Kansas City Royals: Ranking The Bullpen
Kansas City Royals relief pitcher Brandon Finnegan (27) – Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports
Casual Kansas City Royals fans will always remember Brandon Finnegan as the Wildcard playoff game hero, and why shouldn’t they? Finnegan was fantastic that night.
Finnegan has been pretty good as a reliever out of the bullpen in 2015, despite only pitching in games that are usually out of reach for the Royals. He has pitched in nine total games, 17.2 innings and has an impressive 2.04 ERA. Not bad for a kid that was drafted only over a year ago.
Finnegan has bounced between Kansas City and Omaha this season and between being a reliever and a starter. While Finny has shown potential in the reliever role, it’d be nice if he could still work towards being a big league starter. The Royals have had too many guys not pan out as starters that end up heading to the bullpen, and it’d be a shame if Finnegan was added to that list.
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Finnegan recently was brought up to KC due to both Yordano Ventura and Jason Vargas entering stints on the DL. He has been a nice “long reliever” on days where the starters struggle (i.e. Jeremy Guthrie in his historically bad outing against New York and Joe Blanton against Houston) and that will likely be Finnegan’s role as long as Ventura and Vargas stay on the DL.
While Finny has shown potential in the reliever role, it’d be nice if he could still work towards being a big league starter. The Royals have had too many guys not pan out as starters that end up heading to the bullpen, and it’d be a shame if Finnegan was added to that list.
Highlight of 2015 so far: Notice I said 2015, otherwise the answer would be obvious. Finnegan hasn’t had a “stand alone” highlight so far, but he’s had a few memorable performances. I was pretty impressed with him during that New York game when the Royals were down 11-0 and he went out and pitched three innings without giving up a run. It’s just hard to think of that as a highlight, as the Royals were embarrassed that day by the Yankees, but it was an impressive showing for the former Horned Frog.
Lowlight of 2015 so far: We’re only counting Royals games here, so I’d have to go with his first relief appearance this season against the Indians. Finnegan gave up a home run to Brandon Moss, which gave the Indians the lead. Finnegan did, however, go on to get his first win of the season when the Royals’ offense bailed him out. That game saw Finny allowing two hits, one run, and the one home run.
Next: Good Reliever, Still Ranked Low