The Kansas City Royals struggle to straddle the fence between building for the future and competing in the present. The balancing act forces them to make difficult personnel decisions. Factor in the clubs’ fiscal restraints, and the Royals’ roster makeup is by no means an exact science.

Expectations for 2019 being what they are, there might not be a real point to nitpick every decision. But it’s hard not to question some of the team’s decisions.

Look no further than an outfielder who is visiting Kauffman Stadium this weekend, the California Angels’ Brian Goodwin. The name sounds familiar, of course, because he’s the same guy who was a part of the Royals’ outfield plans, until he wasn’t.

On March 25, three days before opening day, the Royals waived Goodwin when he seemed a lock for Kansas City’s active roster. The Royals, after all, had traded for Goodwin in the middle of 2018 and thrust him into their outfield mix.

Goodwin’s presence gave the Royals the opportunity to send Jorge Bonifacio and Brett Phillips to the minors. They preferred to play Jorge Soler at designated hitter. Their top prospects weren’t ready to make the jump to the big leagues. The situation seemed perfect for Goodwin. It all made perfect sense.

But suddenly and without warning, the Royals sent the 28-year-old packing.

“I was shocked,” Goodwin told the Los Angeles Times earlier this season. “I had plans to find a place to live in Kansas City … not necessarily buying anything, but being there for the year. They told me they were going another way and I wasn’t in the plan. It was short and sweet but to the point. Well … it wasn’t very sweet.”

The Angels, probably as shocked as Goodwin was about the development, quickly snatched him off waivers and inserted him right into their lineup. So far, he’s rewarded them with a .333 batting average (which would lead the Royals) and a .423 on-base percentage entering the weekend series in Kansas City. He’s versatile, athletic, a good defender – just they type of thing the Royals typically value.

While the Royals’ outfield hasn’t been the reason for their sluggish start, it’s hard to fathom not having a place for Goodwin on the roster. By jettisoning Goodwin, they set themselves up for some less-than-desirable fits in right field. First, they started the season playing Whit Merrifield in right, and putting Chris Owings at second base. Then, they shifted to another arrangement – playing Jorge Soler everyday in right, which they had very recently said they wanted to avoid. Their intention had been to employ the oft-injured Soler at designated hitter whenever possible. But with Goodwin gone, they backpedeled from that declaration.

The optics of Goodwin returning to Kauffman Stadium with enviable stats are not good. But strange as it looks, the Goodwin decision is not the Royals’ only questionable move in this young season.

Keeping Terrence Gore on the roster: The idea seemed crazy. Reserve a roster spot for a pinch runner who possesses no other big league-caliber skills? What value would a pinch-running specialist have on a team with no chance at the playoffs? Thus far, the gamble has had mixed results. Gore has hit far better than anyone ever thought he might. But a “designated runner” prone to getting picked off in do-or-die situations is worth nothing.

Rushing Kyle Zimmer to the big leagues: Injuries have riddled Zimmer’s seven professional seasons. His experience entering 2019 was limited to less than 270 minor league innings. He didn’t pitch at all, anywhere, in 2018. Thrusting him under the bright lights of the major leagues while he was still rebuilding his arm, not to mention his confidence, seemed hasty. Zimmer’s talent wasn’t enough to get him through the first month of the season. He faltered in three games and was sent to the minors to regroup.

Signing Owings and playing him daily: The Royals signed Owings to a one-year deal for $3 million as a super-utility man. They had a more athletic super-utility option in Roselle Herrera, who was costing them just $560,000. But they expelled Herrera and brought in Owings. Ok if he’s going to fill a need just until prospect Nicki Lopez is deemed ready for the major leagues. But it’s not ok to play him every day. That’s what the Royals are doing. Owings has played in all but one game this season, hitting just .157 with no power or speed to provide any value. (FYI, Herrera found a spot on the Miami Marlins’ roster.)

Bringing back Lucas Duda: Most baffling of all is that the Royals decided to start the season with both Frank Schwindel and Duda – two big, slow first basemen – instead of keeping Goodwin. Schwindel has since been sent to the minors. But the Royals retained Duda, who is a redundancy. With a lefthanded first baseman in Ryan O’Hearn already on the roster, Duda provides nothing unique, and he is by no means part of the Royals’ future. The Royals were unable to trade Duda for anything last summer, and he appears to be worth even less now.

As the Kansas City Royals head to Chicago on Monday still in search of anyone who can pitch effectively in relief, they probably will glance wistfully over at the White Sox bullpen and long to have Kelvin Herrera back in the fold.

Now a linchpin in the Chicago relief corp, Herrera was just one year ago the anchor of the Royals’ late-game plan.

Herrera, remember, was the seventh-inning specialist in arguably the greatest bullpen in history. He was one third of the famed “HDH” triumvirate of Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland. After Holland succumbed to injury, Herrera’s workload increased. He eventually became the team’s closer in 2017.

There was never a question that Herrera would be traded at some point in 2018. He was much too valuable to waste away in the bullpen of a losing club. So, sentimentality be damned, the Royals dealt away one of the last remaining pieces of the 2015 championship club mid season. To the Royals’ largely depleted farm system, he brought three highly touted prospects in return.

But as their current relief corp seems to dump gasoline on a fire nightly, the Royals now are in search of someone – anyone – who can replicate what Herrera used to provide.

Herrera’s allegiance is now with the White Sox, who host the Royals for a three-game set April 15-17. But he will never forget the accomplishments, and relationships, from his time in Kansas City. After spending the second half of 2018 in the National League, Herrera returned to Kauffman Stadium for the first time opening weekend.

“It’s great to be back,” Herrera said during the opening weekend in Kansas City. “I have a lot of great memories here. This is where everything began for me.

“I felt it when I was driving from the hotel to the stadium and I saw the lights, and I just had that emotion that this was such a special place for me, where we did such special things.”

As a Central Division opponent, he will face the Royals 19 times this season. During the opening weekend against his former teammates, he pitched a scoreless seventh inning in a Royals’ victory March 30. He gave up three hits and a run the next day, but the White Sox held on for the win.

The nine-year veteran admitted it was strange to pitch to players with whom he’d so recently shared a clubhouse.

“I’ve never been in that situation before,” Herrera said about facing the Royals. “It’s a little bit strange. But once you’re on the field, you aren’t thinking about that. You put that aside, because I know I have a job to do.”

For their part, the Royals will take the same attitude toward their old friend.

“It’s not awkward. It’s actually kind of cool,” Terrence Gore said about facing Herrera. “We like doing it. It’s competitive. We know each other so well. It’s like your big brother pitching to your younger brother.

“We’ll always see him as part of what we accomplished (in 2015) We all came from the same team. We will look at him as a brother, no matter what. So we wish him the best, as I’m sure he wishes us the best.”

Much as the players feel like brothers, baseball is, above all, a business. That reality sent Herrera to the Washington Nationals for a few months, then brought him to Chicago as a free agent in the offseason. He said the transition of moving his wife and two children to Chicago happened quickly: “But that’s part of baseball. We know that is just part of it.”

Recognizing that trading players nearing the end of their contracts for prospects is the quickest way to build for the future, the Royals acquired three minor leaguers for Herrera last June.

Rated #14 in the list of Royals’ prospects, Kelvin Gutierrez is the closest of the three to the majors. Gutierrez is playing third base in Omaha and should get at least a taste of the big leagues this season. Eighteen-year-old pitcher Yohanse Morel is years away from the majors, but he ranks #20 in the farm system based on his raw potential. Blake Perkins, rated #23, has moved slowly through the minor leagues, but is an advanced centerfielder and a switch hitter.

So while the Royals are mired in a long-term rebuild of their bullpen, Herrera serves as a key building block for the White Sox relief corp.

“I feel pretty good about being in that role,” Herrera said. “I saw that happen in KC, where I was one of a lot of young players, and we developed that into a winning team. I see that opportunity here, to provide leadership to this team. Anything the other pitchers need, I will do it to help them develop.”

“He’s been awesome, especially to me, a younger guy who hasn’t had a lot of time to get his feet under him at this level,” said Ryan Burr, a 24-year-old rookie reliever for Chicago. “He’s made it very apparent to us younger guys that he’s someone we can go talk to.

“I really look up to him. I remember watching him pitch during those years that the Royals went to the World Series. So obviously he has incredible amounts of talent, but also knowledge that he can share. He’s really taken that leadership role in the bullpen. He’s taking me and some of the other younger guys under his wing and really showing us the ropes.”