Couple things: While the Twins seemed poised to be fine with the "decent SP's" bit, they don't seem poised to go after great RP (and seem to look for decent RP) Additionally, the Royals did bring in James Shields (who pitched in the playoffs and world series in 2014) and Cueto in 2015, so even they sorta of "knew" or wanted an ace. I wouldn't call the Royals hitting just "OK" Hosmer 122 OPS+ Mouse 120 OPS+ Gordon 120 OPS+ Cain 126 OPS+ (MVP type play overall, defense speed etc) Morales 128 OPS+ Zobrist 121 OPS+ Plus the ones hitting below average had their strengths as well: Perez- Great D, 21 HR Escobar- Great D, 17 SB Dyson- 26 SB Butera- PIRANHA! For comparison's sake the Twins had one guy over 120 OPS last year (Sano) and the next highest were at 102 and 101 (Dozier and Escobar) though they had a lot of guys right below 100 in the 96-99 range (Mauer, Plouffe, Rosario, Hicks) All that is to say the Royals had a GREAT hitting team, an "ok hitting team" is what the 2015 Twins were. They also don't see to value speed/defense like the Royals did either, as they just shipped off Hicks (most SB on the team, great D) and seem to be content at the moment to roll with an OF featuring both Sano and Arcia.