Kansas City Royals: Bullpen help needs to be on the way

The Kansas City Royals bullpen is off to an atrocious start, but there are relievers performing well in Triple-A Omaha. The Royals need to bring those guys up sooner rather than later.

While 2019 isn’t exactly a contending year for the Kansas City Royals, the bullpen has been a joke, especially during this five-game losing streak. The Royals had the lead in four of those games and their bullpen blew the lead every time.

No one is performing well out of the bullpen right now and that’s why some of the relievers in Omaha could be getting called up here pretty soon. Jake Newberry and Glenn Sparkman are two names to monitor, as they both pitched for the Royals last year and are off to clean starts for the Storm Chasers.

It’s a small sample size for both of these guys obviously, but they’ve done their job when called upon out of the pen. No Royals reliever can say the same thing right now.

The Royals currently sit fourth to last in Major League Baseball in bullpen ERA with a 7.45 ERA. The only teams worse than them are the Diamondbacks (8.22), Cubs (8.54), and Nationals (9.64), but a bad bullpen is a bad bullpen. Royals fans don’t feel confident no matter who comes trotting out of the pen and that’s a far cry from how things were in 2014 and 2015.

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Aside from Ian Kennedy (and technically Tim Hill, who still has a 0.00 ERA), every Royals reliever has an ERA over eight. That is not good and reinforcements need to be en route to Kansas City soon.

Jake Newberry spent some time with the Royals last year, appearing in 14 games and pitching in 13.1 innings with an ERA of 4.73. He was only used as a reliever and is just 24 years old.

Glenn Sparkman is another name Royals fans should expect to see soon. Sparkman is 26 years old and split time as a starter and reliever in 2018. He appeared in 15 games total, throwing 38.1 innings and ending the year with a 4.46 ERA.

Sparkman started three games last season and while the hope would be for him to eventually be a starter, finding relievers is the answer right now and Sparkman could provide just that.

There are other options in Omaha, but Newberry and Sparkman probably have the best chance at getting the call due to their previous experience in the majors. Richard Lovelady and Josh Staumont are going to be names that fans clamor for, but the service time aspect might be a reason why those two aren’t brought up anytime soon, as unfair as that is.

Whoever the Kansas City Royals opt to add to their bullpen, hopefully it fixes the problem somewhat because otherwise it’s going to be a loooong season, my friends.