Forever Royal: Moose wraps up storied MLB career with KC

KANSAS CITY -- As Mike Moustakas tracked down the ball headed for the dugout suite during Game 3 of the American League Championship Series in 2014, he knew he was going to get that ball.

He also knew he wasn’t going to fall.

He has Royals fans to thank for that.

“It’s so much of a connection between not only me and the city, but us as a team that year in the city,” Moustakas said. “It’s a pretty far fall from the field down to that dugout level, and I never came close to hitting the ground. The people in that suite weren’t going to let me fall. They knew I was coming in to catch the ball.

“They weren’t going to let me fall, and then pushing me back over the railing and getting me back on the field is just -- it was incredible.”

Moustakas retired as a Royal on Saturday afternoon, before Kansas City’s game against the Tigers. So much of that play in 2014 encapsulates who Moose was to the Royals and their fans.

Drafted No. 2 overall in 2007 -- the very first Draft pick by former general manager Dayton Moore in his journey to rebuild the Royals -- Moustakas debuted for Kansas City on June 10, 2011, arriving as a highly-touted slugging third baseman.

Not only did Moustakas feel the responsibility of being the high Draft pick, he was part of the Royals’ homegrown core tasked with bringing winning baseball back to Kansas City.

“It was always our mission to go out there and find a way to win a World Series for this organization, for the city,” Moustakas said.

The Royals won the AL pennant in 2014 and won the World Series in 2015, and Moustakas was as big a part of it as anyone. But he wasn’t exactly tearing it up at the plate when the Royals clinched their postseason appearance in ‘14, with a .632 OPS in the regular season. He had been demoted to Triple-A earlier that year -- a move that he looks back on now as a “great experience” because he doesn’t know how his career would have ended up if it hadn’t happened.

“It was an eye-opening experience, and I knew I was good enough to play in the big leagues,” Moustakas said. “... Get sent down, a little refresher, and then be able to go back to the big leagues and not put so much pressure on myself, which is what I always did.”

He put all those struggles behind him in October, hitting the game-winning home run in Game 1 of the AL Division Series, which began the Royals’ eventual sweep of the Angels. That postseason, Moustakas hit five homers, setting a club record for playoff home runs in a single year.

The dugout catch is one of the most iconic plays in franchise history. So much so that the Royals gifted Moustakas a No. 8 sculpture on Saturday -- crafted out of the dugout suite netting and railing.

Moustakas slashed .251/.306/.430 with 139 home runs over parts of eight seasons as a Royal. His 38 home runs in 2017 set a single-season club record at the time until Jorge Soler hit 48 in 2019.

Moustakas was traded to the Brewers in 2018, and would go on to play for the Reds, Rockies and Angels. The three-time All-Star finished his 13-year career with 215 home runs, a .739 OPS and 12.7 bWAR.

Kansas City was always home.

“This organization and the people in it saw me at 18 years old,” Moustakas said. “Now at 36 and a father of four, they’ve seen me grow up from the kid I was to the man I am today. It’s pretty amazing to be able to be back here and finish my career as a Royal.”

Before taking the field for the ceremony honoring him on Saturday afternoon, Moustakas admitted he was more nervous for his three-minute speech than Game 7 of the World Series.

But he was looking forward to it.

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to say thank you to all the people that got me to this point,” Moustakas said.

That includes the 60-plus family and friends he brought with him Saturday. It includes his former teammates, coaches and the entire Royals organization.

And it included Kansas City, too. The fans who didn’t let him fall.

“This is my home away from home,” said Moustakas, a Los Angeles native. “The other franchises I played for, the other teams were great. Some phenomenal players, great people, great organizations, but this was always my first team. This was always my family. This is where I felt like I belonged, and this is where I wanted to end up, one way or another.”