Kansas City Royals place Wade Davis on injured list, recall southpaw Richard Lovelady
The Kansas City Royals placed right-hander relief pitcher Wade Davis on the injured list before Tuesday’s game against the Boston Red Sox.
Davis, a three-time All-Star and member of KC’s 2015 World Series-championship team, had struggled to find consistency in his return to the organization this season. He went on the 10-day injured list with a right forearm strain (retroactive to June 27).
The Royals recalled left-hander Richard Lovelady from Triple-A Omaha to fill Davis’ roster spot. Lovelady, 25, made his MLB debut in 2019 and appeared in just one game in 2020. This season in the minors, he has a 1.08 ERA with nine strikeouts and four walks in 8 1/3 innings. He had a streak of eight consecutive scoreless innings (six appearances).
Davis, 35, has an 8.06 ERA with 22 strikeouts, 11 walks, a .307 opponent’s batting average and a 1.64 WHIP in 25 2/3 innings (22 games). He’s also allowed seven home runs this season.
In his last seven appearances (9 1/3 innings), he’d allowed 11 earned runs on 14 hits and five walks.
Davis signed a minor-league contract with the Royals this winter after having spent the previous three seasons with the Colorado Rockies.
He’d been one of the most dominant, if not the most dominant, relief pitchers in the majors during his previous stint with the Royals.
He spent the 2013-16 seasons with the club and pitched exclusively out of the bullpen from 2014-16. During that three-season stretch he posted 1.18 ERA with a 0.892 WHIP, 11.5 strikeouts per 9 innings and a 3.97-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 185 games.
He also recorded 47 saves and finished 75 games in that period. He earned All-Star honors in 2015 and 2016.
The Royals traded Davis to the Chicago Cubs before the 2017 season in the deal that brought outfielder/designated hitter Jorge Soler to Kansas City.
This story was originally published June 29, 2021 at 5:49 PM.
