How Royals closer Lucas Erceg hopes to ‘prove myself again’ after brutal stretch

Kansas City Royals reliever Lucas Erceg heard the outside noise.

And it wasn’t good.

After blowing consecutive saves, Erceg became a major talking point for everyone from KC fans to national pundits. People criticized his subpar season and questioned his ability to be a closer.

“I’m allowing the outside noise to affect me a little bit,” Erceg said. “I talk about that a lot. It’s not allowing the outside noise and not allowing the situation to dictate how I feel out there.

“And I guess, the last couple of weeks, I’ve allowed it to affect the way I think and I moved down the mound.”

Erceg was not concerned about comments on social media. But he did start to recognize that there were fundamental issues, including mechanical ones, he needed to address.

For one, he was opening up far too early during his pitching motion. Because of that he lost some deception, giving opposing hitters a better chance to react to his pitches. His movement down the mound was also out of whack.

He wasn’t fooling opposing hitters with his fastball. His velocity plummeted and the pitch wasn’t being located in the right spots.

Erceg went from being the aggressor to playing defense.

“I’ve had a couple bad outings, you know, here and there,” he said. “But for the most part, I feel like every time I go out there, I feel dominant. I feel like I’m ready to be the aggressor and just it hasn’t been that way the last couple of weeks. So we’re trying to find that again.”

Erceg has had a pair of rough outings during the Royals’ 10-game road trip. He allowed three runs on five consecutive hits last Saturday against the Texas Rangers.

Three days later, Erceg relinquished a late lead against the Cincinnati Reds. He gave up a solo home run that tied the game. In that outing, he also walked two batters while registering two strikeouts.

This season, Erceg leads the majors with six blown saves. The Royals had used Alex Lange as their closer for the past two games entering Friday’s matchup at the Minnesota Twins.

“I’m not going out there to prove to anybody else but myself that I’m supposed to be here,” Erceg said. “I deserve to be here. Maybe I lost sight of that the last couple of weeks, because constantly blowing leads when the team isn’t off to the hottest start kind of magnifies things.

“So for me, I want to prove to myself again that I deserve to be here and I have every right to be here.”

Since his blowup in Cincinnati, Erceg has taken inventory of his mechanics. He admittedly had adopted some bad habits that stemmed from his back strain last season.

He had to make adjustments to deal with that injury, and now at full health, he hasn’t fully returned to what made him successful in the first place.

The Royals suggested he watch video of himself from 2024. That season, Erceg posted a 2.88 ERA and a strikeout rate of 11.2 per nine innings.

By comparison, Erceg this season has a 6.45 ERA and an 8.1 strikeouts-per-nine. He has recorded 20 strikeouts and walked 15 batters in 22 and 1/3 innings.

“You think of 2024, he was just a monster all year,” Royals pitching coach Brian Sweeney said. “What he did for the team as a fireman, as a closer, and how his body was moving was something to look at. You know, with the injuries last year, his back and his shoulder, his body wasn’t moving the same way.”

Erceg quickly identified the mechanical habits.

“I wasn’t able to rotate as quickly or with as much intent because of my back,” he recalled of last season. “So I kind of got used to opening up early so I can still get that hip, shoulder separation. And it’s slowly turned into maybe me losing a couple of miles on my fastball and all my other pitches.”

In recent days, he worked hard to correct his mechanics. He is looking for late movement on his pitches as an indicator that he’s on the right track.

“I’ve been veering off of that and trying to be more passive,” Erceg said. “Trying to miss barrels and strike guys out. Not walk people and not give up homers. And not blow the lead and this and that. So it’s just throw all that crap out and hit the reset button.”

Erceg plans to simplify his entire approach. His goal is to throw strikes and trust his stuff. The Royals have confidence he can return to form and insist they aren’t shying away from using him late in games.

The biggest challenge is making sure Erceg doesn’t overthink things once he is on the mound. That’s where Sweeney and the rest of the pitching staff are lending a helping hand.

“The confidence is going to come when he is free on the mound and he gets some results in,” Sweeney said. “And all of a sudden, we’re going to get back the Lucas Erceg that we all know is working his butt off to compete day in and day out.”

Erceg could see action this weekend against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. He hasn’t pitched in the last few days and is ready to make his return.

The Royals want to see it, as well.

“We’re not going anywhere without Lucas Erceg,” Sweeney said. “This bullpen needs him and this team needs him. I need him. His energy is amazing, and he comes to work hard every day and he comes to play every day.

“And as baseball players, we all go through spells that are really hard. … You want to have vision for the long term for this individual to understand what’s going to help him get back to the pitcher that he knows he can be. And we have confidence that will happen.”