The Kansas City Royals took the MLB world by storm in 2015 when they knocked off the New York Mets to capture their first World Series since 1985.
As hard as it is to believe, 2025 marks the tenth anniversary of that World Series winning squad.
As such, the Royals will spend much of the 2025 season honoring the team. The first glimpse of that revealed itself on Monday when the team announced that former third baseman and 2015 World Champion would be signing a one-day contract and retiring with the Royals.
Always a Royal. 👑
Join us on May 31st for a pregame ceremony to celebrate Mike Moustakas’ career as he retires as a Royal! pic.twitter.com/H69sV1B68l
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) March 3, 2025
The Royals also announced they would honor Moustakas in a pregame ceremony before May 31’s game against the Detroit Tigers.
Drafted by Kansas City with the second overall pick in the 2007 MLB Draft, Moustakas became one of baseball’s top prospects as he rose through the Royals’ minor league system.
He debuted with the Royals in June of 2011 and hit a respectable .263 in his first season, consisting of 89 games. Moustakas hit .233 over 285 games in the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Despite the low batting average, he had 35 home runs over the two years. However, he also made 31 errors at third base in that time.
Moustakas’ start to 2014 was bad enough that the team sent him down to Triple-A for a week at the end of May. The demotion was just what he needed, though. The third baseman hit .152 over the first two months of the season, but hit .230 from the time he rejoined the major league club in June and the end of the season.
The 2014 playoffs marked a turning point for Moustakas’ career. He hit two home runs in Kansas City’s ALDS sweep of the Los Angeles Angels, then tacked on two more in their ALCS sweep of the Baltimore Orioles. Moustakas added a home run in the 2014 World Series to lead all postseason performers with five home runs in October.
From there, Moustakas took off. He was named to his first All-Star team in 2015 and finished the year with a .284 batting average and 22 home runs. He had seven hits and drove in three runs in Kansas City’s World Series victory over the New York Mets.
Unfortunately for Moustakas and the Royals, he could not build on his 2015 performance. He tore his ACL on May 26, ending his season early.
He bounced back with a vengeance, though. 2017 saw Moustakas hit ..282 with a career-high 38 home runs. He was named an All-Star for the second time in three seasons.
Moustakas became a free agent after the 2017 season, but after finding no suitors, he returned to the Royals on a one-year deal. They traded him to the Milwaukee Brewers at the 2018 Trade Deadline, and Moustakas spent the next six seasons with the Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Colorado Rockies, and Los Angeles Angels.
