How Jarrod Dyson’s return to Royals is about what he embodies and stands for
When it comes to Jarrod Dyson, maybe the first images that come to mind are those attached to his vivid personality: his mantra, “That’s What Speed Do,” and the vroooming on the base paths. Or the backflip and a tendency toward filter-free talk.
Remember his answer, for instance, when he was asked if he believed the American League Championship Series against Baltimore would be returning there with the Royals holding a 2-0 lead as the series resumed in Kansas City?
“No, sir, I don’t,” Dyson said, “and I don’t think (the Orioles) think that, either.”
But beyond the theatrical elements, it was his improbable journey and the depth of his entwinement in the revival of the Royals that truly made him an irresistible character. He was dynamic on the field in certain key ways and authentic and relatable in other ways that mattered profoundly to teammates as well as fans, once compelling Eric Hosmer to say Dyson “controls everything” in the clubhouse.
All of which helps explain why the Royals on Friday signed the 36-year-old outfielder to a one-year contract after he’d spent various parts of the last four seasons with Seattle, Arizona, Pittsburgh and the Chicago White Sox.
“I’m glad to be back home,” the man whose Twitter handle is @mrzoombiya said on a Zoom call on Saturday.
Simple as the words might be, they spoke eloquently to why his anticipated role, and persona, will resonate more than what might typically be expected from a reserve outfielder.
It’s not just that Dyson has what Royals general manager Dayton Moore considers exemplary energy, a contagious fearlessness and the stuff of being a “glue guy.”
It’s not just that Dyson is the portrait of perseverance and now evidently reckons he can relate to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, saying, “I feel like I’m aging backwards.”
It’s also about how, where and when he started aging forward in 2006 to become part of the DNA of the rebirth of a then-drooping franchise into 2015 World Champions.
After another sag since then, the organization now appears poised for a second surge built around a seemingly potent lineup, promising young pitching and supplemented by the return last year of Greg Holland and Wade Davis and Dyson this year.
This isn’t just a novelty act or reprisal of Glory Days.
There’s a purpose in spackling in the leadership and examples of those who’ve been there before — including the one who theoretically was part of it even before Moore.
The day before Moore officially began his job in 2006, the Royals made Dyson the 1,475th player selected in the draft, in the long-since-dissolved 50th round, based on super-scout Art Stewart’s fascination with Dyson’s speed.
On Saturday, Dyson recalled that he was driving in his Oldsmobile Cutlass in his hometown of McComb, Mississippi when he got what would prove to be a life-changing call and almost instantly was ready to sign for what MLB.com reported was $5,000.
Scrawny and short at perhaps less than the 5-foot-9 he is listed as, Dyson was eager to seize the opportunity to avoid harsh pitfalls of the life there that had afflicted family and friends.
Years later, Royals manager Ned Yost would say Dyson never was given one thing his whole life. But the Royals organization became the gift that kept on giving — one that Dyson reciprocated.
“Man, the connections run deep,” he said, shaking his head, later adding, “Through all my ups and downs in this organization, they never turned their back on me … I’m always going to keep that in the heart.”
You saw that in how he beamed whenever Stewart was around and how he never missed a chance to express gratitude to Moore, someone he still considers a father figure.
They stood by him through uncertain early days and injuries. And during a 50-game suspension in 2009 for violating the minor-league performance-drug enhancing drug policy after reportedly taking pain medication for a toothache.
“I can never repay (Moore) for that,” Dyson said in 2015.
Along with the likes of Hosmer, Holland, Mike Moustakas and ever-since Royals Danny Duffy and Salvador Perez, he was steeped in the developing culture that rose as champions through the minor leagues and broke into the bigs in 2010 and 2011.
They struggled together … and then they forged a path to the franchise’s first postseason appearance in 29 years: In the unforgettable wild-card game against Oakland, Dyson scored the tying run in the bottom of the ninth inning on the way toward changing all that seemed possible.
After the Royals lost the 2014 World Series in Game 7 with Alex Gordon stranded on third base as the tying run, Dyson had a tantrum in the clubhouse, throwing and slamming things, and said he stayed in bed for several days trying to get over it.
“I felt like a guy who went out on a date and got dumped by his girl,” he said later. “Heartbroken, like, ‘What am I going to do next?’ … Like, I really couldn’t move if I wanted to.”
But that unfulfilled emptiness throughout the team became an active and critical part of its motivation a year later, when Dyson scored the winning run in the Game 5 victory against the Mets to clinch the World Series.
Afterward, he was the guy to follow out of the clubhouse celebration and onto the field. With Hosmer, he stood on the steps of the dugout holding the Commissioner’s Trophy and roaring. Moments later, he got up on the dugout and raced back and forth, mixing it up with Royals fans who had made their way down at Citi Field.
A year after the unbearable, he didn’t want the moment to end. Heck, he even wondered if they could do a clubhouse sleepover.
Even after he was traded to Seattle for pitcher Nate Karns in January 2017, he never really felt different.
Moore told him in the moment that he would always “keep my eye on you and keep tabs on you,” Dyson said Saturday, and part of him always felt like he’d return.
Just weeks after he was traded, Dyson joined the Royals entourage in the Dominican Republic to attend the funeral of Yordano Ventura.
On the long bus ride from Santo Domingo to Las Terrenas, Dyson spoke of watching Ventura grow up and his love for him as a teammate who always had their backs. Tears fell from behind his sunglasses.
At the visitation for Ventura, Dyson was so overcome that he sank into Moore, who kept his arm around him as Dyson sat down.
From the excruciating to the exhilarating and every mundane thing in between, all of these experiences with the Royals made Dyson both vital in what they did then and give him stature and voice to be a part of what’s possible now.
He stands for the past, yes, but also for what it took to make it so. And he embodies the message of maximizing the precious present.
“Really shouldn’t be here, to most people,” he said in 2015. “But to myself, it ain’t where you get drafted, it ain’t where you’re from.
It’s what you do when you get a shot.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2021 at 7:05 PM with the headline "How Jarrod Dyson’s return to Royals is about what he embodies and stands for."