Crown Jewels: Royals Leverage, Future Rotation Help and New Unis
We're less than a week from Royals baseball actually counting!
At this time next week, there’ll be a game that matters for us to discuss. Yes, friends, we’ve reached the end of the Crown Jewels line. Your Friday blanket that’s kept you warm throughout the winter is going to go back into hiatus for a few months. If you come here because this is your free article every week, never fear! The Weekend in Review runs every Monday and it’s replacing Crown Jewels as the weekly free article. That said, I do hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber as the Royals look to improve on a ridiculously successful 2024 season that saw them reach the playoffs and even advance. And I’ve got 25% off the first year of an annual subscription going right now for just a few more days!
Now we just have the Royals in a split squad today and then the spring finale tomorrow before they had to Arlington for a tune-up in front of three decks. This time next week, we’re not going to know anything more than we do today other than who made the Opening Day roster, but to have a game that actually means something behind us will get us feeling so much better. Of course, it’ll come with the requisite complaining about the day off after Opening Day, which is done for weather purposes and everyone knows it, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. I’m just excited to be able to break something meaningful down instead of what we’ve had for the last month. I’m ready and I know you are too.
This week’s newsletters:
Leverage Relievers in Different Spots
When the Royals acquired Hunter Harvey, at the time, the thought was that he was going to likely slide into the closer’s role. And that made sense because he’d been so good for the Nationals for a couple of years. Yes, he’d had some hiccups over the previous few weeks, but the track record was long enough that you at least felt okay about him overcoming it. Well, he continued to struggle before finding his way to the IL in August and having nothing to do with the postseason. That was a huge bummer. The result was mitigated by acquiring Lucas Erceg, but a healthy Harvey would have made the bullpen look very different.
And now a few months later, the Royals brought in another reliever, presumably to slide into the closer’s role. Carlos Estevez had a solid season for the Angels and the Phillies before hitting free agency before signing a two-year deal with the Royals. But, like Harvey, his back was hurting. He didn’t require any IL time because it was spring training, but he didn’t make his debut until a week ago today. And while he has a 3.00 ERA in three innings, there are certainly some concerns over his velocity.
He’s averaging just 93.3 MPH on his four-seam fastball. That’s a pretty stark contrast to the 96.8 MPH he averaged last season on his four-seamer. For his part, he doesn’t seem concerned about it. As Anne Rogers noted on Twitter, he said:
"By the end of the inning, I was more consistent with my fastball getting through the zone, so that tells me velocity is coming. I'd rather focus on how I'm moving. If I'm on time with my rhythm, I know it's going to be there."
Okay, but it’s reasonable to be concerned with a guy who is partially as good as he is because he throws so hard and he’s only throwing 93 MPH. Now, there was less data tracking in spring training before this year, so there isn’t as much to look at, but the good news is that his velocity was down last spring and then was fine when the season got started. He also had a full spring when the season got started. I hope he gets in there on Saturday and in one of the games in Texas to try to work to get that velocity up.
On the other side of the spectrum, Harvey has looked fantastic. His velocity is also down from 97.8 MPH to 96.0 MPH on his four-seamer, but he’s got seven innings with just one run allowed to go along with seven strikeouts and no walks and he’s getting swings and misses on all his pitches, though I’d like to see a few more on that splitter given its importance for him. Harvey represents something that, if everything else healthy, can give the Royals a monster in the bullpen they maybe weren’t anticipating heading into 2025 but were hoping was there.
To have three pitchers who are able to light it up in the high-90s and have the experience of closing out games is a luxury that not every team has. It makes the entire bullpen better. I think a lot about the 2014 bullpen and how everyone thinks of it as an all-time great, but really HDH were incredible and the rest of the bullpen had a 4.56 ERA. Having three great relievers elevate the rest in a big way, so hopefully Estevez can get right and Harvey can stay right because this bullpen has the upside of an elite one.
Who Can Help the Rotation?
I’ve talked quite a bit this winter about rotation depth. Right now it’s a tiny bit thin with Noah Cameron probably not quite ready and Alec Marsh and Kyle Wright delayed, but it’ll be coming. A comment from Joel yesterday though made the good point that in a couple of years, a lot of the veterans may no longer be on the roster. Seth Lugo can opt out after this season Kris Bubic and Wright only have team control through 2026. Heck, even Wacha would be one year away from his final guaranteed year on his deal. The Royals are in a much better developmental place, but that doesn’t mean they want to rely on young arms constantly.
I think they’ve got an idea of the type of pitcher they want to go after and I do think it’s helped them a bit on the injury-front. I guess we’ll see if that continues this year, but veteran arms who throw strikes and have matured past that injury nexus have been big targets for them over the last two offseasons. It was Lugo and Wacha before 2024 and it was Michael Lorenzen during and after the season. It only really works if you’ve got your ace in-house, but they do have that in Cole Ragans and he’s under team control through 2028, so that’s not a real concern for them just yet.
Looking to free agency after the season, I won’t be surprised if they go after guys like Aaron Civale, Erick Fedde, Jon Gray, Zack Littell, or Jordan Montgomery. Only Fedde pitches for a team, the Cardinals, not expected to contend this year, so it might be tough to pry them away midseason, but they could be free agent targets. Who might they look toward in a deal at the deadline, though? That’s a spot where teams can sometimes shop for players who will help them beyond the current season while also helping them during the current season. It can either be smart or foolish, but I think this offseason has shown that the Royals will not go beyond what they believe a player is worth.
The easiest way to start building a list is to look to teams that you either absolutely know or basically know aren’t going to content. That’s the White Sox, Angels, Athletics (though I think they’re way better), Nationals, Marlins, Rockies and probably Giants. Oh and the Cardinals. I like to separate them to highlight that they’re not what they used to be. Here are a few pitchers who could make sense:
Reid Detmers, Angels
Jake Irvin, Nationals
Andrew Pallante, Cardinals
Ryan Feltner, Rockies
JP Sears, Athletics
None are world-beaters by any stretch, but they all have some control left and could help in the back half of a future rotation. I don’t think they’d shy away from a bigger deal. Maybe if Jac Caglianone can’t handle right field and they do look to shop Vinnie Pasquantino, they can make a swap for a higher-end arm, sort of like the one that was mentioned around Pasquantino and Jesus Luzardo. But I think if you look at the type of pitcher above, that’s the pool they’d likely play in at the deadline to go get a pitcher who can help them beyond just this season. It’s not sexy, but I don’t think the Lugo deal was either and we see how that’s worked out. They have a type and a plan and we’ve seen it work now, so I think they can be trusted.
New Duds
One thing people may not know about me is that I’m a secret uniform lover. I used to read the Uni-Watch preview before any sports season to see what was different and would be so disappointed when I realized I was near the bottom of it on my scroll. While I like what I like and don’t like what I don’t like, I also know that I’m pretty easy to impress with something shiny and new. Honestly, when the Royals made their shift to their current uniform set, I was underwhelmed, but liked them. The only real changes were on the road set, but they were kind of boring. Still, I like their clean look. And now they’ve made one more change. Well kind of three.
They’ll be wearing full powder blues for Saturday home games this year. It’s such a classic look and I love it. A lot of people have trouble getting behind it for home games, and I get that, but I love the look so much that I don’t care. So I’m fully bought in. But one detail that wasn’t known before the announcement is that they’re also going to do with with a different hat and a different helmet. You can see it in their social media image here:
That’s certainly something different. I said I’m easy to please and impress, and I like it a lot. My graphic designer wife who is not as easy to please or impress also likes it a lot. I will say that I much prefer the helmet to the hat, but I like the idea that this uniform gets something all on its own. And you can see it every Saturday at Kauffman Stadium throughout this season. I had heard they’d be wearing the powder blue pants with the powder blue jersey all season-long, so we’ll see if they keep with that during non-Saturday day games at home.
The rest of the set, as far as I can tell, remains the same. They’ll wear their home whites for night games at home and their road grays for night games on the road. They’ll wear their City Connects for at least one more season on Friday nights too. And they’ll wear their blue alternates on day games on the road. I maintain they have one of the cleanest looks out there even if it’s not one of the more exciting even though I might be a touch biased.
I MADE THE ARTICLE! LETS GO!!!!
Andrew Pallante looks like the best stats of the bunch. others to many hr or walks. Our system looks at least as god as most of these guys, to take a chance on.