Kansas City Royals: Opening Day starters over past decade
By Cullen Jekel
2012 OPENING DAY STARTER – BRUCE CHEN
Bruce Chen: the most surprising entry on this list. Unlike Meche, Chen wasn’t a big acquisition in the free-agent market. Unlike Greinke, he hadn’t just won the league’s most prestigious pitching award. Unlike Hochevar, he wasn’t a highly-touted former high draft pick.
No, entering 2012, Chen was on the first year of a two-year deal he’d signed before the season worth $9 million. Though he’d been in the Majors since 1998 (excluding 2008), Chen never made an All-Star team let alone garnered any love in Cy Young voting. And the Royals picked up off the scrap-heap before 2009 for a mere $600,000.
But the then-35-year-old got the call from Yost to take the mound on April 6, 2012, in Los Angeles against an Angels team that suddenly boasted Albert Pujols. Going against Jered Weaver, who had defeated the Royals on Opening Day in 2011, Chen performed well, lasting six innings. He didn’t give up any runs on three-hit ball while he walked zero and fanned four on an economical 75 pitches.
He received a no-decision in the Royals’ 5-0 loss.
Chen would finish 2012 with an 11-14 record, 5.07 ERA, 82 ERA+, 4.73 FIP, and 1.367 WHIP. He set a career-high 140 strikeouts in a career-high 34 games started. Sadly, Chen’s Kansas City tenure would end about a month before the team won the ALCS in 2014, and he’d retire as a member of the Cleveland Indians just a month into the 2015 season.