In Royals debut, Jorge López falters but shows glimmers of potential

Hours before he made his first start in a Royals uniform, Jorge López arrived Wednesday morning at Kauffman Stadium and wandered.

He met his new trainers and coaches, introduced himself to a manager who had inside knowledge about him and began to ingratiate himself to new teammates.

Then he made himself comfortable in the home clubhouse, the one with the blue carpet and the Player of the Game sign that hasn’t lit up frequently this season.

He liked what he saw and what he felt. There was camaraderie; there was a sense of purpose, even in dwindling months of a season with a team on pace for 113 losses.

And, maybe most importantly, there was opportunity.

“It feels weird coming here the same day you start,” López said in Spanish. “But it’s really exciting to be here.”

López, a 25-year-old native of Puerto Rico, made his Royals debut in a 6-5 loss Wednesday night. It was not perfect by any stretch — except for a first inning in which he retired all three batters on 15 pitches — and ended with him getting the hook with two outs and two runners on base in the fifth inning. He’d allowed six earned runs in 4 2/3 innings. Four had scored on one swing from Blue Jays designated hitter Curtis Grandson, whose grand slam in the fourth inning was launched into the Royals’ right-field bullpen 373 feet away from where López had dangled a 93 mph fastball up and over home plate.

But in an 88-pitch outing, the right-hander displayed glimmers of potential: A four-seam fastball that zipped into the strike zone at 95.6 mph, a curveball called for strikes five times and a slider he turned to often to stay ahead of hitters.

With six weeks remaining in the season, these are the things the Royals want to see. They want to figure out what role López, acquired from Milwaukee in the trade of Mike Moustakas last month, might best be suited to play for them in the future. For now, the Royals will evaluate him as a starter.

“We want to have an idea going into the winter what we need to continue to build upon,” manager Ned Yost said.

The Brewers last year decided to move López to the bullpen after 13 starts at Class AA Biloxi and kept him as a reliever this season. He had a 5.65 ERA in 26 outings for Class AAA Colorado Springs, where Yost’s son is a coach, and a 2.75 ERA in 10 outings for Milwaukee.

But upon joining the Royals organization, López was asked to stretch out his arm. He’d logged nine innings in two starts for Class AAA Omaha when the Royals recalled him to take the place of Burch Smith in the big-league rotation and the spot of Blaine Boyer on the 25-man roster on Wednesday.

After months spent shuttling between Colorado Springs and Milwaukee, López finally has been afforded a chance to stake himself into a major-league role.

“I’m still finding a way to get better and have that consistency that I didn’t have the last couple years as a starter,” López said. “So I’m gonna for sure work on it. They gave me the opportunity to be a starter again and I’m grateful.”