Kansas City Royals news: Did you set your out of office email?

Offensively, the Royals overall chase rate was actually better than you might realize at 28.8 percent with league average at 28.1 percent. But it was still 11th-highest in baseball. I feel like I’ve written more about the fact that Royals pitching doesn’t get chase, so this is one I’ve probably written before, but they had the seventh-lowest chase rate among pitching staffs. I’m using the Statcast O-swing% numbers that can be found on Fangraphs, if you’re following along at home. It’s simply the percentage of pitches outside the zone that a hitter swings at, for those who aren’t aware.

Obviously, chase rate isn’t everything. The Royals still had the sixth-best ERA in all of baseball. But they also had the eighth-lowest strikeout rate. And the reality is that a ball in play can be a hit. A strikeout is never a hit. It’s still important to throw strikes, but one thing the Royals say a lot that resonates with me is that the pitcher needs to force the hitter into a decision. Sometimes that means getting them to swing at a pitch they shouldn’t. But even though the Royals threw the eighth-most pitches in the strike zone by percentage, they still threw it out of the zone 48.5 percent of the time. There are opportunities to get the opponent to chase.