The Kansas City Royals went 71-91 in 2011. While that sounds great in comparison to the current iteration, it was at the time considered by most to be just another rotten season by an inept franchise.

But anyone really paying attention might have noticed that on May 6 of that year, a rookie named Eric Hosmer was promoted to the big leagues at just 21 years of age.

Just a few days later, on May 18, Hosmer was joined by 22-year-old pitcher Danny Duffy. The two knew each other well, having played together at nearly every level of the minor leagues.

On June 11, 22-year-old Mike Moustakas joined the party. Then on August 10, Salvador Perez got called up not long after his 21st birthday. And on Sept. 21, yet another 21 year old, flame-throwing reliever Kelvin Herrera, was promoted to the big leagues.

At the time, hardly anyone noticed the tidal wave of talent crashing upon Kauffman Stadium. To some it might have appeared to be another move of desperation by a team without direction. But that wave had been planned, nurtured and timed with great precision.

Fewer still noticed when pitcher Greg Holland and outfielder Jarrod Dyson debuted in Kansas City at the tail end of 2010. But those seven players were a wave drafted or signed to international free agent deals by General Manager Dayton Moore several years earlier. Moore wasn’t just collecting talented players either. He was uniting them at the lowest levels of the minors, where they could play video games and cards together, go out at night together (years before they could legally buy a drink), sleep on the bus together, and learn the game together.

“In the minor leagues you don’t really have anybody else,” Duffy said. “You spend more time with these guys than with your own family. Hosmer is one of my best friends. Same with Moose. Same with Salvy, and so forth. That’s not only because of what we’ve done here (in Kansas City) but the road we took to get here.”

In a game where it’s hard to find one or two good major leaguers in one year, Moore signed Perez and Herrera as 16-year-olds in 2006, the same year he lucked into Dyson in the 50th round. The 2007 draft brought Moustakas (first round), Duffy (third round) and Holland (tenth round). Hosmer was added in the first round of 2008.

Duffy mentioned several others when recalling the wave of talent that came up around him, including Wil Myers, John Lamb and Mike Montgomery, each of whom was traded for key components of the championship club.

“I wouldn’t say we felt pressure. I think it’s exciting more than anything,” Duffy recalled. “We just had a good time playing. It feels, looking back, like it was one of the best Double-A teams ever. We were like 94-56 when you include the playoffs.”

Coming up together experiencing success is part of the process. Putting that many good players together should foster a winning culture that moves with them as they matriculate up the minor league ladder.

Moore is trying to replicate that wave again, and the ripple is currently building strength at Lexington, Kentucky, home of the Single-A Legends. The 2017 amateur draft brought a highly-regarded cohort that forms the foundation for the wave. First baseman Nick Pratto, catcher M.J. Melendez, pitcher Daniel Tillo and outfielder Michael Gigliotti, drafted in the first through fourth rounds, respectively, gave the farm system an instant boost. After getting their feet wet in rookie ball, the quartet, plus seventh round pick outfielder Brewer Hicklen, moved up to Lexington this spring.

The 2018 draft, heavy on college pitchers, doubled the size of the wave instantly. Added to the group at Lexington during the summer were pitchers Jackson Kowar and Daniel Lynch and outfielder Kyle Isbel.

The prospects from those two drafts are teamed with a handful of international signings including sensational outfielder Seuly Matias, who leads all of minor league baseball in home runs. In all, Lexington served as home to 13 of the Royals’ top 30 prospects, including six of the top 10. They have nearly every position covered, apart from second and third base, with a top 30 prospect. And they have six top 30 pitchers.

As happened with Duffy and friends, the Lexington wave is experiencing winning. The Legends, who finished their regular season schedule on Labor Day, are currently battling in the South Atlantic League playoffs.

“Learning to win together is a big part of it,” said Duffy. “We won in the Midwest League, we won in the Texas League, we won in the Pacific Coast League three times. We were pretty successful in the minor leagues. Fortunately it translated to the big leagues. We won a World Series and almost another one.

“It’s not about the kind of players they are, but how great these guys are, how good these people are off the field. I have no doubt that Dayton is going to put together the same type of clientele as far as character goes.”

Duffy has seen the majority of the players making up his wave depart over the years. Only he and Perez remain. He admits it’s hard to watch players you’ve grown up with go their separate ways.

“My advice to (the Lexington team) would be just to enjoy every moment of it, because it goes by really quick. Once you get here, you start seeing people part ways. So just enjoy your time together because that’s what it’s all about.

“It happened very fast. I had a lot of people telling me it would go by really quick, and yet you don’t see it until it’s gone.”

The Lexington wave will take time to arrive. Most of those players will advance just one rung of the minor league ladder per year. That means you won’t see most of them on your TV any sooner than 2021.

Duffy said he would encourage the next wave to try to soak up each day, while still keeping the end goal in mind and working hard towards it.

“You’re always looking to get to the big leagues. That’s your number one goal and the destination. But there is something to be said for trying to just enjoy where you are each day. I would tell those guys coming up to just enjoy every moment. Enjoy the Arizona days, even though they’re hot. Enjoy the 12-hour bus rides. Because it’s a simple time. It doesn’t seem like it in the moment, but you have a lot of fun in front of you if you just enjoy it.”

The Royals just drafted a passel of pitchers, including using their first five picks on college arms, to stock their empty farm system. None of the current top seven Royals prospects are pitchers, but they just took a few who might crack that upper echelon.

Immediately thereafter, the Royals added even more pitching prospects by trading rent-a-player Jon Jay.

But why was there such a dearth of arms in their system in the first place?

The problem was created in the summer of 2015 when the Royals traded five minor league pitchers to acquire Ben Zobrist and Johnny Cueto for the World Series run. None of the 800,000 who jammed downtown Kansas City for the parade complained about the price paid to acquire Zobrist and Cueto.

Dayton Moore calls pitching “the currency of baseball,” and he spent it with conviction to gain the crown.

Now, with a flag flying over Kauffman Stadium and no pitching talent in their farm system, it’s time to evaluate the cost.

On July 26, 2015, the Royals traded reliever Brandon Finnegan plus minor league pitchers John Lamb and Cody Reed to Cincinnati for Cueto, the starter they needed to get over the hump.

Then just two days later, to acquire Zobrist, the Royals dealt Sean Manaea, their prized pitching prospect, and Aaron Brooks, a reliever who had seen some time in the Kansas City bullpen.

The price seemed appropriate, but losing Finnegan and Manaea was a bitter pill to swallow. It only grew more distasteful as Manaea became the ace of the Oakland staff.

So when Manaea tossed a no-hitter on April 21 of this year, Royals fans couldn’t help but reflect on which could have been. Considering the failure of Danny Duffy and Ian Kennedy this season, and the struggle of Eric Skoglund to adjust to the big leagues, Manaea would look awfully nice fronting that group.

Manaea said Royals fans shouldn’t view it that way.

“It worked out for both sides. I’m really happy for where I am right now, and really happy for how it worked out for the Royals,” said the 26-year-old lefthander who is scheduled to face the Royals on Sunday. “It was awesome when they won the World Series. I couldn’t have asked for anything better for them. They did a really good job putting it together at the end (of 2015).”

Manaea said he wasn’t excited at the time to be traded away from the team that drafted him in 2013, but knows that it made sense.

“It was weird at the time, but ever since I got (to Oakland), everybody’s been really cool and I kind of eased into being a part of this team. So I was really fortunate that the Royals gave me a chance, and I understand that (being traded) is just a baseball-type of thing.”

Much as the Royals might wish they had Manaea in their rotation today, they didn’t lose much in dealing the other four pitchers.

Three years after the Cueto trade, the Reds aren’t benefitting at all from it. When the Reds come to Kansas City on Tuesday, they’ll bring none of the three former Royals with them.

Finnegan looked like a stud in his stint with the Royals, and trading the 22-year-old probably stung more than the loss of Manaea at the time. But after a solid 2016 in Cincinnati, Finnegan hasn’t accomplished much. He’s currently laboring in the minors, as are Lamb and Reed.

Brooks, meanwhile, hasn’t pitched in Oakland, or anywhere in the majors, since 2015. He was traded that winter and hasn’t resurfaced from the minors.

So the cost of the championship was essentially just Manaea. Unfortunately for Kansas City, however, other pitching prospects have failed to pan out, or have succumbed to injuries, leaving the Royals’ farm system nearly devoid of pitching prospects.

Now one of the worst teams in baseball, the shoe is on the other foot for the Royals. They are in a rebuilding process, with plenty of pieces to trade in Kelvin Herrera, Mike Moustakas, Lucas Duda and Jason Hamel, all of whose contracts are up after this season. The Royals might even decide to make others such as Whit Merrifield and Duffy available if the price is right.

Will any of these trade pieces bring a return like Oakland got in Manaea? One can only hope.