Kansas City Royals: Josh Staumont getting noticed around the league

The Kansas City Royals have to be thrilled with what they’re getting out of Josh Staumont two weeks into the season.

Josh Staumont was a second round pick by the Kansas City Royals in 2015 and he got that coveted MLB call-up last season. He had a respectable rookie campaign, throwing 19.1 innings and posting an ERA of 3.72 and a WHIP of 1.60 when it was all said and done.

The team had high hopes for him as a reliever in 2020 and so far, Staumont is delivering in that department. He’s become of the best arms out of the bullpen in this young season.

Staumont has thrown just five innings right now, but he’s been clutch. He’s currently sitting with an ERA of 1.80 and a WHIP of 1.00 and has shown that he can be the go-to guy when the Royals need to get out of a jam or need a scoreless inning.

In his five appearances, Staumont has only given up one run and that came in his second outing of the season.

Otherwise, it’s been four clean innings from the former second round pick. Even in the game when he did give up a run, it was a singular run and the Royals won that game 14-6, so it wasn’t a big deal.

The Royals are hoping that they can get their bullpen back to that dominant force we saw in 2014 and 2015 and Staumont will be a huge part of that. According to Baseball Savant, he relies on three pitches with his four-seamer being the most effective and he averages 98.9 MPH on the radar gun with his four-seamer.

Staumont building on those three pitches is key if he wants to play a pivotal role in this bullpen. He has potential as a closer and perhaps the Royals test him out there as the season progresses.

He’s been one of the best arms out of the pen to this point and fans feel a sense of relief when he enters a game. His best outing was on Monday night at Wrigley Field against the Cubs when it took him just 13 pitches to get out of the inning and he struck out all three batters that he faced.

Matt Snyder of CBS Sports wrote a nice piece about Staumont after this game and mentioned that he might have “the best stuff in baseball”. Snyder notes in that article that it’s not just how quickly Staumont tore through the three Cubs batters he faced, but rather how foolish he made them look in such quick work.

"It wasn’t just the results, though. It was how bad he made two All-Stars and a hitter talented enough to be an All-Star look. He carved them up with triple-digit heat and a ridiculous low-80s curve."

Staumont is going to be quite the talent in the Kansas City Royals bullpen and this outing made not only Royals fans take notice, but everyone else throughout Major League Baseball as well.

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This season hasn’t gone according to plan, but if Josh Staumont can show he’s a dominant reliever, the bullpen situation will only get better moving forward.

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