Meaningful baseball returns today as the Kansas City Royals face off with the Cleveland Guardians. Judging by what KC did in spring training, we could witness a lot of scoring this afternoon and throughout the season. The Royals compiled a league-leading .931 team OPS, but Kansas City's spring training team ERA of 6.70 was the league's worst. That's no surprise given what we know about the pitchers currently on KC's roster.
The team's leader in innings pitched last year, Mike Minor, is now a Cincinnati Red. Nobody from the wave of young talent drafted by KC back in '18 recorded an ERA above the league average of 4.26 last year. The same can be said for the Royals' four most-utilized pitchers last season. If none of last year's key pieces of the rotation could even be considered average, and neither could the young guys trusted to make the team competitive moving forward, how can fans expect any success from the Royals in the near future?
Hope comes in the forms of an unexpected return of an old friend and an unexpected emergence of a young prospect. Zack Greinke recorded a 4.16 ERA as a Houston Astro through 29 starts last season. He then signed a one-year, $13 million deal to return to Kansas City. The 18-year veteran has only posted a season-long ERA above 4.40 once - back in 2005. If he approaches his career ERA of 3.41, which he's done in '17, '18 and '19, Greinke may be the ace of this Royals rotation at age 38.
Surprisingly, the well-traveled journeyman may be outdone in '22 by a relatively unheralded international prospect. Carlos Hernandez has a minor league stat sheet that wouldn't impress many scouts, but he's already surpassed his previous production with surprising effectiveness at the big-league level last year. This 23-year-old right-hander never threw 80 innings in a single season as a minor leaguer in the Royals system. His only full season with an ERA under 4.4 came at the single-A level. Last season, Carlos started 11 games as a Royal, threw for 85 2/3rds innings and recorded a 3.68 ERA. That's just bizarre.
Give these guys all your support as a fan this year, because KC needs drastic improvement from the pitching staff before we get any more postseason moments at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals ranked 21st in team ERA last year, and no team to reach the postseason ranked lower than 15th. The eight best team ERA's from 2021 all belonged to playoff teams.
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