Why the Kansas City Royals are well-positioned for American League playoff chase

We’ve made enough out of the shirts scattered inside the Royals’ clubhouse, with just five letters acknowledging the receipt of a message from their manager.

Today.

It became a theme in the depths of bad baseball, the worst baseball in Kansas City history, come to think of it, but also how their superstar player found solace.

On the other end of it, the Royals are 71-56 heading into a weekend series with the Phillies, with that superstar shortstop, Bobby Witt Jr., a candidate for the league’s highest honor. Oh, yeah, this is also on the other end of it:

Today.

The message remains.

Because it’s about to get real.

The Royals, occupying one of three American League Wild Card spots — though we should be talking more about their prospects in the AL Central — will play 17 of their next 20 baseball games against teams currently leading their respective divisions. The other three? Those come against the second-place Twins.

It’s a gauntlet, and a sharp contrast from the schedule that preceded it. The Royals have had the easiest slate in MLB this season, even if the balanced schedule has narrowed the separation. What awaits now, though is the second most difficult final five weeks in the game.

They are set to face the best the sport has to offer.

But let add something else to that: Those first-place teams are set to face the best the Royals have to offer — or have had to offer all season.

This isn’t a prediction that the Royals are about to glide through these next 20 games. They probably won’t. It’s a statement that they are as well-equipped for it as they have been all season.

In other words, what better time for this?

The Royals have been a flawed team all year. The lineup has been too reliant on three hitters packed together in the heart of the order. The bullpen wishes it could say it’s been reliant on three pitchers.

But that team, flaws and all, stands 71-56, in the thick of a playoff race few outside the building anticipated at the onset of the season. (That’s the same record as this time in 2014.) Today, on Aug. 22, it remains littered with imperfections.

But far fewer of them.

That comment isn’t restricted to one series, but, man if the previous series wasn’t an indication of it.

Paul DeJong unquestionably led the series-opening win Monday, supplying a two-run homer as the Royals prevailed 5-3. He has an .888 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) since the Royals acquired him in a trade that didn’t exactly headline the deadline additions last month.

Two days later, the Royals asked Lucas Erceg to close out the series against the Angles.

Strike out swinging.

Strike out looking.

Line out.

Inning over. The bottom of the ninth became an afterthought, and that’s after it’s been at the forefront of our conversation for months.

Michael Lorenzen started that Wednesday night game, by the way, and after a bumpy start with his control, he still managed to produce seven shutout innings. Lorenzen has a 1.99 earned-run average in four stars since his arrival in trade last month.

Erceg, meanwhile, has been the second most valuable relief pitcher in all of baseball (in terms of fWAR) since the Royals acquired him from the A’s 24 days ago. It’s the best stretch by any Kansas City reliever this year.

Since his return in July from Tommy John surgery, Kris Bubic has been the most valuable arm in the bullpen not named Lucas Erceg. John Shreiber, who struggled over the summer after a red-hot April, is back after his own injury, but manager Matt Quatraro can offer him a different role.

A situation-based setup man.

Even through those May and June struggles, the Royals used Schreiber as an eighth-inning arm, because, uh, someone had to throw the eighth, and offseason free agent signing Will Smith didn’t produce. In this week’s series, Quatraro used Schreiber in the ninth once and the eighth another time because, well, the matchups showed it was not only the best option mixed into a basket of shoulder shrugs, but an actual good option.

Schreiber, even with his slump, has been lights-out against right-handers this season, holding them to a .518 OPS. His struggles come against lefties, who have posted an .897 OPS.

But with Bubic and the emergence of Sam Long, the Royals are better equipped to allow matchups, not innings or leverage, dictate roles. And perhaps when Hunter Harvey returns, as soon as this weekend, it could be a refreshed version.

If it seems like this is getting in the weeds, or that this is a bit long-winded, well, that’s part of the point. The Royals are quite evidently better in the margins than they have been all season, and the team without those improvements was still in position to contend for a postseason berth.

They are 3 1/2 games clear of Boston in the AL Wild Card race, trailing Cleveland by a smaller margin. That’s an important aspect of the story: They’ve offered themselves some cushion for the gauntlet that comes next.

But a more important aspect: Their trade-deadline additions are particularly relevant in a league that didn’t have perennial All-Star names switching uniforms, and particularly relevant in a league that won’t feature a 100-win team.

It’s as wide open as it’s been in a decade.

There’s opportunity.

Whatever happens, this much is true: The Royals are better suited for it than they have been all season.