So who goes into the burning building that is Kawasaki.

This is why they signed Malcom Stewart.  It was obvious to everyone it was insurance in case Chase did what he did.  

forkner too prob. 

Kitchen

Eli is done, he's realized his mortality with his last crash, where he landed on his head and injured his neck, there's more to life.

Same thing with Tomac. Look how much better his starts were, basically overnight on the Yamaha. And that was considered his Achilles Heel (no pun intended) when he was Team Green. Honestly, that alone should tell you enough about the bike.

If this isn't a wake up call for Kawi to clean house at the management level, then I don't know what it'll take. If it was just Prado last year, you could probably make a decent argument that he was the problem, but when two of the top guys in the world leave early in back-to-back years, that's a team problem. Hell, an NFL team fired their defensive coordinator mid-game a few weeks ago, so Kawi can definitely make some off season changes.

Realistically, I feel like Joe Shimoda, Coty Schock, or Michael Mosiman should be next in line for a Kawasaki 450 ride. At this point they're kind of wasting time in the 250 class, and in Joe's and Coty's case, they'd probably be better off in 450 VS trying to milk the 250 class for a title that is out of their reach, since they don't ride for Star Yamaha.

He never rode for Factory Kawasaki.  

250 has nothing to do with 450 race teams.  They are completely different motorcycles 

Rumor has it Levi Kitchen has multiple offers from teams if he doesn’t want to go to Kawasaki.  If he’s going to leave Mitch, he might as well go where the money is at.  I even heard someone say “Beta would sign him tomorrow if they had the money” LOL