Kansas City Royals: Four positives from shortened 2020 season

The 2020 Kansas City Royals finished near the bottom in the division for a third straight season. There are some positives to be found regardless of the disappointing outcome in the standings.

In a flash of two and a half months, the 2020 season has concluded for the Kansas City Royals who found themselves seventh worst in the MLB standings with a 26-34 record. The 2020 season was obviously very different than the Royals back-to-back 100 loss seasons of 2018 and 2019. The Royals stayed in contention for a playoff spot until they were swept by the Milwaukee Brewers in the second to last weekend of the season.

New manager Mike Matheny employed an analytic approach allowing the Royals to be competitive in close games. Of the Royals’ 34 losses, 11 came in extra-innings or by 1 run.

The offense was anemic with runners in scoring position early and often this season. Had the Royals offense been able to capitalize more often with runners in scoring position, they could have ridden their 12th ranked (by WAR) shutdown bullpen late in games.

Let’s go over some positives from the 2020 season.

1) The young pitchers proved themselves ready and capable for the big leagues

The 2020 Royals got an injection of excitement with the additions to the starting rotation of top pitching prospects Brady Singer and Kris Bubic. The bullpen also received major contributions from young flame throwers Josh Staumont and Tyler Zuber.

Brady Singer was absolutely dominant in his final four starts, allowing just nine hits and eight walks in 24 innings while striking out 25 with a 1.50 ERA. Singer started out slowly in AA Northwest Arkansas in 2019 and similarly started slowly at the MLB level this season. Once he found his comfort level, his numbers really started to take off and the craziest thing about his success is it is coming without much usage of his third pitch (4.7%), the change-up.

Singer’s ability to work quickly, locate, vary the velocity, and movement of his fastballs and sliders allowed him to baffle MLB hitters. Once he gains more confidence in his change-up and starts to incorporate it more often in his starts, he could really take off. Royals fans should be excited about Singer’s future with the ballclub.

Kris Bubic used his funky mechanics and solid stuff to avoid hard contact and generate swings and misses on strikes in the zone. His advanced pitching metrics bode well for his future success if he becomes more consistent with throwing pitches closer to the strike-zone.

Bubic’s struggles came from command issues where his misses were taken advantage of by hitters or didn’t challenge the zone enough to draw a swing. If he can get his BB/9 down from 4.0 to where he was in the minors 2.9, he could see his K/9 jump above 9.5.

Considering Bubic made the jump from A+ ball straight to the MLB, his first year must be considered a massive success. If Bubic gets enough innings (180+) in 2021, he should strikeout over 200 batters.

Josh Staumont and Tyler Zuber both showed off electric stuff out of the bullpen for the Royals. Staumont was must watch television every time he took the mound in relief. He shocked his MLB opponents this season by flashing command of a 99+ mph fastball and dropping an 80-grade curveball into the strikezone. Staumont has possessed a golden arm, but has lacked the ability to command his off the charts stuff, the 2020 season proved how dominant he can be when he fills up the strikezone.

Tyler Zuber struggled with control early in the 2020 season and finished with an ugly 8.2 BB/9. His four-pitch arsenal is good enough to dominate hitters late game if he throws them in the strikezone (12.3 K/9). Zuber can take over as the Royals closer with Staumont taking over the role as an eighth inning shutdown reliever.