Who won the 2015 World Series?
By John Buhler
With 2016 MLB Opening Day right around the corner, in case you forgot who won the 2015 World Series last October, it was the AL Champion Kansas City Royals.
The 2016 MLB season is merely days away from being under way. With 30 teams vying for a chance at winning the 2016 World Series, let’s take a second and look back on who won the 2015 World Series back in October: the two-time reigning American League Champion Kansas City Royals.
The Royals until achieving an AL postseason berth as a Wild Card in 2014 had the longest active MLB postseason drought in baseball going on 30 years! Until very recently, the last time that Kansas City made the AL postseason was when they won the 1985 World Series over the in-state rival St. Louis Cardinals of the National League.
Kansas City spent decades rebuilding trying to recreate what was so special about those Royals teams of the 1970s and 1980s centered around Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett. The Royals lost general manager John Schuerholz to the Atlanta Braves in 1990, building a dynasty in the National League for a decade and a half.
It wasn’t until KC poached two of Schuerholz’s disciples from Atlanta that the Royals starting building an American League behemoth. Former Braves front office executive Dayton Moore became the Royals general manager. A few years later failed Milwaukee Brewers skipper and former Braves bullpen coach Ned Yost took over the Royals as their new manager.
While it took close to seven years, the Royals built a one-of-a-kind AL roster that the Junior Circuit had no answer for in the mid-2010s. Kansas City didn’t need a traditional slugger or an ace pitcher to clobber teams in the American League. KC built their roster on speed, athleticism, great fielding, timely hitting, and most importantly the best bullpen in baseball in over a decade.
Kansas City easily won the American League Central Division in 2015, as the second place Minnesota Twins finished a staggering 12 games back of the 95-67 Royals club. The Royals earned the No. 1 overall seed in the AL postseason with the best record in the Junior Circuit.
They awaited the winner of the 2015 AL Wild Card Game between the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros in the American League Division Series. Houston would fall to the Royals in the best-of-five series in Game 5 at Kauffman Stadium, 7-2.
Like in 1985, Kansas City would face the American League East Champion Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series. While Toronto’s dynamic lineup handled the Texas Rangers in the ALDS, KC would come out on top beating the Blue Jays in a best-of-seven series in Game 6 at Kauffman Stadium, 4-3.
Kansas City would face the 2015 National League Champion New York Mets in the 2015 World Series, where the sensational starting rotation of the Mets would challenge the bruising Kansas City bullpen.
The 2015 World Series was arguably the easiest of the three playoff series the 2015 Royals would play in. Kansas City claimed their first World Series Championship in 30 years by besting the Mets in five games, beating New York 7-2 in Game 5. Entering 2016, Kansas City remains one of the best bets to win the 2016 World Series.
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