Kansas City Royals 2014 Plethora of Back-end Rotation Options

Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Yordano Ventura (30) Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

4. Yordano Ventura, RHP

Perhaps the biggest mystery, the young fireball pitcher Yordano Ventura will get his fair shot to make the rotation. Royals’ fans got their first taste of “Ace” Ventura at the end of the season last year when he made three big starts on the major league level when the Royals were in the thick of a wild card race.

Ventura “held his own”. In 15.1 innings, Ventura stuck out 11 while finishing with a 3.52 ERA. By just letting Ventura make his Major League Debut along with two other starts when the Royals were the closest to the playoffs they had been in a decade, it shows that the front office already has immense trust in Ventura.

Ventura has dominated in minor league ball. A lot of people around the Kansas City area believe that he has the potential to develop into ace-like material. However, being just 23-years old, he has a long way to go. Just like Duffy, Ventura has been known to struggle with command, but so will any young pitcher that can exceed 100 m.p.h. on the radar gun.

With the addition of Bruce Chen, I see Ventura as a long shot to make the opening day roster. He might benefit to pitch in Omaha for half the season to work on his command. There is no doubt in my mind that we will see Yordano Ventura on the bump in Kansas City at some point in 2014.