1998 Kansas City Royals season

1998 Kansas City Royals
League	American League
Division	Central
Ballpark	Kauffman Stadium
City	Kansas City, Missouri
Owners	David Glass
General managers	Herk Robinson
Managers	Tony Muser
Television	KMBC-TV KCWB Fox Sports Rocky Mountain (Paul Splittorff, Bob Davis)
Radio	WKBZ (Denny Matthews, Fred White)
Seasons

The 1998 Kansas City Royals season was a season in American baseball. It involved the Royals finishing third 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.
• January 20, 1998: Terry Pendleton was signed as a free agent with the Kansas City Royals.
• January 20, 1998: Lee Smith signed as a free agent with the Kansas City Royals.
• March 17, 1998: Ernie Young was purchased by the Kansas City Royals from the Oakland Athletics.

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. 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.

Season standings

AL Central

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Cleveland Indians	89	73	.549	—	46‍–‍35	43‍–‍38
Chicago White Sox	80	82	.494	9	44‍–‍37	36‍–‍45
Kansas City Royals	72	89	.447	16½	29‍–‍51	43‍–‍38
Minnesota Twins	70	92	.432	19	35‍–‍46	35‍–‍46
Detroit Tigers	65	97	.401	24	32‍–‍49	33‍–‍48

Record vs. opponents

1998 American League record 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 17 Kevin Appier 44 Brian Barber 41 Tim Belcher 47 Brian Bevil 49 Ricky Bones 55 Tim Byrdak 45 Bart Evans 33 Chris Haney 55 Allen McDill 21 Jeff Montgomery 35 Hipólito Pichardo 34 Jim Pittsley 28 Pat Rapp 51 Danny Rios 50 José Rosado 53 Glendon Rusch 46 José Santiago 48 Scott Service 37 Jeff Suppan 57 Jamie Walker 56 Matt Whisenant		Catchers 26 Sal Fasano 15 Mike Macfarlane 52 Héctor Ortiz 12 Tim Spehr 29 Mike Sweeney 15 Chris Turner Infielders 43 Carlos Febles  4 Shane Halter  2 Jed Hansen  7 Jeff King  8 Scott Leius 32 Mendy López 14 Félix Martínez 23 Hal Morris 30 José Offerman 16 Dean Palmer  6 Terry Pendleton  3 Luis Rivera		Outfielders 46 Jermaine Allensworth 36 Carlos Beltrán 27 Dee Brown 19 Jeff Conine 18 Johnny Damon 24 Jermaine Dye 15 Jeremy Giambi 51 Chris Hatcher 31 Shane Mack 22 Larry Sutton 12 Ernie Young Other batters 27 Joe Vitiello		Manager 40 Tony Muser Coaches 37 Rich Dauer (third base) 55 Guy Hansen 54 Bruce Kison 38 Tom Poquette  9 Jamie Quirk (bench) 20 Frank White

Player stats

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs; H = Hits; 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	Terry Pendleton	79	237	17	61	3	29	.257	.338	1

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Hal Morris	127	472	146	.309	1	40
Larry Sutton	111	310	76	.245	5	42
Sal Fasano	74	216	49	.227	8	31
Shane Mack	66	207	58	.280	6	29
Shane Halter	86	204	45	.221	2	13
Luis Rivera	42	89	22	.247	0	7
Félix Martínez	34	85	11	.129	0	5
Jermaine Allensworth	30	73	15	.205	0	3
Jeremy Giambi	18	58	13	.224	2	8
Carlos Beltrán	14	58	16	.276	0	7
Ernie Young	25	53	10	.189	1	3
Scott Leius	17	46	8	.174	0	4
Tim Spehr	11	25	6	.240	1	2
Carlos Febles	11	25	10	.400	0	2
Chris Hatcher	8	15	1	.067	0	1
Mike Macfarlane	3	11	1	.091	0	0
Chris Turner	4	9	0	.000	0	0
Joe Vitiello	3	7	1	.143	0	0
Héctor Ortiz	4	4	0	.000	0	0
Jed Hansen	4	3	0	.000	0	0
Dee Brown	5	3	0	.000	0	0

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Tim Belcher	34	234.0	14	14	4.27	130
Pat Rapp	32	188.1	12	13	5.30	132
José Rosado	38	174.2	8	11	4.69	135
Glendon Rusch	29	154.2	6	15	5.88	94
Brian Barber	8	42.0	2	4	6.00	24
Kevin Appier	3	15.0	1	2	7.80	9

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Hipólito Pichardo	27	112.1	7	8	5.13	55
Chris Haney	33	97.1	6	6	7.03	51
Jamie Walker	6	17.1	0	1	9.87	15
Jeff Suppan	4	12.2	0	0	0.71	12

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Jeff Montgomery	56	2	5	36	4.98	54
Scott Service	73	6	4	4	3.48	95
Matt Whisenant	70	2	1	2	4.90	45
Jim Pittsley	39	1	1	0	6.59	44
Brian Bevil	39	3	1	0	6.30	47
Ricky Bones	32	2	2	1	3.04	38
Bart Evans	8	0	0	0	3.00	7
Allen McDill	7	0	0	0	10.50	3
Danny Rios	5	0	1	0	6.14	6
Tim Byrdak	3	0	0	0	5.40	1
José Santiago	2	0	0	0	9.00	2
Shane Halter	1	0	0	0	0.00	0

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball

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

References

• 1998 Kansas City Royals at Baseball Reference
• 1998 Kansas City Royals at Baseball Almanac