Owner Goals
The playoffs are once again the goal in 2036, which is the floor of Stewart’s aspirations. The rest of the goals are more longterm – in 2038, the Royals should have a Hometown player, a Top 6 farm, and be winning close games regularly. Here is a list of all players born in Kansas City. The simple, but expensive, solution will be to resign Daniel Nava but with Mike Halpin in AAA there are routes to this.
Finances
Total attendance dropped below three million in 2035 but, with the increase in ticket price, an increase in revenue per game of around $5k, equivalent to over $400k over the season.
This helped convince owner Sherman to open the wallet and keep the budget at $230m, with $180m of that earmarked for player payroll. This has seen Sherman make some cuts to scouting and development spending so there will be some difficult decisions for Stewart to make.
The Sherman family take out over $100m from the club in 2035, the fan robbery continues!
Personnel
At the end of another Championship season, Arkansas Naturals club legend Manager Dan Jones retired. He joined the Royals in 2027 and went 936-297 over the following nine year. The Naturals made the playoffs every year of Jones’ tenure, with the regular guy manager earning Manager of the Year Award 8 years in row.
Johnny Isom was promoted internally from the A ball Columbia Fireflies to take over from Jones with Mathew Figueroa backfilling Isom from ACL Rookie ball.
Owner John Sherman rewards Colin Stewart with a new 2-year deal at $2.2m per year.
Minor Leagues
Awards
Peter O'Brien DSL Manager of the Year
Johnny Isom A Manager of the Year 3x
Aaron Cames A+ Manager of the Year
Dan Jones AA Manager of the Year 8x
Generoso Gonzalez AAA Manager of the Year
Luis Morga 2030 Trade HOU A Most Valuable Player Award
Edward Lantigua 2035 MiL FA AA Most Valuable Player Award
Brad Demarest 2029 4th Round AAA Outstanding Pitcher Award
Mike Halpin 2028 19th Round AAA Reliever of the Year
Hometown boy Mike Halpin is named the AAA Reliever of the Year, and along with 2029 4th Round pick, is set for the Big Leagues in 2036.
Notable Retirements
Among the raft of retirements of Minor League players for the Royals, a few former draft picks ended their careers from various levels:
2027
20th Round RP Stephon Marine AAA
2029
8th Round RP Ramiro Cepeda AAA
13th Round CF James Tronstein AA
2030
17th Round RP Jaquan Boxton AAA
2031
8th Round CF Steve D'Amore Rookie (ACL)
Trade
2031 CHC SP Luis Escobar AAA
KC Top 500 Prospects Performance
