World Series notes: A tough year ends well for Royals’ Raul Ibanez

This turned out to be a pretty good year for Raul Ibanez. He lost his job with the Angels, and then his roster spot. But the Kansas City Royals signed him, so Ibanez gets a share of playoff money from the Angels and the Royals, and a World Series experience too.

“It’s amazing,” Ibanez said Sunday. “I’ve been blessed. The way things started this year, who would have thought that it worked out this way?”

After the Angels traded Mark Trumbo to secure pitching, they signed Ibanez to replace Trumbo at designated hitter. Ibanez had just turned 42 in June when the Angels released him, after he’d batted .157 with three home runs in 166 at-bats.

The Royals — the team that gave him his first shot as an everyday player in 2001 — signed him as a hitter and mentor. He batted .180 with two home runs in 66 at-bats, with his last start on Sept. 1. The Royals did not include him on their World Series roster, but he is traveling with the team. Eric Hosmer, the Royals’ cleanup batter, says Ibanez helps the young players in the batting cage and the video room.

“Your goal as a person, really, is to try to help out and make people better,” Ibanez said. “Our only cause is to win games here. If that’s the purpose, it’s important that you can contribute when you’re not playing — especially when you’re not playing.”

Said Royals General Manager Dayton Moore: “He’s a winner. I can’t say enough great things about Raul Ibanez. I’m a better person and baseball man for getting to know him.”

Ibanez has 305 career home runs, as many as David Justice and four more than Rogers Hornsby. Ibanez said he has decided whether to retire but declined to disclose his decision.

“I think it would be irresponsible of me to talk about it,” he said. “We’ll finish this thing out — hopefully on top, as champions — and we can talk about it then.”

Learning curve

Kansas City Manager Ned Yost endured intense criticism for inserting rookie starter Yordano Ventura into the sixth inning of the American League wild-card game. Ventura promptly gave up a three-run home run, and Yost was roasted for using a young pitcher in an unusual role.

Yost freely admitted Sunday that he had learned from the experience, in the first postseason game he had managed. The Royals had won in the regular season with Kelvin Herrera pitching the seventh inning, Wade Davis the eighth and Greg Holland the ninth, but Yost said the Ventura episode helped him realize the postseason would be the time to expand Herrera’s workload.

“It really opened my mind about using Herrera more in the sixth inning to get us out of some of those situations,” Yost said. “That was the one thing that happened that really helped me get better as a manager.”

Happy to be here

Yost was more than happy to expand on his postgame comments after Game 4, when the Royals were routed and he said this: “I’ve never felt so good about getting my tail whooped in my life.”

After all, Yost said Sunday, the Royals had won as many games in the series as the San Francisco Giants — and he was participating in the World Series.

“It’s what you live for, man,” Yost said. “I’ve been waiting my whole life for this, and I’m not going to sit back and be uptight and not enjoy every second of this.”

The Giants’ Bruce Bochy, managing his fourth World Series, said he makes time for friends and family after each game.

“They like to run through the whole game with you like you weren’t there,” Bochy said, laughing. “I have to remind them I was there.”

bill.shaikin@latimes.com

Twitter: @BillShaikin