Kansas City Royals hang hats on young pitching, individual improvement at end of 2021
The Kansas City Royals may have improved marginally this season, but their hope is that strides made by key leaders in the clubhouse will prove substantial
In the end, manager Mike Matheny’s first full campaign with the Royals centered around individual improvement, embracing a youth movement on the KC pitching staff and setting the table for what the club hopes will be more competitive seasons to come.
“You guys saw, we played amazing games in the second half of the season, amazing series against the White Sox, against everybody,” Royals catcher Salvador Perez said. “It was great baseball, but I think about what if we could do that click before or right when the season starts, and try to stay.
“Because it’s about being consistent if we’re trying to make it to the playoffs, be (playing) in October.”
The Royals finished the season with a 74-88 record — below .500, but their best mark since going 80-82 in 2017. They also improved their win percentage (.457) for the third year in a row, having gone 26-34 (.433) in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season on the heels of back-to-back 100-loss campaigns in 2019 (59-103, .364) and 2018 (58-104, .358).
Their results unquestionably improved after the All-Star break. Before the midsummer classic, the Royals went 36-53; after the break, they were 38-35 — their best post-break record since they went 43-33 in 2015.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys,” said Perez, the veteran superstar who this season equaled Jorge Soler single-season home run record of 48. “(That’s a) good thing. They’ve got some really good arms.
“So I think when they learn how to pitch in the big leagues, we’re going to be good. So I think we’re in great position. I’m so happy with what I see. I just can’t wait for next year.”
Armed and optimistic
The Royals’ starting pitching simultaneously provided the most frustration and presented the possibility for the most upside.
The Royals became the first team in MLB history to have five players from the same draft class (2018) start games in the majors for the franchise that drafted them in the same season. Brady Singer, Kris Bubic, Daniel Lynch, Jackson Kowar and Jonathan Heasley formed that historic quintet.
That doesn’t include Carlos Hernández, the 24-year-old who went 5-2 with a 3.23 ERA in 12 appearances (11 starts) after the All-Star break. The right-hander signed out of Venezuela as an international free agent has become possibly the most intriguing of all the club’s young pitchers.
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Statistically speaking, the Royals’ pitching staff hardly had an elite season. In fact, it was far from the upper echelon of the majors.
The Royals’ overall pitching-staff ERA of 4.65 ranked 21st of 30 teams in the majors. Their starters (4.97) ranked 24th and their relievers (4.23) ranked 19th.
They were in the bottom half to bottom third in strikeouts per nine innings (8.53, 20th), walks per nine innings (3.75, 26th), WHIP (1.39, 26th), batting average against (.251, 22nd) and runs allowed per game (4.86, 21st).
The profile of pitchers on the Royals’ staff has shifted in recent years. In 2019, their last full-length season before this one, the Royals had 113 starts made by pitchers 26 or older.
This season, 51 games were started by pitchers 26 or older, and that includes several bullpen/opener starts. The majority of the starts this season were made by pitchers with three or fewer years of service time in the majors, including opening day starter Brad Keller.
That leads to a reasonable expectation that those pitchers will improve as they acclimate to the majors and gain experience.
Lynch, Kowar and Heasley made their major-league debuts this season, while Singer and Bubic still have made fewer than 40 starts in the majors. Hernández still hasn’t made his 15th start in the big leagues.
Asked what made him feel differently about the club’s outlook compared to recent years, All-Star second baseman Whit Merrifield didn’t need more than a split second to reply.
“Young pitching talent, and a lot of it,” he replied with a grin. “A lot of it. We haven’t really had that since I’ve been here.
“We did what we had to do back in ‘14 and ‘15 to get pieces to win the World Series. That’s what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to go for it, and we did. It took us a little while to reload, for lack of a better term.”
Offensive strides
Perez certainly led the charge as far as individual achievements for the Royals this season.
Not only did he enjoy a career season, but he led the majors in homers (48, tied with Vladimir Guerrero Jr.) and RBIs (121), setting a record for homers by a primary catcher in a season and tying the franchise single-season home run record to put himself in contention for the Hank Aaron Award as the AL’s top offensive performer.
Perez and the middle-infield duo of shortstop Nicky Lopez and Merrifield are in the running for Gold Gloves, as is center fielder Michael A. Taylor.
Andrew Benintendi and Taylor performed to their previous levels, or slightly above, in their first season with the Royals, despite the fact that Benintendi was dealing with injuries.
Lopez became one of two everyday shortstops in the majors to bat .300, a first for the Royals.
Merrifield led the AL with 40 stolen bases, which made him and Perez the first teammates to lead the AL in home runs and stolen bases since Ken Griffey Jr. (48 home runs) and Brian Hunter (44 stolen bases) for the 1999 Seattle Mariners.
Of course, there were also some individual underperformances, especially offensively, that greatly affected the club’s overall results. Hunter Dozier needed a strong late push (.272/.346/.576 in his last 20 games) just to get his season slash line to .216/.285/.394.
Carlos Santana’s summer-long slump, fueled in part by physical ailments, betrayed his solid start. He slashed .254/.393/.438 with 10 home runs and 36 RBIs in his first 55 games, but from June 5 through season’s end, he slashed .195/.278/.295 with nine homers and 33 RBIs in his last 100 games.
“You start going through, instead of looking at it collectively, look at it as much as individually and you can see it,” Matheny said. “You can go around that room. This guy improved here. This guy improved there. Right around the room. A couple guys have tough seasons? Yeah.
“But if you’re talking about the core group, and that main new group that came in, we saw a number of things that would validate that we say they got better. I believe, collectively, we have improved.”
The Royals’ .249 team batting average ranked ninth in the majors. In 2020, they were in the middle of the pack (16th, .244) and just below the league average. In 2019, they ranked 27th and again batted below league average as a team.
Their walk rate of 7.0% ranked last in the majors, and they’ve ranked among the bottom sixth in the majors the past three seasons. Their team OPS (.702) ranked 25th in the majors after having been 20th (.711) in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and 27th in 2019 (.710).
They were 24th in scoring (4.23 runs per game), after ranking 26th in 2020 and 2019.
Matheny has harped on situational hitting since taking over in 2020, and the Royals did show significant strides in that area. While their batting average with runners in scoring position left something to be desired (.247, 20th), they led the majors in productive-out percentage (32.6%).
With less than two outs and a runner on third, they scored runners 51.8% of the time, ninth-best in the majors. With no outs and a runner on second, they advanced the runner 54.2% of the time, fifth-best in the majors.
In 2020, they were among the bottom third in the majors for productive outs, bottom half in getting a man in from third base, and second-to-last in advancing runners from second.
In 2019, they were 11th in productive outs, below league average and bottom half in getting runs in from third, and bottom half for advancing runners from second with no outs.
