Royals reminded of another painful trade after White Sox pitcher’s historic debut

The Kansas City Royals are going through it right now. After losing their third straight game on Wednesday, they’ve fallen to 5-15 in their last 20 and suffered their third sweep in their last five series. With things being so bad on the field at the moment, the last thing they needed was a “what could’ve been” scenario.

Unfortunately for them though, that’s precisely what they got after former prospect David Sandlin dazzled in his MLB debut – for a division rival of all teams. Sandlin took the bump for the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday and shut down the Minnesota Twins’ lineup, going six innings of one-run ball, where he surrendered just a single hit, no walks and struck out four.

Not only did he look sharp, he made history in the process. According to MLB stat expert Sarah Langs, after Sandlin retired 18 straight batters, he tied Kirk Rueter in 1993 for the fifth most hitters retired consecutively in a debut during the expansion era.

Sandlin was drafted by the Royals in the 11th round of the 2022 MLB Draft. After a few seasons in the Royals system, with his highlight being his 3.51 combined ERA between Low-A Columbia and High-A Quad Cities in 2023, Kansas City traded him to the Boston Red Sox for current middle-relief veteran John Schreiber.

Then, after a pair of uninspiring seasons in Boston’s farm system, Sandlin would be packaged this winter alongside Jordan Hicks, a series of players to be named later and cash and sent to the southside for right-hander Gage Ziehl and a player to be named later. It was a seemingly lackluster deal that has already made more headlines than many likely expected.

Royals shouldn’t regret John Schreiber trade because of David Sandlin’s debut

After a start to the season that warranted many to think whether or not Schreiber deserved to remain in this bullpen, the 32-year-old has really started putting things together and becoming a reliable arm again for Matt Quatraro out of the bullpen.

Has he gone about it in the most glamourous way? No. He’s sporting just a 5.06 K/9 rate paired with a 4.22 BB/9 clip. But numbers are numbers, and his ability to keep the ball on the ground at an above-average 75th percentile clip and avoid barrels at a 66th percentile rate has ensured he’s surrendered just two earned runs across his last 15 outings.

For the season now, Schreiber holds a sub-3.00 ERA of 2.95, which is much similar to the serviceable 3.66 and 3.80 ERA marks he posted in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

It’s always going to be hard seeing a former prospect dominate in his first taste of major league ball. However, in his own confusing way, Schreiber has gone about his business and been bright spot in a Royals bullpen that has seemingly been chasing the glory days for their AL Pennant and World Series winning units of 2014 an 2015 for over a decade now.