Kansas City Royals: Starting rotation candidates for 2018 season

(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

STARTING ROTATION CANDIDATES – IAN KENNEDY

Well, shockingly (not), Ian Kennedy didn’t opt out of his contract and now the Royals will continue paying the guy some big bucks. Kennedy had a miserable season in 2017, but due to the amount of dough he’s getting paid, the Royals have no choice but to keep him in their rotation.

More than likely, Kennedy will be the second starter, but it all depends on how good he looks throughout spring training. Last season, Kennedy started 30 games and went 5-13 with a 5.38 ERA, 1.325 WHIP, 131 strikeouts, and 61 walks while surrendering 34 home runs in 154 innings.

The selling point when acquiring Kennedy two years ago was that he was an innings eater, but he only threw 154 innings last year. In 2016, he pitched just under 200 innings. He didn’t live up to his role and that will have to change this year.

There is still some hope that the Royals will be able to trade Kennedy before the season begins, but unfortunately, no one is going to want that contract. Can you blame them? He’s getting paid a lot of money to be the third guy in the rotation.