Royals’ Bubba Starling on breaking through to the majors: ‘It’s time’

Royals general manager Dayton Moore doesn’t expect Bubba Starling to be the team’s opening day center fielder.

But he doesn’t want Starling thinking that way.

“He may expect that, and that’s good,” Moore said. “And if he wins it, he wins it.”

Center field is open with the departure of Lorenzo Cain, whose Royals career ended when he agreed to a deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. The Royals have candidates, and one of them is Starling, the team’s first-round pick in 2011 from Gardner Edgerton High who seeks his major-league debut.

Starling has worn the uniform of nearly every team in the Royals system. He may have been in line for a September callup last year but battled a torn oblique that sidelined him for the season in August. This after he gave serious consideration to pulling the plug on his baseball career.

“It’s been a roller coaster to for sure,” Starling said. “It’s been fun, but there have been times when it’s been awfully stressful.”

So much so that Starling found himself in tears after an April game in Class AAA Omaha, ready to leave the game. He originally told his story last summer and revisited the moment on Friday.

“This was after a horrendous stretch, I think I was hitting about a buck 17 (.117), X amount of strikeouts and I remember sitting there bawling after a game,” Starling said. “It kept snowballing each day.”

But from that low point, Starling started hitting. He changed the position of his hands and the tweak worked. He finished the abbreviated season hitting .248 with a .303 on-base percentage and .381 slugging percentage. Not All-Star numbers but much better considering where he started the season.

He brings confidence into this season.

“I know it’s in there for me, and that’s why I’m still working hard at it,” Starling said. “If I didn’t think I could make it to the major leagues, I’d have been done with it. Obviously, I not only want to do if for me, I want to do it for my family and all the support I have around Kansas City.”

Starling said the time has arrived for him to take the final step of his baseball career.

“I’ve been in the system long enough, seven years now, I feel like I’m getting kind of old,” said Starling, 25. “It’s like, it’s time for me to figure this baseball thing out and run with it.”

This story was originally published January 26, 2018 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Royals’ Bubba Starling on breaking through to the majors: ‘It’s time’."