The Kansas City Royals are on the verge of elimination. With a loss on Friday and a Boston Red Sox win, they will officially be eliminated from the American League Wild Card race. They won 86 games last year and were the second Wild Card team before losing the ALDS to the New York Yankees. They have taken several steps back this year as a team.
However, some players have performed very well. A few of them stepped into larger roles and ultimately became key pieces of the future. One player in particular who stepped up was left-hander Kris Bubic before his season was ultimately cut short due to an injury.
When listing an “All-Breakout Team”, Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report had Bubic as one of the pitchers on the list.
“Kris Bubic might be the ace of the All-Breakout Team rotation if a rotator cuff strain had not brought his season to an early end in late July, but he still did more than enough over 20 starts to earn a spot on the staff,” Reuter wrote.
“After missing most of the 2023 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, he returned in a relief role last year, but the Royals moved him into the rotation to fill the spot occupied by Brady Singer and he ended up earning a surprise All-Star selection.”
Bubic was limited to 20 starts this season due to his injury. However, he was named an All-Star for the first time and went 8-7 with a 2.55 ERA and 3.2 WAR in those starts while also striking out 116 batters over 116 1/3 innings of work.
If he can come back healthy in 2026, he’ll be a strong candidate to take yet another important step forward for the Royals as they try to bounce back into contention following a difficult finish to 2025.
He was without question the best pitcher on the staff before the injury took place, and the Royals got a huge boost on the pitching side thanks to his breakout campaign.
The Royals will hope to have him back to full strength by spring training next year. Even with Noah Cameron breaking out, the Royals will need their pitching staff to help carry the load in 2026, especially with question marks surrounding the offense.
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