Kansas City Royals: Way too early 2020 rotation predictions

Bullpen

The Royals bullpen was ranked 17th in WAR, 26th in K/9, 28th in BB/9, and 27th in ERA for 2019. Investing into a losing team’s bullpen is like dumping money into a fire, it is generally frowned upon and ridiculed in the industry.

However, if the Royals front office believes in the starting pitching prospects and the team’s position players to continue to develop into a competitive roster, then the Royals may use this offseason to add some high ceiling arms to the bullpen.

There are several buy low free agents and trade candidates the Royals could add to the major league roster who have the ability to be late inning, high leverage relievers.

Closer:

• Ian Kennedy RHP (possible to be traded this offseason) – 2019: 3.41 ERA, 1.279 WHIP, 73 Ks in 63.1 Innings (30 saves)

Relievers:

• Scott Barlow RHP (8th inning set-up) – 2019: 4.22 ERA, 1.436 WHIP, 92 Ks in 70.1 Innings

• Tim Hill LHP (7th inning set-up or match-up lefty) – 2019: 3.63 ERA, 1.109 WHIP, 39 Ks in 39.2 Innings

• Josh Staumont RHP – 2019: 3.72 ERA, 1.603 WHIP, 15 Ks in 19.1 Innings

• Kyle Zimmer RHP – 2019: 10.80 ERA, 2.564 WHIP, 18 Ks in 18.1 Innings

• Jesse Hahn RHP – 2019: 13.50 ERA, 2.768 WHIP, 7 Ks in 4.2 Innings

• Kevin McCarthy RHP – 2019: 4.48 ERA, 1.475 WHIP, 38 Ks in 60.1 Innings

OR

• Randy Rosario LHP – 2019: 4.40 ERA, 1.395 WHIP, 13 Ks in 14.1 Innings

Long Reliver/Emergency Starter:

• Gabe Speier LHP – 2019: 7.36 ERA, 1.500 WHIP, 10 Ks in 7.1 Innings

The Royals 2019 bullpen was a disaster. Toward the end of the season, Kennedy, Barlow, Hill, and McCarthy were the only consistent arms manager Ned Yost could go to attempt to hold a lead.

Kennedy has a good chance of being traded this offseason. Staumont and Zimmer offer tremendous potential with some electric stuff, but struggled mightily with finding the zone for strikes. Jesse Hahn is still in the process of getting back to 100% health and he flashed some potential to be a solid bullpen option if he can be healthy.

Rosario had an excellent performance for the Royals after being acquired from the Chicago Cubs and could be another lefty option out of the pen. Gabe Speier saw his velocity increase moving to the pen and could be a solid long reliever option.