The Royals still see a future for Bubba Starling. Yes, we’ve heard this before
Bubba Starling walked into a convention center in downtown Kansas City last January and spoke with optimism. Minutes before signing autographs at the Royals’ annual FanFest, he was candid about his past, admitting he once nearly quit baseball but noting that he now envisioned a future in which he was the Royals’ starting center fielder. And soon, he added.
This has been the cycle with Starling for nearly a decade now, a man with enough athletic potential to be selected fifth overall in the MLB Draft and earn a football scholarship to play quarterback at Nebraska. But the conclusion of the cycle has remained consistent, too. Disappointment. Struggles at the plate. Injuries.
But the Royals are ready to give it another go.
General manager Dayton Moore hopes to bring Starling back on a minor-league deal after the team non-tendered him last month.
“We like Bubba Starling a lot,” Moore said from his hotel suite at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas during this week’s winter meetings. “We think Bubba still has a lot of upside. We really feel like we need one more year with him.”
Ten minutes earlier in the conversation, Moore was dissecting the addition of Billy Hamilton, who the Royals plan to make their everyday center fielder. On Tuesday, they officially announced Hamilton’s one-year contract, which includes a mutual option for 2020.
That was the spot carved out for Starling long ago. The Royals selected him in the first round out of Gardner Edgerton High School in 2011. He has stepped to the plate nearly 2,500 times as a professional hitter, but not once in a major-league uniform. He has a career .236 average in the minors and an on-base-plus-slugging percentage south of .700.
But he made a couple of adjustments late in 2017, and there were signs that he had figured something out. His hand placement changed. His numbers did, too. That prompted optimism heading into 2018.
“I’ve been in the system long enough. ... I feel like I’m getting kind of old,” Starling said during FanFest in January. “It’s like, it’s time for me to figure this baseball thing out and run with it.”
On the heels of some potential signs he was doing that, the injuries came. Starling, 26, hit .296 with four home runs in 20 games last season.
But that was it. Twenty games. On a July morning, Starling stumbled while getting out of bed. His finger bent backward and was dislocated. It required surgery.
“This time last year, we felt really encouraged,” Moore said. “He’s had a string of bad luck.”
And it continues. The offseason blueprint called for Starling to collect some at-bats in he Dominican Republic winter league, but he became ill during his first days there. He played in just one game.
For now, that stands as his final act as a member of the Royals, another opportunity squandered. They elected to non-tender him last month rather than offer him a major-league deal.
But one more reunion remains a possibility.
“I think if we get one more year with him, I think he’ll make it,” Moore said. “That’s what I think.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2018 at 1:15 PM.