Before I say anything even slightly negative about this trade, I will say that if he is anywhere near the 2025 version of himself, the Royals bullpen is way better today than it was before this deal.
I’m a little bit worried about his age and his velocity. He has never been an especially hard thrower, but his average fastball velocity was down to 92.3 MPH last year from 93.4 MPH the previous two seasons. He’s only been below 93 MPH in one other season in his career, and it was not a good year. And even that might have something to do with him starting some. So there are some signs of aging. I will say that he seemed to compensate for it by going to his slider more, using it 31.9 percent of the time compared to 19.4 percent of the time in 2024. It’s a nasty pitch. And even with decreased fastball velocity, he was getting whiffs with it. So it’s a small complaint.
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