KC Royals: Five Players to Watch in Second Series Vs Chicago White Sox

JOAKIM SORIA

The rest of the guys on this list are all members of the Royals bullpen, with the first being Joakim Soria. This isn’t a section dedicated to bashing Soria, but more to point out that he struggled in his last start, when the Royals really needed him to pull through.

As of now, Soria has an ERA of 2.53 through ten games with 13 strikeouts. He got lit up against the Twins on Friday night, allowing four runs off of three hits to give up a rare lead that Kansas City had established for once. He received the loss for that game.

Soria’s job is to hold down the fort and hand the lead off to Kelvin Herrera in the ninth inning. Unfortunately one of the few “hold” opportunities Soria had saw him blow that, which won’t set well with the fan base. It was almost like watching the majority of the 2016 season.

We know Soria is capable of being a decent reliever, but he’s going to have to step up and show it when the Royals actually have a lead. Otherwise this team might not be winning many games this season.