KANSAS CITY -- The 2018 Royals are on a club-record pace for losses, but team owner David Glass told MLB.com by phone on Monday that general manager Dayton Moore has his "100 percent support."
"He absolutely does have my support," Glass said. "We all need to, myself and the fans, hang with Dayton. He built us into a [World Series] champion before and I am certain he will do so again. I think he's the best GM in the business."
Glass said he is dismayed by this season. The Royals entered Monday's series opener against the Cubs on pace to lose 112 games, which would shatter the club record of 106 in 2005, a season before Glass hired Moore.
"Losing [stinks]," Glass said. "No one is pleased with this. But in talking with Dayton and our baseball operations people, we believe we are headed in the right direction."
Glass said he is encouraged by the amount of young talent evident in the low Minors. Glass said he also has been impressed with some of the prospects he has seen in person -- he has often made the 30-minute drive from his home in Bentonville, Ark., to Springdale, home of the Royals' Double-A Northwest Arkansas team.
"I think that young talent is the real deal," Glass said. "I think we are stocked with good young talent from [Class A] Lexington and below to Double-A. I've had a chance to see that talent coming through Northwest Arkansas and it's impressive. You have Khalil Lee [ranked as the club's No. 2 prospect by MLB Pipeline]. And this [Nicky] Lopez kid [No. 7 prospect] that we sent to [Triple-A] Omaha, he's going to be a good one.
Glass added he was pleased with the positive reviews of this year's MLB Draft in which the Royals used their first five selections on college pitchers.
"It's no secret that our pitching hasn't been very good," Glass said. "But we've got those college kids and they will develop faster [than high school picks]. We've got a chance for all of this talent to really come together at once and come up together, like Dayton was able to do with the last group.
"I think the fans are really going to enjoy this next group of kids, just like they did the last one. The fans in Kansas City are great and they're knowledgeable -- they can recognize the talent and they will support us in this process. I think it will be a lot like 2013, and 2014, and 2015, when the fans really related with the players."
Glass said he believes this rebuild will be different than Moore's first with the Royals.
"When I look at it, I see Dayton rebuilding it with the idea of sustaining that success over a long period," Glass said. "He's really focused on stuffing the pipeline with talent so there doesn't have to be a winning period and then dropping off to a losing period. He wants to sustain the success and you do that by really focusing on continuously stocking the system."
And how long does Glass believe it will be before the Royals are contenders again?
"I think by 2020, we'll be right in the middle of it again," Glass said.