KC Royals: Five Things To Watch In Spring Training 2016
By Scott Dillon
Bullpen Roles
The Royals bullpen is second to none in the Major Leagues. The Yankess may have them beat in terms of back-three firepower, but the Royals have an incredible amount of depth out of the bullpen.
They have five players who could actually be considered closing candidates. The position likely belongs to Wade Davis, but Luke Hochevar, Kelvin Herrera, Joakim Soria, and perhaps even Danny Duffy could close out games for the defending World Champions.
Wade Davis is the obvious choice to fill that role so it leaves questions for the seventh and eighth innings.
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Any of those players could fill in as premium holds players for the Royals, but it’s unclear who will become known as the seventh inning guy and the eighth inning guy. Ned Yost has options and can shuffle these players around if need be, but he also doesn’t like to meddle.
Basically, the Royals need to figure out whatever acronym they decide is the most effective at shortening the games. For parts of the last two seasons, it’s been ‘HDH’, but they’ll need a new one in 2015.
Not only do the Royals have the option of giving the bullpen players extra rest, they can potentially shorten the game even more. They’re known to win games when leading after six innings, but could they potentially shorten the game to four or even five innings?
With a rotation that struggled to eat innings last season, having this kind of depth in the pen is a very positive problem to have. No matter what combination of closers the Royals call from the pen, look for similar results across the board.
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