Why the Kansas City Royals are now in a position to lean on their young pitchers
With a group of talented, young and capable pitching prospects in the farm system, the Kansas City Royals knew the destination they wanted to reach heading into spring training of 2020.
Getting there through a pandemic-shortened season with no minor-league games and a limited number of spots available at the alternate site followed by the uncharted territory of a full-length season coming off of the truncated year? That was like navigating a harrowing labyrinth out of The Maze Runner.
Two seasons later, the Royals found their way out of the maze. Heading into this winter, their stable of young pitchers have shown promise as starters, thrown major-league caliber pitches and have gained big-league experience.
The handling of those pitchers may have been the most important task the organization had the last two seasons and likely will have the largest impact on their success going forward.
“The thing I’m most thankful for as we sit here today based on all the information that I have — and I have no reason to feel any other way — the guys are all healthy,” Royals president of baseball operations Dayton Moore said following the completion of the World Series. “That’s the most important thing.”
Flashback to the start of spring training 2020 before the pandemic. Their rotation options with starting experience in the majors were Danny Duffy, Jakob Junis, Mike Montgomery, Brad Keller, Jorge Lopez and Glenn Sparkman.
Keller is the lone member of the group still in the organization. He and veteran left-hander Mike Minor will be asked to anchor the rotation, but that still leaves three-fifths of next year’s rotation to relatively fresh faces.
Going into the spring of 2020, Brady Singer and Jackson Kowar hadn’t pitched an inning above Double-A, Kris Bubic, Daniel Lynch, Carlos Hernández and Jonathan Heasley hadn’t pitched an inning above Single-A, and Angel Zerpa hadn’t pitched above rookie ball.
If the Royals were going to follow through on their intention to build a contending team set up to a period of sustained winning, then they had to build it upon a foundation of multiple homegrown major-league ready starting pitching options.
A very different outlook
Now, all seven of those pitchers are 25 or younger and have started games in the majors.
Singer has 39 starts in the majors, while Bubic has 30 starts plus another five multi-inning relief appearances last season, including two of five innings or more.
There still aren’t a ton of major-league innings worth of experience built up on those arms. Singer (128 1/3 innings) and Bubic (130) logged the most of the group last season. Of course, none of them had logged a single inning going into 2020.
General manager JJ Picollo also points to the fact that they all had at least one full year of the major-league pitching routine. Last year, they arrived at spring training early for optional camp and began working with pitching coach Cal Eldred in early February and continued working through the end of the season.
“Their bodies and minds have already gone through that for a year, so I don’t really anticipate that really being an issue next year,” Picollo said. “If anything, they’ll learn from what they did last offseason.”
Last season, between the majors and minors, Lynch threw 125 innings in games, Heasley 120, Hernández 112, Kowar 111 and Zerpa 93 1/3. That doesn’t include any innings logged in alternate site outings.
Pre-pandemic, Singer, Bubic and Kowar had each approached 150 innings in a season in the minors.
“I don’t think we’re going to put parameters on pitchers like just because he threw 100 innings this year then it’s going to be 120 next,” Picollo said. “That 20% rule has been around forever. How valid is it? It’s just a general guideline.”
The Royals went into last season with a pledge not to limit their pitchers unnecessarily while also being cautious when appropriate.
Singer had a stint on the injured list with fatigue because the Royals wanted to be cautious, and Hernández was shut down prior to season’s end for similar reasons. Kowar had a short period in the major-league bullpen, but that resulted from ineffectiveness, not workload.
“There’s not a standard answer on how many innings, but we’re going to push them,” Picollo said. “This was the year, I think, to be more careful. There is a belief, a theory — if you want to call it that — that next year is going to be worse. I don’t know if we buy into that.”
Unlike 2020 when only a couple of the top-flight prospects had pitched above Single-A, there’s now another wave of young pitching on the verge of contributing.
Along with Heasley and Zerpa, Drew Parrish and Austin Cox each also registered double-digit starts at Double-A last season. Alec Marsh also made six starts at Double-A.
“And if we’re going to be a competitive, winning team, we know that starting pitching has got to give you innings,” Picollo said. “I don’t think we would want to punt on wins because we’re so concerned with managing workloads.”
The bullpen will also play a big part in protecting those young starters. In order to keep manager Mike Matheny from having to potentially over-extend those starters, a reliable and deep bullpen will be crucial.
With Jesse Hahn, Greg Holland, Ervin Santana and Wade Davis free agents, the Royals are likely to devote a lot of attention to fortifying their relief corps.
If a veteran swing option, a pitcher able to fill in as a starter or pitch in relief, is available it will likely be enticing as a means to support the young starters. But the bulk of the workload figures to fall on the shoulders of the pitchers they’ve been grooming in the farm system for the past several years.
This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 10:53 AM.
