The Royals' "Wrong Uniform" All-Stars

When you think of great players in Royals history, of course you think of George Brett and Salvador Perez and Amos Otis and Harmon Killebrew.

Wait. What?

Throughout their history, the Royals have had plenty of players who achieved most of their fame somewhere else. Some of them were brought to Kansas City for a playoff push, and some were just hoping to extend their careers a little. Here is the Royals’ “Wrong Uniform” All-Star lineup (as determined by, well, me).

Catcher: Benito Santiago (2004)

Santiago burst on the MLB scene with his Rookie of the Year campaign in 1987, then won three Gold Gloves and four Silver Sluggers with San Diego before he began bouncing around the big leagues as a free agent, overcoming a severe car accident after the 1997 season. By the time he signed with Kansas City, he was about to be 39, although he could still hit a little and could still throw a lot. The Royals were looking to build on their surprising 2003 season, and needed a catcher after Brent Mayne and Mike Difelice were free agents. They also wanted someone to handle what was still a young pitching staff.

Unfortunately, the 2004 season turned into a disaster as the Royals lost 104 games. Santiago was having a decent season, hitting .274/.312/.434 in 49 games, when he was hit on the hand by a pitch. The resulting broken hand ended his season, and he was traded to Florida after the season.

First base: Harmon Killebrew (1975)

One of the greatest sluggers in baseball history, Killebrew was a Minnesota Twins legend and a driving force in their 1965 AL pennant and 1969-70 AL West titles. But as he aged, Twins owner Calvin Griffith, always tight-fisted, became less enthused about paying him. Before the 1975 season, Griffith wanted Killebrew to be a player-coach or simply manage the Twins’ triple-A affiliate in Tacoma. When Killebrew said he wanted to keep playing, Griffith told him he was free to talk to other teams. The Royals, still trying to put together a contender to dethrone Oakland in the AL West, were happy to add a right-handed power hitter to the lineup. 

Killebrew hit the last 14 of his 573 home runs as a Royal, but his overall line of .199/.317/.375 in 106 games was something of a disappointment. With 70 strikeouts and 54 walks, Killebrew was a “three true outcomes” player before the term existed; roughly half of his 369 plate appearances ended without a ball in play. Killebrew retired after the season, in fifth place on the all-time home run list, and was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1984. I don’t know why it took so long, either.

Second base: Ben Zobrist (2015)

This seemed to be the toughest spot to find a good candidate. But as the 2015 Royals steamed towards the playoffs, they had a couple of problems. Second baseman Omar Infante was not hitting; he would finish the year with an ugly .220/.234/.318 line. Even worse, left fielder Alex Gordon had suffered a groin injury in early July. General manager Dayton Moore made a trade deadline move to address both problems, bringing in the versatile Zobrist from Oakland for pitchers Aaron Brooks and Sean Manaea.

Zobrist, who had starred for Tampa Bay for nine seasons before the Rays dealt him to Oakland in January 2015, was everything the Royals could have hoped for, playing left field until Gordon returned and then taking over at second base, hitting .284/.364/.453 in 59 games. He was also excellent in the postseason, hitting .303 and scoring 15 runs to help the Royals to their second World Series title. A free agent after the season, he signed with the Chicago Cubs and helped them break their World Series drought in 2016.

Shortstop: Miguel Tejada (2013)

The AL MVP with Oakland in 2002 and a six-time All-Star with the A’s, Baltimore, and Houston, Tejada was a free agent after the 2012 season. Actually, he was a free agent after the 2011 season, signed a minor-league deal with Baltimore, was released midway through the season, and went home to the Dominican Republic. During winter ball, the Royals saw that he still looked good and signed him to a minor-league deal, intending for him to be a utility player. 

It worked pretty well. At least for a while. Tejada hit .288/.317/.378 in 53 games as the Royals got their first taste of contention since 2003. But then he got hurt, suffering a calf strain in early August. It was sufficiently bad for the Royals to put him on the 60-day injury list, ending his season. A week or so later, MLB announced that Tejada was suspended for 105 games after twice testing positive for amphetamines (which apparently meant Adderall in this case). That ended his career. 

Third base: Terry Pendleton (1998)

A mainstay with the Cardinals in the 1980s, Pendleton moved to Atlanta in 1991 and won the NL MVP Award as he helped the Braves go from worst-to-first in the NL East and reach the World Series. The mid- and late-1990s Royals loved nothing more than signing “veteran presence,” and that is why they added Pendleton before the 1998 season, especially since they had traded for Dean Palmer the prior season. Pendleton had long been considered a team leader and a good influence on younger players.

The problem was that Pendleton had never really been a great hitter, although he was very good in 1991 and 1992. But now he was 37 and hit just .257/.299/.338 in 79 games. The Royals did win five more games than they did in 1997, so maybe his clubhouse presence helped a little? At any rate, Pendleton retired after the season.

Left field: Orlando Cepeda (1974)

Cepeda spent most of his Hall of Fame career with San Francisco, then some strong years with St. Louis and Atlanta. When the DH rule came into effect, Cepeda, who had missed most of 1971 and 1972 with a knee injury, had a new role he could fill. He had a good season for Boston, but the Red Sox released him just before the 1974 season, and he ended up playing in the Mexican League. The Royals, looking for offensive help as they tried to catch Oakland in the AL West, signed him in early August.

But Cepeda hit just .215/.282/.290 and appeared in only 33 games for Kansas City, an unsatisfying ending to a terrific career. The Royals actually released him a few days before the season ended, at Cepeda’s request, as he had only played in nine games in September.

Center field: Vada Pinson (1974-75)

Pinson is an underrated player in my opinion, as he amassed 54.1 bWAR in an 18-year career, with 2,757 hits, a lifetime .286/.327/.444 line, a Gold Glove, and four All-Star appearances. Most of his fame came as a member of the Cincinnati Reds; unfortunately for Pinson, he was a center fielder in the NL in the 1960s, meaning he was overshadowed by Willie Mays. I’m not sure Pinson quite meets the Hall of Fame standard (if there is such a thing), but I also think he would hardly be the worst inductee. After Pinson had a subpar year with California in 1973, the Angels traded him to the Royals for pitching prospect Barry Raziano. Kansas City was hoping Pinson would solve their right-field problem and add some offense.

And Pinson did that, hitting .276/.312/.374 in 115 games in 1974. But he slipped to .223/.248/.335 in 1975, and Kansas City released him after the season. He did sign with Milwaukee but was let go before the 1976 season, ending his playing career.

Right field: Juan Gonzalez (2004)

When the Royals surprised everyone by contending through the 2003 season, Royals general manager Allard Baird wanted to pry Gonzalez, a two-time AL MVP, away from Texas at the trade deadline. But Gonzalez suffered a torn calf muscle before a deal could be made. Baird got his man over the winter, though, signing the free agent to a one-year contract to shore up a lineup that featured Carlos Beltran, Mike Sweeney, and Joe Randa, but had also lost Raul Ibanez to free agency.

Gonzalez would be one of the great free agent busts in team history. While he did hit .276/.326/.441, he only played in 33 games before hurting his back in late May. He was eventually diagnosed with a season-ending disk injury, meaning the Royals couldn’t even trade him at the deadline. Gonzalez would play one game for Cleveland in 2005 and then be done as a major leaguer.

Designated Hitter: Chili Davis (1997)

Davis, a longtime star for San Francisco, was coming off a productive four-year stint with California when the Royals traded Mark Gubicza for the impending free agent after the 1996 season. Kansas City was looking to improve an offense that hit a laughable 123 home runs and finished last in the league in runs scored.

It was a good deal for the Royals; Gubicza would only pitch in two games for the Angels (ruining his Baseball Reference page in the process), while Davis hit .279/.386/.509 with 30 home runs. And the team did hit 158 home runs in 1997, and skyrocketed to 12th in the league in runs scored. Of course, Davis was a free agent after the season, and there was little chance the Royals would pay what he wanted after a season like that, so soon enough he was a Yankee. Davis would finish his career with two years in New York.

Starting pitcher: Hideo Nomo (2008)

Nomo was a sensation when he joined the Los Angeles Dodgers following a successful career in Japan; he was really the first Japanese star in MLB. After four seasons bouncing around the majors, he returned to the Dodgers in 2002 and spent three more seasons there. But he was plagued by shoulder troubles a couple of years later, and was out of the majors for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. The Royals signed him to a minor-league deal before 2008, intending to use him as a reliever.

Nomo made it back to the bigs briefly in April of that season, but he pitched in three games and had no velocity left. Those three appearances were ugly, with an 18.69 ERA. A week after that last game, the Royals released him, ending his career.

Relief pitcher: Al Hrabosky (1978-79)

After eight years pitching in St. Louis and decades of broadcasting for the Cardinals, I think most people associate The Mad Hungarian with the Redbirds. But he was a Royal for two seasons in the late 1970s. After two seasons of losing to the Yankees in the ALCS, manager Whitey Herzog wanted to both upgrade and diversify his bullpen. Hrabosky fit the bill as a left-handed pitcher who could be trusted in the late innings. At the 1977 winter meetings, the Royals sent pitcher Mark Littell and catcher Buck Martinez across the state in exchange for Hrabosky, a colorful character whose long hair and mustache had irked Cardinals skipper Vern Rapp.

The deal worked out well for the Royals, as Hrabosky notched 31 saves and 17 wins in two seasons with Kansas City. The Royals still couldn’t get past the Yankees in the 1978 ALCS, although Hrabosky pitched three innings and allowed just one run. After the 1979 season, Hrabosky was a free agent and signed with Atlanta, where he pitched the final three seasons of his playing career.

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