For Royals’ Brady Singer and Kris Bubic, the 2020 season was only a starting point

The transition of highly touted Kansas City Royals pitchers Brady Singer and Kris Bubic to the majors began in this pandemic-shortened season, but it’s naive to think it’s completed.

The young duo provided an encouraging glimpse into what the future of the Royals pitching staff might hold, a delightfully delicious appetizer to an eagerly awaited main course.

Even with talented and highly regarded prospects such as left-hander Daniel Lynch, right-hander Jackson Kowar and left-hander and first-round draft pick Asa Lacy on the horizon, it seems premature to realistically expect that the Royals could rely heavily on those young arms in 2021.

After all, one of the prominent schools of thought in the baseball industry has been to manage the workload on young pitchers to assure they don’t increase their innings total by more than 30 innings above the previous season or the maximum they’ve pitched in any other season.

“We’ve talked a lot all year, all summer about that — not only with our pitching people, but with our performance science staff,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said. “We’re not going to put limitations on those guys. We’ll just see where it goes.

“They work extremely hard. Their arms are clean. Their deliveries are consistent. They prepare in a very consistent way. They do all the right things off the field. We’ll just look at it start-to-start, month-to-month.”

The Royals hope to find some way to equate the innings thrown during the hiatus between spring training camps, during spring training intrasquad scrimmages and in offseason settings to a workload of a normal season spent in the minors and or in the majors.

That would theoretically boost their innings totals beyond those thrown in MLB competition this summer.

Meanwhile, the Royals did shut down Brad Keller and Jakob Junis at the end of the 2019 season because of workload concerns. Keller pitched 25 more innings in his first full season in the rotation than he did the previous season.

There are few guarantees from one season to the next when it comes to the health and performance of pitchers.

“You used to go into the season needing seven or eight guys that can go up and start,” Moore said. “Now, it’s more like 10 to 12 throughout a 162-game season. The data pretty much tells us that. That was the first topic of conversation (in our organizational meetings). What are starting pitching options for us, not only internally, but throughout the industry.”

Singer, who had one year in the minors prior to this year, made 12 starts this season and threw 64 1/3 innings. Bubic, who made 36 starts in the minors between 2018 and 2019, pitched 50 innings in 10 starts in the majors this summer.

While the experience against big-league lineups will be invaluable for both Singer and Bubic, there will still be significant adjustments to make assuming there’s a more traditional season in 2021.

“They still don’t have any clue what 162 feels like,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “And the typical pressure. It’s different. Having (reporters) waiting in their locker afterwards is different. It’s been much different than what it’s going to be. The day-in day-out microscope over 162 and there’s going to be more outside pressure.

“They haven’t had the requests for, ‘Hey son, can you get me 23 tickets when we show up in Cleveland. I’m bringing your second grade class.’ That kind of stuff, they haven’t had to deal with yet. There’s so many things that I hope keeps them on edge that ‘I’ve got more to prove still.’ But it’s a really good first step.”

Bubic and Singer assess the season

Bubic earned the organization’s Pitcher of the Year honor for his exploits last season at Single-A, and showed no signs of being overwhelmed by the jump to the majors this summer.

Though the left-hander still fell short of the dominant control pitcher he’d been in the minors. In the minors, Bubic produced a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.9-to-1.

This season, Bubic (1-6) posted a 4.32 ERA with 49 strikeouts, 22 walks and a 1.48 WHIP in 10 starts. With the increase in walks and high pitch counts, Bubic struggled to get deep in a large chunk of his starts this season. He went five innings or fewer in six of his 10 starts.

“Getting ahead,” Bubic said of his focus going into the offseason. “... The mindset of constantly being on the attack from the jump.”

When hitters got out to a 1-0 count, they hit .292 against Bubic compared to .160 when the count started 0-1.

It’s simple stat, but it’s also one Bubic harped on throughout his rookie season and as he headed into the offseason.

“When I get to strikes, I feel like most times in my head the at-bat is pretty much over,” Bubic said. “If it’s 0-2, 1-2, even 2-2, I feel like I’m going to make a pretty good pitch — whether it’s a fastball, curveball or a changeup — to get the guy out.”

He described falling behind as trying to “buy strikes” and as a result he tends not to command corners as well and leaves more pitches over the heart of plate where they’re susceptible to getting hit hard.

The continued development of his curveball to complement his fastball-changeup combination will be a big factor in his ability to attack hitters.

“I think it got a lot better as I went along, being able to land it more often,” Bubic said. “Just the overall ability to throw that whenever I want like I can most nights with my changeup (will be important).”

Singer made significant improvements during his rookie season, particularly in terms of location.

Through his first seven starts, Singer had a tendency to make mistakes in bad locations that were taken advantage of and launched out of the ballpark. He gave up eight home runs in those 34 2/3 innings.

In his final five starts, Singer’s misses were not the type of vulnerable offerings of his earlier starts. He didn’t give up a home run over those 29 2/3 innings.

During that stretch, he took a no-hit bid into the eighth inning against the Cleveland Indians, a playoff team, on the road.

Singer allowed just four runs in his last four starts while he struck out 25 and walked only eight. Five of those walks came in one start against the St. Louis Cardinals. Singer lasted just three innings and Matheny got ejected for arguing balls and strikes with the home plate umpire while making the pitching change.

“I’m definitely going to sharpen everything,” Singer said. “That’s something I work on every year, and adding that changeup more into the repertoire. It felt good. I could’ve thrown it a lot, but I felt like I was having success with the slider and the fastball, so I didn’t throw it as much. That’s definitely something I want to bring into next year, have an improved changeup.”

According to MLB Statcast data, Singer threw the changeup just 4.7 percent of the time this season (50 pitches, 48 against lefties). Opposing batters got two hits off the pitch (single, double) and also struck out twice. In that small sample size, batters hit .167 against that pitch.