Royals Chair & Owner David Glass yesterday sat for a Q&A with Andy McCullough of the K.C. STAR to speak about the state of the league and his club, which is in second place in the AL Central at the All-Star break. Glass said of the team, "It's the inconsistency that has surprised me. But we're in a good position." Excerpts from the Q&A are below.
Q: If GM Dayton Moore wanted to make a maneuver that added salary, is there the financial flexibility available to do so?
Glass: Small-market teams are always limited. We’ve been willing, when we believed we had an opportunity to, to stretch and go beyond what logically made sense. ... Our objective has always been to try to break even. I guess you’ll have a year where you might make a little. But you might have years where you lose money. Over a period of time, we’d like to come close to breaking even, at least. And you try to fit it into that framework. But if you have an opportunity to win, you consider doing almost anything.
Q: Does this year carry more weight than others to you?
Glass: We’ll have a better team next year than we’ll have this year. Based on our opportunities. To that extent, it’s not a make or break year. Where it is critically important to make the playoffs this year is because we haven’t made the playoffs in a really long time. I look at this a lot from my position as a fan. I’m impatient. I want us in the playoffs.
Q: What would it mean to you for this team to reach the playoffs?
Glass: Kansas City deserves a winner. It’s a great baseball town.
Q: There’s a perception ... that you are complacent as an owner. Is that perception frustrating to you?
Glass: I’m not so much interested in what the perception is about me. And anyone who knows me knows that I’m not just committed to winning. I’m obsessed with winning. ... But what I want is for the fans to be really proud of this team. I want Kansas City to own this team. It’s great that you’ve got all these kids that came through the farm system. The fans have been exposed to them for a good deal of time now, and they can relate to them. It’s not like you go out and buy a lot of free agents, and you bring them in, and try to get the chemistry to make it work.
Q: Do you envision the club becoming more competitive for free agents and spending more if the club continues to win?
Glass: I would prefer that we develop really outstanding players at every position.
