Using the Royals Rotation Depth

The Royals did a fair amount of offseason lifting at the trade deadline last year, and they'll likely need to take advantage of that work.

I’m sure other teams have seen even bigger gaps in availability in their rotation from year-to-year than the 2024/2025 Royals did, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a big difference. As we all know now, the Royals only got 13 starts from their ace. They only got 20 starts from the pitcher who stepped up as the number two (and ace while the aforementioned ace was out). They did get 26 starts from the original number two who actually was the Cy Young runner-up the year before, but his last handful were brutal. They did get 31 from one of their veteran stalwarts and 24 from the debuting prospect, but that’s still a far cry from 2024.

In 2024,as we all remember so well, the Royals got 151 starts from the original five-some, and then six more from a guy they traded for to replace one of the original five. That left five starts to be made by someone else. Five! One of the five was a true bullpen game. Daniel Lynch IV started three of the other four and then Jonathan Bowlan started the last one. Those four starts for Lynch and Bowlan marked the end of their careers as starters, for whatever that’s worth. It was pretty magical.

So when the 2025 season started going off the rails early, it felt different. For a bit, the Royals were fine with Noah Cameron coming up. Every time it seemed like he might go back down with a starter returning, someone else would go down to open a different spot up for him. They did somewhat make it work. They 157 real starts out of 10 different starters. They had five different opener games, pitched by Lynch, Bowlan and Angel Zerpa. But, to me, when they had to turn to one of the few remaining players older than me, Rich Hill, to start multiple games, that was the point that we all knew something would have to change.

And to JJ Picollo’s credit, he made moves. He started with trading for Ryan Bergert and giving up Freddy Fermin. If you were with us on the live trade deadline chat here on ItC, you’ll probably recall my shock and joy when we found out that Stephen Kolek was also a part of that deal. Those two combined to make 13 starts down the stretch for the Royals. Then they traded for Bailey Falter. That didn’t work out quite as well. Eventually, everyone but Kris Bubic came back (and Falter got hurt) and the rotation was still pretty darn full.

Now, as we’re on the verge of starting the 2026 season, the rotation remains full. Kolek is on the IL with an oblique strain, but it’s my understanding he’s already started throwing. So after that extremely long introduction where I didn’t tell anyone anything they likely didn’t know, I want to take a look at how I see the pitching staff shaking out this season and where the depth can play a big role. I’ll take a look at the expectation for each of the presumed starting five and go from there.