Starting his Major League career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2008, Escobar became a starting infielder in 2010. He had his best years after he was traded to Kansas City in 2011. While Escobar did not have a power game, hitting only 58 home runs in 1,552 games, he was known for his exceptional fielding and base running abilities. He recorded at least 20 stolen bases seven times, with a total of 253 SB. Escobar also had three seasons where he broke 1.5 in Defensive bWAR. His best year was in 2015 when he was an All-Star, won the Gold Glove, and played a pivotal role in the Royal World Series win that year. Escobar won the ALCS MVP, batting .478 with 5 RBIs, and he hit an inside-the-park home run in the World Series.

Over the course of his career, he had 1,486 hits.

A Milwaukee Brewer for the first three years of his career, Alcides Escobar was traded to the Kansas City Royals in 2011, where he spent the next eight years as their starting Shortstop.

Alcides Escobar arrived in the Kansas City organization via a December 2010 blockbuster trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, a deal that sent Zack Greinke to the NL in exchange for a package of young talent. While he arrived as a highly touted defensive prospect, he evolved into the literal iron man of the franchise's most successful era.

After arriving in the 2010 trade, Escobar immediately took over the starting shortstop duties in 2011, providing a foundational defensive stability the organization had lacked for years. He showed the organization he was a specialized professional by batting .293 with 35 stolen bases in 2012, a high-frequency offensive performance that hinted at his potential as a spark plug. Between 2013 and 2014, he established his reputation as the team's "Iron Man," appearing in nearly every game and serving as the defensive anchor for the 2014 squad that reached the franchise's first World Series in nearly three decades.

This specialized durability and high-tempo approach served as the perfect lead-in to his historic 2015 campaign. That summer, he demonstrated a knack for rising to the occasion, earning his first career All-Star selection and winning a Gold Glove Award. He showed the organization he was a foundational winner during the postseason, where his bat became a localized phenomenon; he was named the ALCS MVP after hitting .478 against the Blue Jays. The Royals went on to win the World Series, though his skills quickly eroded afterward.

Escobar was traded after the 2018 season, and overall as a Royal, he had 1,208 Hits.