You haven’t seen the last of Royals pitcher Brandon Maurer
After the 2012 season, when Royals reliever Brandon Maurer was a Class AA pitcher in the Mariners organization, Baseball America named him Seattle’s sixth-best prospect.
Evaluators wrote that Maurer, a 23rd-round pick in 2008, had begun to come into his own. At 22 years old, he wielded a mid-90s fastball and a swing-and-miss slider. He could also throw a curveball for strikes.
“Maurer’s emergence,” said the Baseball America report, “gives Seattle yet another pitching prospect with frontline potential.”
The Royals have not seen the promise of that scouting report in the year since they acquired Maurer from the Padres in exchange for left-handed pitcher Matt Strahm, teenage infielder Esteury Ruiz, veteran pitcher Travis Wood and cash considerations.
But they are still tantalized by the potential.
“He’s got talent, and he has a track record, so to speak,” manager Ned Yost said on Tuesday. “It’s just been a struggle for him, really, since we got him.”
What the Royals have seen from Maurer in the last year could be summed up by two points made by Yost about 18 hours after Maurer blew a save in what became a 5-4 loss to the Tigers on Monday night.
▪ A fastball that rides in the high 90s but doesn’t move much.
▪ And a changeup that’s been belted at a .600 clip and has yielded two doubles and two home runs this season.
Both were culprits in Maurer’s latest stumble on Monday night. He entered the ninth inning with a two-run lead and allowed three straight hits. Jeimer Candelario knocked a broken-bat single on a 100 mph fastball, Victor Martinez turned a changeup into a line-drive double, and Jim Adduci got enough of his bat on a 98-mph heater to knock a two-run double. Maurer departed without recording an out and was charged three runs and the loss.
It was the fifth time this season Maurer blew a lead or allowed a tie to break. Even still, the Royals will not give up on the 28-year-old soon.
“If I’d gotten fed up, he wouldn’t be here,” Yost said.
That said, Maurer was not here earlier this season. He was demoted to Class AAA Omaha in mid-April. Later, he was outrighted from the 40-man roster. He cleared waivers and returned to Omaha, where he posted a 5.48 ERA and allowed a .256 batting average.
He returned to the Royals on June 15 and has posted a 15.26 ERA in 11 games since.
Maurer hasn’t produced for the Royals like he did in San Diego, where he collected 20 saves last season. Of the eight save opportunities the Royals have given him, he’s blown five. He’s also allowed 37 earned runs in 32 innings since coming to Kansas City.
But the Royals still see hope, especially in Maurer’s slider. It is a plus-grade offering that opponents have squared for five hits — all singles — this season. Yost suggested the solution to Maurer’s struggles might be as simple as relying more on that breaking pitch, which MLB’s Statcast system says he throws 34 percent of the time, and better fastball location.
Whatever the case, the Royals will help Maurer work through it. Yost said Maurer will continue to get opportunities in the later innings if an opportunity arises like Monday night’s, where neither Wily Peralta nor Tim Hill were available.
“I’m waiting for him to perform,” Yost said. “I’ll put it that way. But I’m not handpicking save spots to put him in. Because I want him to get comfortable, I want him to be confident in going out there and — boom, boom, boom — blowing it away.”
The Royals believe they have seen glimpses of Maurer’s potential. They hope one day they’ll see more than just a peek.
This story was originally published July 24, 2018 at 10:54 PM.