Pitching, defense and a budding star: Why the red-hot Royals might actually be for real

As the 2024 season nears its one-month mark, the Kansas City Royals -- the team that matched a franchise record with 106 losses last year -- are not only on the right side of .500, but feature one of the best run differentials in baseball. If Kansas City were in the early stages of a rebuild, it might not be fair to label that as a disaster. Six years down the line, you expect a team in rebuild mode to be emerging, not bottoming out.