NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Aside from possible roster improvements the Royals may make here at the Winter Meetings, manager Ned Yost believes recovery time itself could help his team the most this offseason.
Fatigue from two World Series runs in 2014 and '15 may have hurt the Royals as much as anything last season.
"I always say to myself that you don't want to make excuses," Yost said, "but the fact of the matter was, yeah, we missed three months of recovery and conditioning time over the last two years, which is vitally important.
"For me, it had a big impact on guys like Chris Young, who is so diligent and dedicated in his offseason conditioning program, and that was cut short. Wade Davis is the same way. His recovery and conditioning time for the winter was cut way short.
"I know how it was for me last [offseason]. At the end of the winter, I told my wife that I can hardly wait to get to Spring Training so I can get some rest. And it was the same way with the guys, too. I think a full winter is going to benefit us greatly."

Not that his players eased off the gas pedal at any point last year, Yost insisted.
"I think they were disappointed," Yost said. "But, you know, it's like I tell my guys, 'You know, all you can do is when you step on that field, just give all you have for that day, every bit of it.' I never felt one moment during that season that our guys didn't do that. With the injuries, when they started piling up, you've got guys like [Alcides] Escobar and guys like [Kendrys] Morales and Eric Hosmer trying to pick up that slack, that's a lot of slack to pick up, you know?
"I think our guys at the end of the year, each and every one of them, they could look themselves in the mirror and say, 'Hey, you know what? We gave it everything we had, it just didn't work out.' We had too many injuries, we just ran out of steam there at the end because, you know, we at times lost three or four, maybe even five All-Stars. It was what it was. I don't feel like ... we left anything on the table. I don't feel like they felt like we should have done better."