How former top draft pick Asa Lacy has adapted early in his Kansas City Royals career
From the moment left-hander Asa Lacy signed his contract and buttoned up the ceremonial Kansas City Royals jersey in front of the team backdrop after having been taken fourth overall in the 2020 MLB Draft, it appeared he’d be on a fast track to becoming a front-of-the-rotation starter in the majors.
So far, his brief tenure in the Royals organization has featured a global pandemic, an introduction to professional baseball in a year that didn’t include a traditional minor-league season and some physical ailments that caused fits and starts.
However, optimism remains high from both the Royals and Lacy. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound 23-year-old Texas native and the organization’s top pitching prospect appears confident and comfortable as he prepares for spring training in Arizona.
“I definitely didn’t see things going the way they have been, but looking back on things I’m grateful for the way things have gone,” Lacy said shortly after having done a conditioning test at the Royals’ facility in Surprise, Arizona. “I’ve learned a lot about myself in the process. Just where I’m at right now, physically and mentally, I’m in a great spot. This is the best I can remember having felt in a long time. So I’m just very excited.”
An overpowering southpaw with an upper 90s fastball who thrived against the elite college competition of the SEC, Lacy has prided himself on embracing the process, including conditioning, weightlifting, a throwing program, analytics and studying video.
A machine-like consistency on the days between starts had been calling card.
Since entering pro ball, Lacy has also had to learn to embrace the chaos.
“Yeah, I’d definitely say ‘embrace the chaos,’ that’s good,” Lacy said when that term was suggested. “I like that phrase.
“It’s just been continuing what I did in college, keeping the mind and body in a great place and figuring out what works for you as an individual.”
Lacy’s entry into professional baseball came during an unprecedented time in unique circumstances as the coronavirus outbreak affected the world. Uncertainty and fluidity characterized the last year and a half for people worldwide.
Of course, most people weren’t embarking on a lifelong dream and starting a baseball career after having their junior season of college cut short and being away from competitive play for the longest stretch of their lives.
After having had his final college season at Texas A&M curtailed in March, Lacy’s first experience with the Royals came in late August of 2020 when he got dropped into the alternate training site along with veterans and top prospects who’d had years to adapt to the professional level.
An eye ailment and subsequent procedure sidelined Lacy for a short period and interrupted his progression during the alternate site followed by the Royals fall camp for minor-league players.
Last year in his first season in the minors and first game action in more than a year, Lacy made 14 starts before posterior shoulder soreness landed him on the injured list in late July. He didn’t pitch again until the Arizona Fall League, where he made four more starts (7 2/3 innings).
“Just a lot of inconsistency, a lot of ups and downs and it has been a really good learning experience just to become go-with-the-flow. I’m a very routine-oriented person and just learning to modify things here and there between starts has been probably the best learning experience so far that I could ask for,” Lacy said of the start of his career. “Moving forward, I’m really looking forward to 2022.”
Close to hitting his stride?
During the offseason and in the early stages of his time in Arizona for mini-camp, Lacy has focused on a few key aspects of his pitching mechanics to help with his command.
In his 14 starts for Low-A Quad Cities, he walked 41 batters in 52 innings (7.10 walks per 9 innings). He thinks his shoulder soreness may have contributed to the somewhat erratic results.
Lacy also struck out 79 batters (13.67 strikeouts per 9), a sign of the quality of his pitches and how dominant he’s capable of being.
In the fall, he struck out 15 and walked six in 7 2/3 innings.
“I think the biggest thing for me is I know my stuff is great,” Lacy said. “I’ve just got to be in the zone more often. So for me that was just head and front side, keeping my head still during the delivery and really still through the finish. Just through the first four bullpens since I’ve been here, I’ve seen some big improvements. That definitely gives me a lot of confidence going forward.”
Going into the 2020 Draft, many experts viewed Lacy as the best pitcher in the draft class. He’s the Royals top pitching prospect, and MLBPipeline.com ranked Lacy the fifth-best left-handed pitcher in the minors and the No. 66 overall prospect in 2021.
His repertoire includes a fastball that reached 98 mph as well as slider/cutter, changeup and curveball.
“He’s got weapons. Big weapons, with four pitches,” Royals senior director of pitching performance Paul Gibson said.
Gibson described the atypical circumstances surrounding Lacy’s introduction to pro ball as creating a “a tremendous amount of pressure” on a young player, and Gibson also lauds Lacy for being fully accountable for his own progress.
Lacy had six starts of four innings or more with two walks or fewer last season. He also had five starts of four or more walks.
Gibson watched Lacy toss five scoreless, allow just three hits, two walks and strike out six. Gibson believes that performance was more indicative of what Lacy will do going forward.
“I’ll say this about a lot of power pitchers, they all, when they were young, went through some command things,” Gibson said. “Last year, I saw him several times. The command numbers don’t look great when you look at the paper, the statistics, but he really wasn’t that scattered out of the zone.
“It’s a little bit difficult to say, but he just got himself in bad counts and he would end up walking a guy. You never really saw ball one, ball two, all over the place. You saw consistent misses around the zone, which was encouraging for me. The breaking ball and the cutter have always been there. The changeup is coming so fast.”
Royals director of baseball operations Dayton Moore has been “pleased” with Lacy’s progress given the circumstances, and he didn’t reject the idea that Lacy could still hit his stride and shoot quickly through their minor-league system.
“Last year was really his first year back, and we were very cautious — just building him back up, protecting him,” Moore said. “You get one chance to do it right. We’re going to always, traditionally, move really slow with our pitchers. I’ve always found that when you do that and you don’t shortcut anything, you develop the necessary fundamentals and you allow them to dumb-proof their deliveries a little bit.
“Once they’re ready, they’re going to move really fast and there’s no stopping them.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
