Here’s the Kansas City Royals’ plan after sending pitcher Jakob Junis to Triple-A
A month and a half ago, Kansas City Royals right-hander Jakob Junis seemed like a versatile potential X-factor for a pitching staff and organization reliant on young arms with high ceilings, limited experience and a lot of uncertainty coming off of a year without Minor League Baseball.
On Monday, the Royals optioned Junis back to the minors for the first time since 2017. He went to Triple-A Omaha to make room for right-handed starter Jackson Kowar, who made his MLB debut on Monday night against the Los Angeles Angels.
The Royals also designated relief pitcher Jake Newberry for assignment to make room for Kowar on the 40-man roster.
While the plan for Junis includes having him get stretched out with longer outings as a starter, Royals manager Mike Matheny hasn’t closed the door on Junis potentially returning to the majors as a reliever.
“You can be a starter (in the minors) and that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t come back as a reliever,” Matheny said.
Going into the Triple-A rotation makes a pitcher’s workload more “predictive” and consistent, which will be important for Junis, Matheny said.
Junis, 28, came into this season as one of the most experienced returning members of the starting rotation. Junis also entered this season having pitched more innings (377 2/3) and made more starts (67) than any other Royals pitcher since the start of the 2018 season.
Prior to this season, Junis started 83 of his first 89 appearances in the majors. He led the Royals in wins in 2018 and 2019.
However, opposing hitters enjoyed much more success the second and third time through the batting order against Junis.
He’d hoped to have changed that dynamic through the addition of a cutter to his pitch arsenal this offseason.
“It obviously was very effective early on,” Mathey said of the cutter. “You’re always asking yourself is this because it’s not familiar to the opposition. When he threw that first game against Cleveland, not too many people had seen it.
“He was very aggressive with it and very effective. This league is going to make adjustments quicker than anywhere else. There’s just too much information for it not to. I think the league started to adjust a little bit.”
After starting the season in the bullpen in what Matheny described as a “hybrid role” — meaning Junis would be available for short relief outings, a high-leverage relief role, longer relief outings or as a spot starter — Junis moved into the rotation and made four starts.
He went 1-1 and posted a 3.80 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP in those starts with 24 strikeouts and seven walks in 21 1/3 innings.
When the Royals called up top pitching prospect Daniel Lynch for his major-league debut at the start of May, Junis moved back to the bullpen and had immediate struggles. He allowed six runs in his first two relief appearances — all on home runs.
In nine appearances since he moved to the bullpen, including one abbreviated spot start of 1 1/3 innings in the second game of a doubleheader in Chicago, Junis allowed 12 runs (11 earned) on 19 hits (five home runs), four walks and eight strikeouts in 11 1/3 innings. Opponent’s slashed .380/.418/.760 against him during that stretch.
“We’re trying to find as many as guys as possible to help us in leverage situations,” Matheny said. “We put Jake in there a couple times and it’s not something that’s easy to quickly adjust to. Sometimes it takes a little more work to be able to be that role.”
Matheny said ideally the Royals would have several pitchers capable of both pitching in leverage situations as well as being able to pitch multiple innings.
“Jake should be a pitcher like that,” Matheny said. “I think it’s just getting him into a good place. Getting him longer stints, which are more controllable in the minor-league setting. It is a better spot to get some of that worked out, to get him feeling confident about his pitches to where he can come back and help us in multiple roles.”
