Kansas City Royals: Starting rotation is an absolute mess
The 2018 season has not been kind to the Kansas City Royals, and that includes their starting rotation, which is in a state of disarray at the moment.
The Kansas City Royals started this season with a rotation of Danny Duffy, Ian Kennedy, Jason Hammel, Jakob Junis, and Eric Skoglund. Only one of these guys is currently still in the rotation and that’s Duffy. The rest are either on the disabled list (Kennedy, Junis, and Skoglund) and been demoted to the bullpen (Hammel).
At this point, anyone who could name all five Royals starters would be a superfan because the rotation has been so jumbled up this year. We’ve seen guys like Trevor Oaks get starts, Heath Fillmyer took the bump the other day, and now Burch Smith is getting Hammel’s spot in the rotation.
The Royals obviously aren’t going anywhere this season, so it’s nice that some new, young faces are going to get a chance to start, but man… Four of the five original starters are no longer in their initial role and that’s crazy to think about.
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Duffy, the lone survivor of the original five, hasn’t been anything to write home about, though he has been pitching better as of lately. He has a 4.89 ERA in 106.2 innings and has a 4-8 record in 19 starts.
Duffy is under contract through the 2021 season and will be a popular name in trade talks next year, assuming he can keep his ERA under four.
The rest of the original starters weren’t exactly setting the world on fire before getting injured. Junis had really spiraled after an electric first few weeks of the season, so his injury news made sense. Kennedy had been awful. Skoglund was someone I stood up for frequently, but he might not have the chops to be a starting pitcher in the big leagues.
As for the younger faces getting their moment to start, Fillmyer did okay in his start the other day. He threw 4.1 innings and allowed three earned runs (and another unearned run). He walked three batters and didn’t strike anyone out. Fillmyer was one of the names the Royals got when they sent Ryan Buchter to Oakland.
Glenn Sparkman got called up recently too and could see some time as a starter. He’s pitched 1.2 innings so far for the team and surrendered three runs during that time.
While it’s tough to keep up with who is starting games for the Royals these days, the future still could be bright for their rotation. Brad Keller has been a wizard in the first half of the season, Junis still has tons of potential, and the Royals also drafted Brady Singer and Jackson Kowar in the first round of the draft to hopefully become future stars for them.
The rotation might be a mess right now, but in a few years it’ll hopefully be more reliable and we won’t have four of the original five starters no longer taking the mound.