KC Royals: Chris Young Signed To Add Rotation Depth

The KC Royals signed free-agent Chris Young on Saturday to add depth to their starting rotation, according to ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick. The soon-to-be 36-year-old Young posted a solid 12-9 campaign for Seattle in 2014,with a 3.69 ERA and exactly league-average adjusted ERA (ERA+ 100).

Young won the 2014 Comeback Player Of The Year Award for 2014 for his solid season in Seattle, after the right-hander missed all of 2013 with neck and shoulder injuries as a Washington National. He ate 165.0 innings and made 29 starts as a member of the Mariners rotation last season.

More from Kansas City Royals

Chris Young’s deal with the Kansas City Royals is 1-year contract with only $675,000 guaranteed, but also includes up to $6 million incentives for the intimidating 6’10” pitcher. With the Kansas City five-man rotation set with Yordano Ventura, Danny Duffy, Edinson Volquez, Jason Vargas, and Jeremy Guthrie, Young figures to be rotation depth.

Even so, the move is a sound decision by KC Royals general manager Dayton Moore. Young provides some cheap, but experienced, injury insurance to a staff with three guys on the wrong side of 30 (Volquez, 31: Vargas, 32: and Guthrie, 36).

Young has a decent career record of 65-52 with an ERA of 3.77 over his 10-year career. He has an a career adjusted ERA (which considers park factors and opponent quality) of 108, which is 8% above league-average.

CHRIS YOUNG CAREER STATS

Year	Age	Tm	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
2004	25	TEX	3	2	4.71	7	36.1	19	7	10	27	107	5.06	1.266	1.7	2.5	6.7	2.70
2005	26	TEX	12	7	4.26	31	164.2	78	19	45	137	108	3.80	1.257	1.0	2.5	7.5	3.04
2006	27	SDP	11	5	3.46	31	179.1	69	28	69	164	117	4.60	1.132	1.4	3.5	8.2	2.38
2007 ★	28	SDP	9	8	3.12	30	173.0	60	10	72	167	128	3.43	1.098	0.5	3.7	8.7	2.32
2008	29	SDP	7	6	3.96	18	102.1	45	13	48	93	96	4.40	1.290	1.1	4.2	8.2	1.94
2009	30	SDP	4	6	5.21	14	76.0	44	12	40	50	73	5.49	1.447	1.4	4.7	5.9	1.25
2010	31	SDP	2	0	0.90	4	20.0	2	1	11	15	416	3.88	1.050	0.5	5.0	6.8	1.36
2011	32	NYM	1	0	1.88	4	24.0	5	3	11	22	199	4.32	0.958	1.1	4.1	8.3	2.00
2012	33	NYM	4	9	4.15	20	115.0	53	16	36	80	92	4.50	1.348	1.3	2.8	6.3	2.22

2014	35	SEA	12	9	3.65	29	165.0	67	26	60	108	100	5.02	1.230	1.4	3.3	5.9	1.80
10 Yrs	65	52	3.77	188	1055.2	442	135	402	863	107	4.38	1.222	1.2	3.4	7.4	2.15
162 Game Avg.	12	9	3.77	34	190	80	24	73	156	107	4.38	1.222	1.2	3.4	7.4	2.15

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/7/2015.

However, Chris Young’s 5.02 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) suggests he might have enjoyed some good fortune in Seattle last season. His adjusted FIP (FIP+, which accounts for park factors and opponent quality) was an even worse 5.19.

This mediocre performance in metrics completely within a pitcher’s control (walks, strikeouts, and home runs allowed) might explain why he was still available this spring.

Despite Young’s impressive height, he’s not a strikeout artist. Young averages 7.4 strikeouts per nine inning over his career (K/9), but has become a more pitch-to-contact guy his last two seasons with K/9’s of 6.3 and 5.9.

Young’s fastball averaged a Bruce Chen-like 85.2 mph in 2014. Yet, Young’s long arms allows his pitches to get on top of hitters faster than his pure pitch speed would suggest.

The sabermetric stats generally do not favor pitch-to-contact players like Young. The KC Royals have gotten good service from such pitchers in recent years (see Jeremy Guthrie and Jason Vargas) due to Kauffman Stadium’s spacious outfield and the team’s spectacular defense.

Recent elbow injuries to Kansas City Royals reliever Tim Collins and Texas Rangers starter Yu Darvish in Surprise (the Royals and Rangers share the spring facility) shows that Moore’s signing makes a lot of sense.

Chris Young is good insurance for a KC Royals team with championship aspirations in 2015.

Next: Kansas City Royals Offense Needs A Cornerstone

More from KC Kingdom

Home/Kansas City Royals