It's Royals Hall of Fame time

If you’re a nerd for baseball like most of us, team-specific Halls of Fame are generally a good time. It’s an ode to players who, in some way, made a positive impact to the franchise. They may not sniff the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, but they mean something to a team and its fanbase.

Now that we are just over 10 years removed from the improbable and massive championship seasons of 2014 and 2015, it's not a surprise that this Royals Hall of Fame ballot for this cycle is capital “S” stacked. Actually, it’s all caps STACKED. Twelve players are up for election and I can make a convincing case to varying degrees for 11 of them.

The fan vote opened on Monday. I am going to present the candidates in order of my opinion of worthiness on this ballot. A stacked ballot like this requires some strategy, so guys in their final year of eligibility get a bit of a longer look and there will maybe be a surprise or two down at the bottom.

The fan voting is just one cog in the Royals Hall of Fame machine. From the press release about how votes are tabulated:

Fans will be joined by other voters, including all living members of the Royals Hall of Fame, the Royals Ownership Group, members of the Royals Hall of Fame Executive Board, select members of the Kansas City Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America and Kansas City media, and current Royals front office staff with at least 15 years of service, in selecting any Royals Hall of Fame inductees. The online fan ballot will account for 12 full votes for each of the top five vote getters. Any candidate receiving 75% of the vote will be elected and scheduled for induction during the 2027 Royals season. Eligible alumni that receive at least 10% of the vote can remain on the ballot for five regular phase election cycles.

It’s not the most transparent of systems because who knows how many votes are cast. Or how many players an individual can vote for. The only thing we know is that if a player finishes in the top five of the fan ballot, they get 12 votes. That’s probably enough of a push that a player who doesn’t finish in the top five will fail to get the required 75%.

1 - Carlos Beltrán

I find it hilarious that Beltrán is the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown yet is on the outside looking in when it comes to the Royals Hall. Beltrán spent parts of seven of his 20 major league seasons in KC, winning the Rookie of the Year award in 1999, hitting .287/.352/.483 while accumulating 24.8 bWAR. His prime was spent in New York with the Mets and he went into the Baseball Hall of Fame with a Mets cap, but his tenure in Kansas City was exceptionally good.

Yes, context matters. In the instance of Beltrán, he played on some of the worst teams in franchise history, feuded with the front office over an injury and couldn’t wait to get out of town so he could play for a winning team. When he was finally dealt away, the Royals landed catcher John Buck, third baseman Mark Teahen and pitcher Mike Wood. Not great! Also, not Beltrán’s fault.

Beltrán is ninth all-time on the Royals in position player bWAR, fifth in OPS (just behind Bobby Witt Jr. at .835) and first all-time in stolen base percentage with an 87.7 percent success rate. The counting stats aren’t there because Beltrán played in only 795 games for the Royals, 23rd all-time, but he was the best player by a mile on those bad Royals teams. Perhaps he’s been overshadowed by the beloved players from the Royals World Championship run a decade after he departed, but it’s absurd that he hasn’t gotten in.

2 - Zack Greinke

If you believe in that first-ballot Hall of Famer kind of lore, Greinke is in. Besides, it would look kind of silly to go through this exercise and not have Greinke enshrined at the end of it.

Greinke debuted in 2004 and finished his Royals career in 2023 after stops in Milwaukee, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Arizona and Houston. He ranks seventh in franchise history in innings pitched (1,387.1), fourth in strikeouts (1,101) and sixth in fWAR (26.8). His 2009 season was one the best in franchise history where he posted a 2.16 ERA, 242 strikeouts and a career-best 8.7 fWAR, culminating in the AL Cy Young Award.

He was traded to the Brewers after the 2010 season for two players also up for induction.

You should vote for Greinke just so you can hear his acceptance speech.

3 - Lorenzo Cain

I’m not sure how LoCain didn’t make it into the Royals Hall his first time on the ballot. He was the best player on the Royals World Championship team in 2015 and their second-best behind 2025 Royals Hall of Fame inductee Alex Gordon on the 2014 pennant winners. That fact alone gets you the rubber stamp treatment as far as I’m concerned.

I feel like I’m bringing myself to the edge of insanity when it comes to Cain. When you gather all the stats from the five years from 2013 to 2017, Cain was the best player on the Royals and it’s not even close. How he wasn’t elected the first time he was eligible doesn’t compute.

He could do everything. Most of all…”HE CAN FLY!”

4 - Billy Butler

Like Beltrán, this is Butler’s final year on the Royals Hall ballot. Unlike Beltrán, Butler is not going to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

If you’re one of those who needs a complete ballplayer to be in these Halls of Fame, you’re not going to be a fan of Butler. He was drafted as a third baseman. That seemed to last about a week. He moved across the diamond to first and wasn’t much better. His defensive destiny was to forget the glove all together. Hitting was Butler’s game.

It feels fairly obvious to me that Butler is one of the top hitters in franchise history. He’s fourth all-time in batting average (.295), ninth in hits (1,273), ninth in total bases (1,938), eighth in doubles (276) and eighth in RBI (628). He’s just outside the franchise top 10 in OBP (.356, good for 13th), slugging (.449, 15th) and OPS (.808, 12th). His best season was in 2012 when he hit .313/.373/.510 with 29 home runs and 107 RBI, won a Silver Slugger and was selected to the All-Star team. He should’ve been a participant in the Home Run Derby, damnit. Boooooooo!

5-6-7 - Kelvin Herrera/Wade Davis/Greg Holland

I understand Hall of Fame voting on any level is serious business. Serious Business! Sometimes, you just have to do something that veers from the norm. I defer to my pal Mike Engel for how this should work.

How perfect would that be? So perfect that it needs to happen.

If I mention "HDH", you know what I'm talking about. Maybe you think that only two of the three listed above are Royals Hall-worthy. If that’s the case, I humbly request you check yourself. You’re telling me you would vote to induct Snap and Pop and ignore Crackle? Athos and Aramis are in, but Porthos is out? Do you make a sandwich with bacon and lettuce and no tomato? Get all the way outta here with that.

The Royals trio redefined how bullpens were used in the postseason and, then, revolutionized the art in the regular season. Herrera could’ve closed for 29 teams but accepted his seventh inning role. Davis closed out the World Series in 2015, but his performance on either side of a rain delay in Game Six of the ALCS is the stuff of legend. And all Holland did was sacrifice his UCL for the club while dominating hitters in the ninth. If any one of those guys isn’t a stud, I’m not sure there’s a flag flying for 2014 or 2015.

Be bold. Put them in as a trio. (I thought about listing them as 7/8/9, but that would be too low. Appropriate, but low.)

8 - Joakim Soria

Soria is in a bit of a difficult position when it comes to franchise history. Acquired as a Rule 5 draft selection ahead of the 2007 season, he departed as a free agent after 2012. He then rejoined the club for the 2016 season. Bad timing, no?

His closer bonafides are undisputed. He's third in club history with 162 saves, trailing only Quis and Monty. So he's in this weird reliever tier where he's not in the upper echelon of Royals closers, nor is he in the triumvirate of postseason relievers. Still, I think he's deserving of a spot in the Royals Hall. It may take some time to get there.

9 - Eric Hosmer

This is where things could get contentious. Hosmer was a good player in Royals history and a pivotal player in the championship run. More than anyone, he seemed to be the guy in the middle of just about every pivotal moment in the Royals championship run. From the triple in the bottom of the 12th in the 2014 Wild Card game to the mad dash home in the ninth inning of Game Five of the 2015 World Series, Hoz was The Man.

He gets in, but not this year.

10 - Mike Moustakas

Mooooooose. Moustakas was another key guy on those championship teams, but lacks the numbers and moments of his teammates. He does rank ninth on the all-time franchise list for home runs (139). A two-time All-Star with the Royals, he briefly held the franchise record for most home runs in a season when he clubbed 38 in 2017.

11 - Alcides Escobar

Somehow, it just worked. Escobar was the catalyst of those championship teams, leading off (despite a sub .300 OBP) and doing things like the Esky Ambush to, you know, hit leadoff inside the park home runs in the first game of the World Series. His best season was probably in 2012, but he filled up his trophy case in 2015, winning the Gold Glove, starting the All-Star game and picking up the ALCS MVP Award.

He's 10th all-time on the franchise hit list with 1,208 and ninth in steals with 160.

12 - Ian Kennedy

Sorry. Somebody has to be last. And when you're on a list of true franchise legends with World Series rings and Baseball Hall of Fame credentials, you kind of get pushed to the bottom. He was their big free agent signing in 2016 from San Diego. He was good in the rotation for the Royals that year, but later scuffled and finished his time as a solid closer for the club.