Lorenzo Cain on KC Royals retirement. Who could be next in team Hall of Fame? | Podcast

The Royals celebrated the Kansas City career of Lorenzo Cain over the weekend with a contract-signing ceremony that allowed him to retire as Royal.

On today’s episode of SportsBeat KC, The Star’s sports podcast, you’ll hear from Cain about his KC career, with an emphasis on the 2014 and 2015 postseasons.

The occasion got us wondering about who else might receive such a ceremony with the Royals, and/or eventually join the team’s hall of fame. Manager Ned Yost will be the first from the group to enter the hall at a September ceremony.

But who else? It’s a little tricky for this reason: George Brett, Frank White, Amos Otis, Hal McRae and Willie Wilson played most of (or all of) their respective MLB careers in Kansas City. They’re the franchise’s top-five players in games played.

The second championship stretch for the Royals was populated with players who spent eight or fewer seasons with the Royals: Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar, Wade Davis and Greg Holland, among others.

But player movement is more common now and should be taken into account when considering such an honor. Besides, there are Hall of Fame players from the earlier era who weren’t Royals lifers (for instance, John Mayberry spent just six of his 15 big-league seasons in Kansas City).

Our list of players from the 2014-15 era who should enter the Royals Hall of Fame includes Salvador Perez, Alex Gordon, Cain, Hosmer, Moustakas, Escobar, Kelvin Herrera, Davis and Holland. Maybe the HDH bullpen enters as a trio.

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Celebration of Lorenzo Cain is reminder of both magical era and how Royals have fallen