This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers’ Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

KANSAS CITY -- For the first time since 2017, Eric Hosmer returned to Kauffman Stadium over the weekend, this time as a member of the Boston Red Sox. The crowds treated him to standing ovations each night he played, and on Thursday, the Royals played a montage full of his highlights, including his many epic postseason moments.

His return, rightfully, brought up memories of the Royals’ 2014-15 postseason runs and the group of Royals that won the 2015 World Series.

It was easy to reminisce about the roster of the past.

It also wasn’t hard to draw similarities to the young Royals roster of the present and what the organization is trying to build with a core group of hitters in Kansas City.

“Every team is different,” president of baseball operations Dayton Moore said Thursday. “Every player is different, they’re all unique in a lot of ways. So there are no two situations that are the same. But the formula is very similar.”

On May 6, 2011, Hosmer debuted for Kansas City. It was so anticipated and so significant that the Royals’ front office coined a term for it.

Operation Flip the Switch.

Hosmer’s debut signaled the arrival of a handful of young and talented prospects that summer -- ones who eventually gave the Royals their first World Series title in 30 years. But it was not immediate. The Royals lost 91 games in 2011 and 90 in '12. It wasn’t until ’13 that they finished above .500, and a year later when they ended their postseason drought.

“Ultimately, when you get to the big leagues, you realize this is the hardest stop of them all,” Hosmer said. “Stuff doesn’t change in a year. It’s not going to go from bad to good. You’ve got to fight through some stuff, make some adjustments. And you got to learn as a team and individually. I think that’s what we did well. We learned stuff, individually and as a team, [collaborated] our ideas off each other as we came up together. 

“It was a big group that felt extremely comfortable bouncing different ideas off each other.”

If you’ve paid attention to anything coming out of the Royals’ clubhouse in the past few days, Hosmer’s words sound familiar. These current Royals rookies grew up through the farm system together. They’re now learning from each other and pushing each other in Kansas City.

“I think that’s one of the things we’ve done a good job of in our Minor League careers, is pushing for each other,” second baseman Michael Massey said. “To look around and see those familiar faces, you settle in, and it’s back to normal like it was playing in the Minor Leagues. It helps having guys go through the same experience that you’re going through.”

Here’s Hosmer again, for good measure: “This league is tough to figure out. It’s tough to figure out on your own, so if you can use as many resources as you have, as many coaches and teammates, players, all that type of stuff, you want to lean on those guys as much as you can. ... When you do it with a group of guys that you grew up through the Minor League system with, get called up right around the same time together and win, [that] was really special.”