With the team struggling with a 48–50 win-loss record on July 21, following comments by manager Ned Yost that the team needed to improve its play, Ibañez led a players-only meeting, which players including Eric Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain credited with turning around the attitudes of the players. The Royals then won 24 of their next 30, secured a wild card berth, and reached the 2014 World Series, losing to the San Francisco Giants. Ibañez was not on the Royals' postseason roster, except for the Wild Card Game, in which he did not appear.