Aikens inherited the first base job upon his arrival in Kansas City despite not being a very good fielder (he committed a league-leading 12 errors in ). Recovering from knee surgery, he got off to a slow start but hit well in the second half of the season. He finished second to George Brett on his team in both home runs and RBIs with 20 and 98, respectively. The Royals won their division by 14 games to face the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series for the third time in four years. After having come up short in 1976, 1977 and 1978, the Royals swept the Yankees in three games in the 1980 American League Championship Series to face the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.