Kansas City Royals: Justin Grimm nice veteran presence in bullpen
The Kansas City Royals added a new pitcher this weekend by the name of Justin Grimm. While Grimm’s numbers have been declining over the past two seasons, he’s a nice veteran to throw into the bullpen.
One of the biggest questions this offseason regarding the 2018 Kansas City Royals is what on Earth can we expect from the bullpen? The pen was inconsistent last year, but there were several reliable pitchers.
This offseason, the Royals traded Scott Alexander, Ryan Buchter, and Joakim Soria while Mike Minor signed elsewhere. Ned Yost has only really given two names when it comes to the 2018 bullpen and that’s Kelvin Herrera and Brandon Maurer, two former closers (and one of them will likely be the closer to begin the year).
Not many people will be excited about the Justin Grimm addition and I understand that. Here’s a guy who had an ERA of 5.53 in 55.1 innings last year while surrendering 12 home runs and walking 27 batters.
Grimm hasn’t had good stats during his last two seasons as a member of the Chicago Cubs, but there were some impressive numbers in there. According to Maria Torres of The Kansas City Star, the month of June saw Grimm post a 0.73 ERA.
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That article by Torres is a good read. She mentioned that Grimm chose to try his luck in Kansas City after talking to Wade Davis about his time with the Royals.
"“He had really nice things to say about the city of Kansas City, the organization, the training staff, the coaches, from the top down,” Grimm said. “That’s one guy that I look up to … It definitely swayed my decision.”"
From 2013 to 2015, Grimm was one of the best relievers in baseball. The Royals have shown that they have the ability to “fix” broken pitchers and get them back to their dominating ways and Grimm could be yet another name to add to that list.
Also, as mentioned above, who else is there really in the bullpen? Brian Flynn and Kevin McCarthy seem like locks to make the pen, but this is going to be one of the worst set of relievers Royals fans have seen in a long time.
Justin Grimm isn’t going to make all the difference, but he’s a seasoned veteran looking to make a fresh start. Let’s hope he can turn things around and get back to his 2015 form where he posted an ERA of 1.99 in 49.2 innings with 67 strikeouts to his name.
Fingers crossed this move turns into something positive!