Royals utility man’s unorthodox role perfectly sums up embarrassing state of pitching staff

The Kansas City Royals may be 3-1 to start the second-half of the season and coming of a series opening win versus the San Francisco Giants on Monday, however what may still stick in many fans’ minds is the brutal 19-2 beatdown they received just two days ago in their series finale to the San Diego Padres. In beatdowns like that, it’s not uncommon to see management try and salvage their bullpen and throw in a position player off the bench to end the game on the mound.

This was precisely the tactic Matt Quatraro deployed on Sunday when he once again turned to utility man Tyler Tolbert to pitch the ninth. This season, Tolbert has taken the word “utility” to a whole new level. Not only has he been relied upon to fill in for the Royals countless injuries in the lineup, but Sunday was his fifth appearance as pitcher this year already.

As embarrassing as it is to have to resort to a position on the player once, five times from the same name takes things to a whole new level. And Mick Shaffer of KSHB 41 News put Tolbert’s pitching appearances into perspective.

“Tyler Tolbert has as many Royals pitching appearances as Bailey Falter this season and is closing in on Ragans and Bubic,” Shaffer wrote on X.

Before being designated for assignment and subsequently demoted to the minors after a historically bad outing, Falter appeared in just five games himself for Kansas City. And the fact there’s over 60 games left in the season and Tolbert’s made five appearances on the mound already, Ragans’ eight outings and Bubic’s nine don’t seem egregiously out of reach for him to achieve – especially if they are big sellers at the trade deadline.

Now, unforeseen injuries have taken their toll on the rotation, but underperformance from arms in both the starting rotation and bullpen have been just as prevalent. Their starting staff holds a combined 4.67 ERA, placing them 25th in the league, while the bullpen sits second-to-last in MLB with a 5.43 ERA.

Royals could be in for more Tyler Tolbert relief appearances before the season ends

The Royals are reportedly set to adopt a seller’s approach at the upcoming trade deadline, meaning there’s potential that focusing on the 2027 season could only make their underwhelming 2026 season that much uglier down the stretch.

This could especially be the case if they clear out their bullpen to a degree in the next two weeks. This only seems likelier as they’re reportedly hesitant to trade the likes of Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo and Kris Bubic continues to work (or perhaps struggle) his way back from his mid-May injury.

If suddenly heavily-used arms like Alex Lange, John Schreiber and perhaps even Daniel Lynch IV are out of the picture, it will largely be cast of underachievers and relative unknown entities cast to eat up innings behind the already depleted starting staff. If this scenario doesn’t have the potential for more double-digit blowouts written all over it, I don’t know what does.