KC Royals: Three surprising players through first two months of 2019

THREE SURPRISING ROYALS SO FAR – NUMBER 3: IAN KENNEDY

There wasn’t much hope for Ian Kennedy after his bleak 2018 where he posted a 4.66 ERA as a starter. The Royals made the decision to relocate Kennedy to the bullpen and so far, it’s paid off.

Kennedy, normally an innings eater as a starter, has done well in limited appearances. He’s thrown  20.2 innings, good for a 3.05 ERA while also notching two saves.

For awhile, it looked like the Royals might have something with Scott Barlow as a seventh inning option, Jake Diekman as an eighth inning guy, and Kennedy coming in to close things out, but that hasn’t exactly been what’s happened.

The Royals don’t have the lead much, which means Kennedy doesn’t have a ton of save opportunities. He could, keyword being could, be an option to trade at the deadline, but he’s still making a lot of dough and the Royals would have to eat a lot of that salary if they wanted Kennedy out of Kansas City.

While it’s disappointing that Kennedy is making so much money and is just a reliever, at least he’s doing his job admirably now. That hadn’t been the case the last two years.