By Greg Echlin

The Kansas City Royals’ recent pick-ups of Brian Goodwin, Rosell Herrera and Brett Phillips weren’t earth-shaking.  But some past subtle moves in Royals history proved to be some of the most valuable additions to a championship team.  

Take Charlie Leibrandt, for example, who arrives in Kansas City this weekend for a celebration of the 1985 World Series championship when the St. Louis Cardinals are in town.  In June, 1983, while pitching for Indianapolis in the Cincinnati Reds organization, Royals general manager John Schuerholz picked up Leibrandt for Bob Tufts who never returned to the big leagues after the trade.

“About the time I was in Indianapolis pitching for the Cincinnati Reds, I was starting to pitch a little bit better,” said Leibrandt, who broke in with the Reds and spent parts of four seasons in the big leagues before his trade to the Royals.  “I started to figure out things (and) how to pitch.”

Leibrandt was 7-1 with a 1.24 ERA when he was promoted to the Royals in 1984, the same year eventual Royals Hall of Famers Bret Saberhagen and Mark Gubicza were rookies.

“I knew I had my hands full competing with those guys, but it was fun to break in with those guys,” said Leibrandt.

By then, while Saberhagen and Gubicza shot through the Royals system and made it to the big leagues in their early 20s, Leibrandt was 27.

“I was the old guy on the staff,” said Leibrandt.

He won 11 games for the Royals after his ’84 promotion and won a career-high 17 games in ’85.  Rounding out the rotation were Danny Jackson, another product from the Royals farm system, and Buddy Black who also became a steal in a trade with the Seattle Mariners.

The Royals newcomers at that time had the opportunity to blend in with veterans George Brett, Frank White and Hal McRae.

These days, it’s a little different.

The Royals newcomers can look up to perennial All-Star catcher Salvador Perez.  But outfielder Alex Gordon appears to be on the downside of his career and Danny Duffy, the Royals opening day starting pitcher, is still on a search for better wire-to-wire consistency.

Like Charlie Leibrandt did, it will be up to the new-look Royals to figure things out.  The Royals front office hopes they do it soon.