Royals: As 3 coaches opt out of Jays series, Dayton Moore’s disappointment says it all

Kansas City Royals GM Dayton Moore is very disappointed with his players and coaches after 10 players and three coaches were not able to travel to Toronto due to Canada’s COVID-19 travel restriction.

10 Kansas City Royals players and three coaches were unable to make the trip to Toronto for their four-game series. As a result, the team had to make a flurry of moves before starting the series.

Royals star infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield was one of the 10 players that could not travel with the team since he is not vaccinated for COVID-19. He suffered a toe injury on Sunday that broke his streak of 553 games played in a row on Monday. But if he was healthy, he revealed that he might have been vaccinated … if the Royals were actually a team that was in playoff contention and they might have to play the Blue Jays in Canada.

“That’s the only reason that I would think about getting it at this point, is to go to Canada,” Merrifield explained to Anne Rogers of MLB.com. “That might change down the road. Something happens and I get on a team that has a chance to go play in Canada in the postseason, maybe that changes.”

Royals President Dayton Moore spoke with Soren Petro of 810 WHB in Kansas City about the situation and he was not happy.

Royals President Dayton Moore is “disgusted” with Whit Merrifield, others

Kansas City Royals President Dayton Moore revealed to Petro that he had heard Whit Merrifield’s comments and he was not happy.

“I was disappointed,” Moore said. “Truthfully, I was disgusted.”

He also said that Royals owner John Sherman is “disappointed and upset” with the events as well.

Moore also said that it has been a season-long issue. “We’ve already dealt with a lot of frustration and tension throughout the course of this season to be very candid with you,” Moore said.

The Royals were not build to be a winner in 2022 but if there’s as much strife on the team as it seems, the Royals need to hit the reset button and trade away some of their players at the trade deadline and make some managerial and/or coaching changes as well.