Kansas City Royals: Pitchers who could make starting rotation in 2019

The Kansas City Royals will begin Spring Training in just a matter of weeks and that means it’s time to start thinking about who will be in the starting rotation.

Kansas City Royals fans have a good idea of what the starting rotation will look like come Opening Day in late March, but nothing is a given until we get to that point. What if injuries occur in Spring Training or if someone simply doesn’t perform that well?

Here are the candidates to make the starting rotation for the 2019 season. Some are more likelier than others, of course, but we’re going to list most of the players with previous starting experience on the mound. We’ll go from least likeliest to most likeliest.

STARTING ROTATION CANDIDATES – KYLE ZIMMER

I’m including Kyle Zimmer here mainly because he is invited to Spring Training, but by this point, Royals fans aren’t buying into the former first round pick contributing to the major league squad at all.

Zimmer has yet to get his major league call-up after having a career riddled with injuries. The Royals designated him for assignment over the offseason, but he later re-signed with the club.

Zimmer didn’t pitch at all last season, but in 2017 threw in 36.2 innings with two minor league clubs. He had an ERA of 5.40 combined during those stints.

While we’d all be thrilled to see Zimmer provide SOMETHING to the Royals, we’ve mostly given up by this point. Hopefully he proves us wrong and can stay healthy.