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Kansas City Royals: Clay Buchholz not in Royals future plans

By Leigh Oleszczak

PHILADELPHIA, PA - APRIL 11: Starting pitcher Clay Buchholz #21 of the Philadelphia Phillies delivers a pitch in the first inning against the New York Mets at Citizens Bank Park on April 11, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - APRIL 11: Starting pitcher Clay Buchholz #21 of the Philadelphia Phillies delivers a pitch in the first inning against the New York Mets at Citizens Bank Park on April 11, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images) /
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The Kansas City Royals released Clay Buchholz, as May 1st was the day of his opt-out. The move seemed a bit puzzling but Buchholz isn’t a part of the future plans, so it made sense to let him go now.

Clay Buchholz had performed well in the minor leagues for the Kansas City Royals. About a week ago, it seemed imminent that the former Red Sox pitcher would be getting called up and pitching in the big leagues. Instead, he has been released.

When the news first hit the Twitter-sphere, I was a little irritated. I wrote about how Buchholz could desperately help this Royals pitching staff (see link above), so seeing him get released was a bit frustrating.

After reading Jeffrey Flanagan’s tweet about the situation, however, it makes perfect sense. The Royals wanted Buchholz to stay in the minors and he wanted to hit free agency as a starting pitcher, not as a reliever.

When it comes down to it, Buchholz is a 33-year old injury-prone pitcher who the Royals took a chance on this offseason. He pitched in three games in the minors, good for an ERA of 1.13 in those three starts while allowing just two runs off of ten hits.

Buchholz looked ready to hit the big leagues, but his role probably would have been as a reliever and he didn’t want that. The Royals could have slotted him in as a starter, but where at? Obviously the Royals aren’t demoting Danny Duffy, Ian Kennedy, Jason Hammel, or Jakob Junis to the bullpen, and the tweet stated that the team is happy with Eric Skoglund‘s production.

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Speaking of Eric Skoglund, let’s dive into that tidbit. Fans aren’t crazy about Eric Skoglund and it’s not difficult to see why. The 25-year old has an ERA of 6.23 and when he gets rocked, it’s usually for five or six runs in just a few innings.

Skoglund has shown flashes of brilliance on the mound, including his career debut where he went seven shutout innings against the Tigers in 2017, but since then, it’s been bleak for the Central Florida standout. He had an ERA over nine last season.

This season, Skoglund pitched a gem not long ago against the White Sox where he went seven innings and gave up just one run. That was his first impressive game since his debut last year, but it showed that he’s finding his command on the mound, and that’s definitely a good thing.

Even though bringing Buchholz up to the big leagues appeared to be the right move to some, he’s 33 years old, has injury issues, and is not a part of this team’s future plans. The Royals are planning to roll with Skolgund, Danny Duffy, Ian Kennedy, Nate Karns, and Jakob Junis over these next few years and it could end up becoming quite the rotation if the younger guys can develop and if all of them can stay healthy.

While it would be nice to have Clay Buchholz, the Kansas City Royals aren’t going anywhere this season. Yes, he could be used as a potential trade asset, but chances are he’d have gotten injured before then anyway. It’s also likely that a team wouldn’t be willing to give up much for him, so at the end of the day, releasing Buchholz was probably the right decision.

This is why the Royals pay Dayton Moore the big bucks. Well, this and to win World Series. He’s shown he can do that, so let’s trust the decisions he makes.

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