Kris Bubic: Starter or Reliever?
The Royals brought back the lefty slowly as a reliever in 2024, but say they're going to use him as a starter in 2025.
The great draft of 2018 maybe didn’t go exactly as the Royals had hoped, but it seems like it probably went about as anyone could have expected. They got one legitimate big league starter - Brady Singer. They got one who progressed, but flamed out - Jackson Kowar. They got one who just never got there - Jonathan Bowlan. They got one who is at least solid depth in the big leagues and maybe more - Daniel Lynch IV. And they got one who is 100 percent a big league pitcher, but doesn’t have a defined role yet - Kris Bubic. This isn’t a reflection on that draft, but I do think the Royals have handled those five well, outside of maybe Bowlan, but that book isn’t yet closed either.
The one to focus on today, though, is Bubic. Bubic was (still is actually) the youngest of the 2018 day one pitchers, but he debuted second, behind Singer. He started the eighth game of the 2020 season. It’s very likely that if the minor leagues played at all that year, he’d have been in AA or AAA, but the Royals liked what he offered and he eventually made 10 starts as a rookie, throwing 50 innings with a 4.32 ERA that was good for a 108 ERA+, meaning he was eight percent better than league average. He probably wasn’t that good, giving up a lot of baserunners and five unearned runs, but for a 22-year old who hadn’t pitched above high-A, it was impressive.
He was solid again in 2021, making 29 appearances and 20 starts with a 4.43 ERA in 130 innings. That was good for a 103 ERA+. It’s hard to complain about average. He gave up fewer runners that year, but also struck out fewer hitters while keeping his walk rate about the same. If he was going to be league average, that’s fine, but there was more in there. He came to spring training in 2022 having added a slider. I even wrote about it!
He then threw zero sliders in 2022, and it was his worst season yet. He obviously wasn’t the only one to have a brutal season. His struggles, and the struggles of so many others, led to the dismissal of Cal Eldred…finally.