Kansas City Royals: Realistic expectations for Bubba Starling

Kansas City Royals fans have been waiting EIGHT years for Bubba Starling to get his Major League call-up and the time has finally come. What are some realistic expectations that fans should have for the former first round pick?

It was honestly looking like Bubba Starling, who turns 27 in less than a month, would never get his shot in the big leagues and it wasn’t hard to see why. For the early part of his career, the 2011 first round pick of the Kansas City Royals wasn’t doing much of anything at the plate.

Eventually, Starling figured out minor league pitching and was hitting decently, but the injury bug started to take its toll on the Gardner native. The 2018 season likely would have saw Starling get a September call-up, but a midseason injury prevented that from happening.

With how bad the Royals are this year, it was only a matter of time before Starling got his moment in the majors and that time is now!

Starling has spent the entire 2019 season in Omaha with the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate and was slashing .310/.358/.448 with seven home runs and 38 RBI in 261  at bats. He swiped nine bags while walking 21 times and striking out 58 times.

The question now becomes what should the expectations be with Starling moving forward?

Royals fans have heard for YEARS now that Starling has been a major league outfielder when it comes to defense, but it’s been his offense that has held him back. That’s something we’ll have to expect with Starling, that he will be able to flash the leather in the outfield, but might not provide much pop at the plate.

Looking at the Royals current outfield situation, they have Alex Gordon in left field, Billy Hamilton in center field, and a slew of talent in right field. Will Starling immediately be the new right field option or will he take over in his preferred position of center field?

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Center field is where Starling saw the most time in Omaha this year, making 51 starts there for the StormChasers. That should be where the Royals play him at, but there’s a bit of a roadblock there in the form of Billy Hamilton.

Hamilton is only on a one-year deal and batting barely over the Mendoza line. With the hope is that Starling can provide something for the Royals during his career, the Royals should put Starling in center even if Hamilton doesn’t end up getting traded at the deadline.

As for what fans should expect from Starling, I hate to say it, but we shouldn’t be banking on the Gardner native to do much. It’s taken him eight years to get to this point, all the while guys taken in the same class as him have become some of the biggest names in the game. It’s highly unlikely that Starling provides for the Royals what those guys provided for their teams.

With that said, Starling worked his butt off to get to this point and it’s a well-deserved moment for the guy. He might not provide what his draft class did for their teams, but if he can provide a nice defensive glove in the outfield for a few years, then so be it.

Not every first round pick is going to pan out, but it sure is exciting to see Bubba Starling finally get his Major League call-up. It really didn’t feel like this moment would ever happen for Starling and as we watched other guys from his draft class go on to do great things (Javier Baez and George Springer are just a few names that come to mind), that moment appeared to get further and further away.

Fortunately, the time has come and it’s a well-deserved moment of celebration for Bubba Starling. The Kansas City Royals did the right thing in NOT calling him up just to please the fans, but truly waiting until the moment was right for both sides.

Don’t get your hopes up too high for Bubba Starling this year, but definitely enjoy this moment for him. The guy deserves the moment in the spotlight.

Congrats, Bubba! Royals fans are excited to finally see you swing the bat at the K this weekend!