Kansas City Royals: Glenn Sparkman making case to stay in rotation

The Kansas City Royals’ rotation hasn’t been anything to write home about this season, but there has been an impressive performer surprising everyone and his name is Glenn Sparkman.

Not many fans would have predicted Glenn Sparkman to be the best starter in the Kansas City Royals rotation come mid June, but here we are. That’s exactly the case right now.

Sparkman is coming off a gem of a performance against the Twins on Thursday night where he tossed seven innings of one-run ball while allowing just five hits on the night. He recorded three strikeouts and walked only one batter.

This impressive outing from Sparkman brings his ERA down to 3.62 on the season, giving him the best ERA out of any of the other starters on the Royals staff. He’s thrown less than 50 innings so far, but ever since replacing Jorge Lopez in the rotation has been pretty darn effective in that starting role.

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Prior to replacing Lopez as a starter, Sparkman was one of the few reliable arms in the bullpen, serving as a long reliever. He was the most logical choice to take Lopez’s spot when the former Brewer was struggling on the mound and has shown that he deserves to remain in that role.

I recently wrote an article on what to expect from Royals pitcher Eric Skoglund when he returns from his 80-game suspension. In that article, I mentioned how Skoglund replacing Sparkman would be the likeliest scenario when it was time for Skoglund to return.

Well, if Sparkman keeps pitching this well, that definitely won’t happen, and shouldn’t happen. Skoglund very well could replace someone at some point (perhaps after Homer Bailey gets traded?), but it shouldn’t be Sparkman, at least not any time soon.

Now, what does Sparkman’s resurgence mean for the future of the Kansas City Royals?

He’s 27 years old, so it’s not like he’s a young prospect that the organization is building around. The club does have control over him until 2024 though, so if he continues to tear it up on the mound, then cool. He could be with the team during the better times hopefully.

Glenn Sparkman is the only Royals starter currently posting an ERA under four and that’s pretty sad. He showed potential last year, finishing his first season in Kansas City with a 4.46 ERA in 38.1 innings pitched. Only three of his 15 appearances last year were starts compared to six of 14 appearances this year.

While Royals fans shouldn’t jump for joy over one start, Sparkman has been a nice surprise this year and the fact that he has the best ERA out of the five current starters is proof that he deserves to keep his starting job for the time being.