Kansas City Royals: Starting rotation candidates for 2018 season

STARTING ROTATION CANDIDATES – JASON HAMMEL

This is another pitcher that the Royals could end up trading and it’d be a little easier, as he has just one more season left on his initial deal. Jason Hammel‘s numbers weren’t great a season ago, but he had some games where he looked really good.

Hammel ended his first year as a Royal with 32 starts under his belt and an ERA of 5.29. Hammel went 8-13 with a 1.425 WHIP, 145 strikeouts, and 48 walks while throwing 180.1 innings. For all of the talk of Kennedy being the so-called “innings eater”, Hammel filled that role last year.

The ERA wasn’t good, but Hammel was able to pitch deep into games. He’ll probably head into the season as the second or third starter and hopefully will be able to continue pitching into the late innings.

This was a contract that I was excited to see the Royals make a year ago and there’s still time for Hammel to make it look like a great deal. Fingers crossed that he works out in 2018! It will be a contract year after all, so perhaps that will spark something for Hammel.