<\/p>\n
If there is one route to the majors that can seemingly appear out of nowhere, it is through the bullpen. Position players are often heralded long before they arrive, and starting pitchers are coveted and scrutinized with every Triple-A pitch. But relievers down on the farm do the dirty work, logging short outings for their clubs and earning calls that sometimes surprise even the most avid prospect hounds. That is what the Kansas City Royals did earlier this month with right-handed pitcher Beck Way<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Way had posted a 4.50 ERA in 19 relief outings at Triple-A with 42 strikeouts and 10 walks in 30 innings, leaning on a mid-90s fastball and a plus slider. A fourth-round pick of the New York Yankees in 2020, he was one of three players sent to Kansas City in the 2022 Andrew Benintendi deadline deal<\/a>. Way transitioned from starter to reliever following a suboptimal 2023 season. He was never a shutdown arm in the bullpen, with command being the biggest issue holding him back. But the career-best 3.22 FIP and 4.20 K\/BB ratio in Omaha this season showed that if Way was ever going to get the call, now was the time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Way did his job and then some in his MLB debut, but he is hardly going to be the last bullpen arm the Royals call up off the 40-man roster this season. Even more doors may open in relief roles as speculation swirls about who Kansas City could trade this coming deadline. The bullpen remains a work in progress, and Omaha still has arms worth paying attention to. Three of them, Jos\u00e9 Cuas, Dan Altavilla, and Luke Jackson, carry decades of combined major league experience and, in varying degrees, the kind of recent Triple-A performance that could earn a phone call. Here is what the data says about each one.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Right-handed pitcher Dan Altavilla has been in professional baseball long enough to have seen almost everything it can throw at a pitcher. He made his debut with Seattle in 2016 as a promising young reliever, underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021 and missed most of two full seasons in rehabilitation. He then resurfaced with the Royals in 2024, strained his right oblique and was designated for assignment in the same year. After that, he spent 2025 in the White Sox system where he posted 11 straight scoreless appearances before getting his contract selected and pitching serviceably in the big leagues, and arrived in Omaha this spring on yet another minor league deal<\/a>. He is 33 years old and just keeps showing up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The reason organizations keep giving him chances is right there in the velocity numbers. Altavilla’s four-seamer is sitting 95.9 mph in 2026, exceeding the MLB average of 94.8 mph for relievers. The early whiff rate (40%) is encouraging in a limited sample. His slider at 88.9 mph flashes a 33.3% whiff rate. Two seasons ago, before the oblique injury ended his year, he threw eight straight scoreless appearances for Kansas City after his contract was selected in June. The Royals have seen this arm work in their uniform before.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The biggest concern is nothing new for Altavilla: limiting free baserunners. He is striking out 20% of the opposition for Omaha, but he is similarly walking 20% of batters. Of course, Altavilla has only thrown 4.2 innings for the Storm Chasers this season, so the ratios are going to ebb and flow with each pitch. But the veteran has been around this game long enough to know those ebbs and flows are part of the job. Perhaps he gets another chance to prove he is serviceable in relief and keep earning the chances he keeps working for.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Right-handed pitcher Jos\u00e9 Cuas is, in a technical sense, a returning player for Kansas City. He made his MLB debut in a Royals uniform on May 31, 2022, and appeared in parts of two seasons in Kansas City before being traded to the Chicago Cubs and eventually bouncing through Toronto, Philadelphia, and Atlanta before signing back with the organization this winter. He knows this place. This place knows him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes 119.1 career major league innings and a 4.37 ERA, serviceable numbers if not spectacular. What Cuas has always offered is a sweeper that genuinely misses bats, and the 2026 Omaha data confirms it is still doing exactly that. His primary offering is generating a 36.8% whiff rate with a .154 batting average against and a .230 wOBA, giving him a carrying pitch if he ever sees major league action this season.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The four-seamer tells a more complicated story. It is producing a 35.5% whiff rate, which is encouraging, but opposing hitters have posted a .450 wOBA and .500 slugging percentage against it, meaning when they make contact, they are doing damage. The pitch mix data confirms what has always been the tension in Cuas’ profile: the swing-and-miss tools are real, but the command inconsistency produces enough baserunners that the ERA understates the underlying volatility. His 13.2% walk rate and 1.31 WHIP at Omaha reflect that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The sweeper is good enough to get Cuas to the major leagues. Whether the four-seamer is controllable enough to keep him there is the question the Royals are presumably asking themselves right now. Given the bullpen’s injury situation, the ERA alone may be sufficient justification to find out down the road.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The name on this one requires the most context, because Luke Jackson’s 2026 numbers do not yet tell the story the Royals signed him to tell. He spent the first week of April getting his season started in the New York Mets organization, after only signing in early April to begin with, made three scoreless Single-A appearances, then gave up six earned runs in 4.2 Triple-A innings before opting out. Kansas City signed him shortly after<\/a>. The early Omaha sample is too small to draw conclusions from. The career, however, is not.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 2021, Luke Jackson was one of the best setup men in baseball. His 1.98 ERA across 71 appearances and 63.2 innings was the lowest among all Atlanta relievers with at least 70 games and made him the first Braves pitcher with that combination since Luis Avil\u00e1n in 2013. His 31 holds were second in the major leagues. He was part of the World Series championship bullpen that October, pitching in high-leverage situations for a Braves team that won it all. That version of Luke Jackson was a legitimate weapon.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What the Royals are betting on is that a pitcher who was that good as recently as 2021 has not completely lost it at 34. His 6.54 feet of release extension is elite, among the highest of any arm in this group, and the arm angle at 47.3 degrees from the Statcast data suggests he is still working from a high slot that generates downhill plane. The curveball, in limited looks, is flashing a 33.3% whiff rate. The current whiff rates on the fastball and slider are concerning, but they reflect a sample measured in single-digit appearances, not a full season of evidence. Jackson’s 1.81 FIP in the hitter-friendly International League also offers some promise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jackson is the highest-variance option of the three. The floor is a 34-year-old pitcher who can no longer execute at the level his career suggests he can. The ceiling is a former high-leverage arm with 400-plus innings of major league experience who finds enough in the tank to be useful to a Kansas City team that badly needs experienced relievers. The Royals signed him because that ceiling is worth finding out about. Whether Omaha produces enough evidence to make the call is what the next few weeks are for.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nA Royals return could be in the cards for the recently signed Dan Altavilla<\/h2>\n
Could Jos\u00e9 Cuas grace the Kauffman Stadium mound again years later?<\/h2>\n
Luke Jackson’s ceiling could make him an enticing 40-man roster addition<\/h2>\n