Kansas City Royals: Glenn Sparkman era needs to end

By Leigh Oleszczak | Aug 4, 2020

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - JULY 21: Starting pitcher Glenn Sparkman #57 of the Kansas City Royals pitches during an exhibition game against the Houston Astros at Kauffman Stadium on July 21, 2020 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

Glenn Sparkman isn’t a part of the Kansas City Royals’ future plans and he’s hurting the team, so why is he still on the roster?

I understand the 2020 season is different than most Major League Baseball seasons, but it shouldn’t force the Kansas City Royals to keep bad players on their roster, especially with other (and likely better) options on the taxi squad.

The Royals are rebuilding and no one realistically expected them to contend this year, even in a shortened season. That being said, the bullpen had been a bright spot prior to this weekend’s series against the White Sox and one reliever who didn’t do well in multiple outings this weekend was Glenn Sparkman.

Glenn Sparkman is in his third year with the Kansas City Royals, but it needs to be his third and final year in KC.

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Sparkman was initially brought in as a potential starter in 2018. He started three games that year and appeared in 15 total. He wasn’t awful in 2018, posting an ERA of 4.46, but 2019 showed Royals fans a better sample size of what Sparkman was.

He pitched a lot of innings for this team in 2019 with 136 under his belt through 31 total games (23 starts), but his ERA of 6.02 was an eye sore for sure.

No one really thought Sparkman would be anything more than a reliever on the team this year and that’s the role he’s currently serving and he has not been good in that role. Sparkman has pitched five innings and allowed three earned runs (six total runs) and has an ERA of 5.40 and a WHIP of 2.00.

The rest of the Royals bullpen has been pretty solid for the most part, but Sparkman is the one who gives up runs whenever he takes the mound.

At this point, the team has an idea of who is going to be in their long-term plans and Sparkman, who is 28 years old, is not in that group. He provides a potential starter should injuries or positive COVID-19 tests hit some of the other starters, but hopefully Sparkman isn’t who the team turns to if such a situation should arise.

Matt Harvey was recently signed to a minor league deal and is someone who, despite having a rough 2019 campaign with the Angels, could provide more upside than that of Sparkman. The unknown is always more appealing than the known and that’s why bringing Harvey up and sending Sparkman on his way would likely be a popular decision right now amongst Royals fans.

What do you think, Royals fans? Have you seen enough of Glenn Sparkman?

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