Royals fire president of baseball operations Dayton Moore

The Kansas City Royals have made a major change in their front office, parting ways with longtime team president Dayton Moore.

Moore confirmed that he had been let go, as first reported by Ken Rosenthal and Andy McCullough of The Athletic. Moore said he was “thankful” for the chance to run the Royals, but “disappointed” at not being able to see through the team’s current rebuild.

Moore took over the Royals in 2006, making him one of the longest-tenured executives in baseball. It took him nearly a decade to turn the franchise into a successful one, but the patience paid off as the Royals won consecutive AL pennants in 2014 and 2015. Kansas City narrowly fell short in seven games against the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 World Series but beat the Mets in five games a year later to claim the championship.

Since then, the Royals have failed to reach those heights once more. Kansas City entered play Wednesday at 59-89, and though there is promise at the MLB level, the team has clearly not progressed as quickly as ownership hoped or expected. The organizational culture seemed to take a hit as well.

Moore is still just 55, so he has a decent chance of landing another executive job elsewhere if that is what he wants.