NYY OAK SEA TB TEX TOR NL 
Anaheim 5–6 6–5 5–6 4–7 8–3 6–5 6–5 6–5 5–7 9–3 6–5 5–7 4–7 10–6
Baltimore 6–5 6–6 2–9 5–6 10–1 5–6 7–3 3–9 8–3 6–5 5–7 6–5 5–7 5–11
Boston 5–6 6–6 5–6 8–3 5–5 8–3 5–6 5–7 9–2 7–4 9–3 6–5 5–7 9–7
Chicago 6–5 9–2 6–5 6–6 6–6 8–4 6–6 4–7 4–7 4–7 5–6 5–6 4–6–1 7–9
Cleveland 7–4 6–5 3–8 6–6 9–3 8–4 6–6 4–7 3–8 9–2 7–3 4–7 7–4 10–6
Detroit 3–8 1–10 5–5 6–6 3–9 6–6 8–4 3–8 7–4 3–8 5–6 3–8 5–6 7–9
Kansas City 5–6 6–5 3–8 4–8 4–8 6–6 7–5 0–10 7–4 4–6 8–3 3–8 6–5 9–7
Minnesota 5–6 3–7 6–5 6–6 6–6 4–8 5–7 4–7 4–7 2–9 7–4 7–4 4–7 7–9
New York 5–6 9–3 7–5 7–4 7–4 8–3 10–0 7–4 8–3 8–3 11–1 8–3 6–6 13–3
Oakland 7–5 3–8 2–9 7–4 8–3 4–7 4–7 7–4 3–8 5–7 5–6 6–6 5–6 8–8
Seattle 3–9 5–6 4–7 7–4 2–9 8–3 6–4 9–2 3–8 7–5 6–5 5–7 4–7 7–9
Tampa Bay 5–6 7–5 3–9 6–5 3–7 6–5 3–8 4–7 1–11 6–5 5–6 4–7 5–7 5–11
Texas 7–5 5–6 5–6 6–5 7–4 8–3 8–3 4–7 3–8 6–6 7–5 7–4 7–4 8–8
Toronto 7–4 7–5 7–5 6–4–1 4–7 6–5 5–6 7–4 6–6 6–5 7–4 7–5 4–7 9–7


Roster[]

1998 Kansas City Royals
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats[]

Starters by position[]

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; R = Runs; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; Avg. = Batting average; Slg. = Slugging average; SB = Stolen bases

Pos. Player G AB R H HR RBI Avg. Slg. SB
C Mike Sweeney 92 282 32 73 8 35 .259 .408 2
1B Jeff King 131 486 83 128 24 93 .263 .451 10
2B José Offerman 158 607 102 191 7 66 .315 .438 45
3B Dean Palmer 152 572 84 159 34 119 .278 .510 8
SS Mendy López 74 206 18 50 1 15 .243 .325 5
LF Jeff Conine 93 309 30 79 8 43 .256 .417 3
CF Johnny Damon 161 642 104 178 18 66 .277 .439 26
RF Larry Sutton 111 310 29 76 5 42 .245 .352 3
DH Hal Morris 127 472 50 146 1 40 .309 .381 1

[7]

Other batters[]

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI

Starting pitchers[]

Player G IP W L ERA SO

Other pitchers[]

Player G IP W L ERA
Relief pitchers[]
Player G W L SV ERA SO

Farm system[]

Level Team League Manager
AAA Omaha Royals Pacific Coast League Ron Johnson
AA Wichita Wranglers Texas League John Mizerock
A Wilmington Blue Rocks Carolina League Darrell Evans, Kevin Long and Brian Poldberg
A Lansing Lugnuts Midwest League Bob Herold
A-Short Season Spokane Indians Northwest League Jeff Garber
Rookie GCL Royals Gulf Coast League Andre David

[8]

References[]

  1. ^ https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/benitya01.shtml
  2. ^ Terry Pendleton Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  3. ^ Lee Smith Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  4. ^ https://www.baseball-reference.com/y/younger02.shtml
  5. ^ "Brewers switch leagues, join Reds in NL Central". The Kentucky Post (Associated Press). E. W. Scripps Company. November 6, 1997. Archived from the original on May 5, 2005.
  6. ^ Pappas, Doug, "News Briefs: Fall 1997" Archived July 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Outside the Lines, Fall 1997.
  7. ^ https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/SEA/1998.shtml
  8. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
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