Kansas City Royals: Best Pitchers of All-Time in Wins Above Replacement

ALL-TIME LEADERS IN WAR FOR PITCHERS – NUMBER 4: ZACK GREINKE

Royals Pitcher from 2004-2010 (WAR – 26.2)

Zack Greinke is the only current MLB pitcher to appear on this list and it’s always funny to me when people forget that he was drafted by the Royals. Greinke, despite being a little socially awkward, was THE player to watch during his time in Kansas City.

The Royals weren’t winning a lot of games back then, but Greinke was a sight to see. The guy won the Cy Young Award in 2009 and was the Royals’ All-Star representative that year as well. Neither were shocking, considering the Florida native had an ERA of 2.16 that year despite playing on a team that won 65 games all year.

Greinke’s accomplishments as a Royal consisted of a 3.82 ERA, 1.264 WHIP, one Cy Young Award, and one All-Star appearance. He threw 1,108 innings as a member of the Royals.

As we all know, Greinke wanted to pitch for a contender and he was traded to the Brewers in 2011. Since then, Greinke has still been one of the best pitchers in baseball, but he’s done it for four different teams. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals went to two World Series and won one.

While it was fun watching Zack Greinke pitch for those seven years, trading him was one of the best moves the organization ever made.