Flags fly forever. Kansas City Royals fans could do nothing else but take solace in the fact that no one can take away the franchise's 2015 World Series, as ever since that season, the Royals have not made the postseason, and since 2018, the Royals have consistently been one of the worst teams in the league. It seems like the Royals are bottoming out with no end in sight, as they are currently sporting a 57-86 record.

One MLB scout, in particular, was very pessimistic towards the Royals' front office, going as far as saying that Kansas City have lagged behind their competitors in terms of their approach to sabermetrics, per The Athletic (subscription required)

“They’re still further behind than most organizations, just in terms of their implementation of technology and truly understanding data, what it means, and how to implement it into player-specific development plans,” the unnamed scout said. “I just feel like they’re trying to search for what the recipe is.”

The ingredients to success the Royals front office landed on when they decided to begin their rebuild was dominant starting pitching, made obvious by their selections of Brady Singer, Daniel Lynch, Jackson Kowar and Kris Bubic during the 2018 MLB Draft. Fast forward four years, and only Singer has been a solid, if unspectacular, contributor in the Major League level, far below the returns the Royals expected. Another scout argued that those aforementioned pitchers would have panned out had they landed in an organization with better player development.

“If these stud pitchers — Kowar, Lynch, Singer, all these guys — had they been [Los Angeles] Dodgers or [[Tampa Bay] Rays or [Cleveland] Guardians, they would be very, very good,” the second scout said. “But unfortunately, they haven’t been taught how to move well. They haven’t been introduced to the metrics that gives them an idea of how they can pitch most effectively.”

It's not too late for the four pitchers to blossom further, with Brady Singer being the oldest one at 26 years old, but the Royals need to figure out their development strategy as soon as possible. With another high draft pick looming in 2023, Royals fans will hope that the Kansas City staff does a better job in preparing them for success in the MLB.