Royals’ stellar starting rotation is being wasted by a shaky bullpen originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Starting the season with an 8-17 record was not what the Kansas City Royals had envisioned during the winter break. They were coming off a trying season in 2025, and many believed they would be a much better team this season.
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They currently have a worse record than the Chicago White Sox, which is saying something, given that a large portion of that team’s offense has come from one bat, Munetaka Murakami.
Some players like Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia have failed to get it going early, and so has Bobby Witt Jr. in some aspects. However, it is the bullpen that has been a major letdown so far this season.
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Royals’ stellar starting rotation is being wasted by a shaky bullpen
The starting rotation has been effective, especially between Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo. Wacha has a 2-1 record with a 2.51 ERA, while Lugo holds the lowest ERA on the team with a 1.15.
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The bullpen, on the other hand, is struggling to shut the door. They hold a 6.29 ERA, which is the highest across MLB. Their struggles have led Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer to become very critical of them.
“Pitching is supposed to be the backbone of this Royals team. The rotation has been doing its job with a perfectly respectable 3.76 ERA. They also rank sixth in innings, so the bullpen isn’t even being asked to do much. It just plain sucks anyway. Harsh language like that isn’t always appropriate, but it becomes unavoidable when a bullpen owns a 6.29 ERA and is walking 5.6 batters per nine innings.”
It’s a bit of a headscratcher as to why the bullpen is struggling so badly. They’re not being used at an unreasonable clip, but they are letting runs in by the bunches and can’t stop walking batters.
If the Royals want to turn things around, it’s got to start with the bullpen.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sports.yahoo.com ’
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