MLB.com says Kansas City Royals’ holiday wish is to add bullpen help
The Kansas City Royals have a good bullpen and hope that it continues to grow.
Merry Christmas! To celebrate the holidays, Will Leitch of MLB.com put together a list of one holiday wish for every MLB team. For the Kansas City Royals, he said bullpen help was their holiday wish, which I’ll admit I was a little puzzled by.
"The Royals have been impressively aggressive so far, and the additions of Carlos Santana and Mike Minor really do make them look better. But a wobbly bullpen could tank everything they’re trying to do."
Last season we saw the Royals’ bullpen really take it the next level, led by Josh Staumont of course, who had a phenomenal season. Staumont pitched 25.2 innings and finished the shortened 2020 season with an ERA of 2.45 and a WHIP of 1.40. It was the kind of season the Royals were hoping to see from Staumont, but even still, fans have to realize it was a shortened season and that pitching this well in a full season could be trickier.
The Royals also saw dominant performances from Scott Barlow, Jesse Hahn, Greg Holland, and even former first-round pick, Kyle Zimmer. Holland re-signed with the team on a one-year deal and it’s probably because he believes in this bullpen moving forward and wants to be a part of it.
The Kansas City Royals’ bullpen seems to be the least of their concerns.
While I agree the Royals shouldn’t settle and should continue to build up their bullpen, I wouldn’t make this their one holiday wish for 2020. Instead, the team could really use another strong bat. Their pitching wasn’t the biggest problem in 2020, but sometimes the bats went completely cold and that has to change if this team wants to compete in 2021 and beyond.
Dayton Moore has been aggressive this offseason in both departments and he’s done a great job at keeping the bullpen strong. I mentioned earlier how he re-signed Holland and he’s also signed Mike Minor to a two-year deal. Minor pitched for the Royals in 2017 and was their best reliever that season.
The biggest thing on the Royals’ holiday wish list is obviously that they want to be contenders in 2021. They probably aren’t winning the World Series, but just being competitive and making a playoff push would excite Royals fans for sure.
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While we certainly want the Royals’ bullpen to be a major strength of the team in 2021, putting it as their main holiday wish was a bit surprising to me. Yes, they need to continue making it a strength, but there are also much bigger concerns this team needs to address.