The Royals have decided to shut down right-hander Jakob Junis for the remainder of the season, skipper Ned Yost told reporters including Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star (via Twitter). He’ll be replaced in the rotation by Eric Skoglund.
It seems the club did not want to extend the workload for Junis, who has taken 31 starts and thrown 175 1/3 innings. That’s actually 1 2/3 frames shy of his 2018 tally, but there were some signs that Junis was tiring. His velocity was headed south (though only slightly) and he had allowed four or more earned runs in each of his past five starts.
This decision puts the wraps on a somewhat disappointing season for Junis, who recently turned 27. He owns a 5.24 ERA with 8.4 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9. That’s nearly a run per nine worse than his earned run average over the prior two campaigns.
In some respects, the down year was really just a way for the baseball gods to even things out over a larger sample. Junis now owns a lifetime 4.69 ERA that’s an exact match for his career 4.69 FIP. Metrics such as xFIP (4.47) and SIERA (4.64) generally concur. While his K/BB ratio is decent enough, Junis has consistently given up too many long balls (1.56 per nine, 15.4% HR/FB rate for his career).
Junis will remain shy of arbitration next year, so he’s still an easy and affordable choice to plug back into the rotation. If the Royals can help him solve the long ball issue, there may yet be a path to improved results.
In the meantime, Skoglund will get a brief look. The tall lefty struggled in a half-season showcase last year and has been shelled in 14 innings in the majors in 2019. The former third-rounder was also knocked around this year in the upper minors, so it’s possible he’ll be a roster casualty in the offseason.
He will probably win nine games and strikeout 164
batters again next year!
Wow, just realized he has 3 consecutive 9-win season and the same strikeout as last year. Good eye dude.
Thanks!
I feel sad when pitchers
only win 9 games in a
season…..
Actually not bad for a 29th round draft pick. I can’t believe he signed in such a low round out of high school. He must have been really poor…..
The Royals are one of the 8 or so teams I follow. Love Dayton Moore. Love the type of fundamental baseball the organization expects out of its players.
Understand that in a rebuild, the pitchers come along slower then the position players. And understand that there are 4-6 quality quality pitching prospects coming up through their farm system.
But their pitching staff the past 2 years is simply absurd to watch. Duffy is at best an overpaid #3 starter. No consistency at all. He’s hardly a veteran role model for the youngsters. Keller is a nice pitcher. And basically – that’s it. Junis worked hard all last winter and blah blah blah. Cal Eldred surely knows more about pitching them me, but he’s been incredibly ineffective the past few years in bringing along what pitchers they have.
The Royals have a fine young group of position players to mix with some veterans. But by the time they develop any pitching – Mondesi and Dozier will be playing out their options; while Salvy and Merrifield will either be long gone or a shell of what they are today.
They have got to get some quality pitching prospects, and a coaching staff to handle them. Even when they went to 2 WS’s and won one, they didn’t have descent starting pitching. Their defense and bullpen saved them.
Only Cal’s second year as pitching coach. I’m not sure how you can really grade him one way or the other bases on the roster we’ve put on the field the last two years.
Have you seen their minor league system. from rookie to double A they are peppered w high quality pitching prospects. that are all having extremely good results everywhere they go.
just won four championships in the minors: Low A, High A, pioneer league Rookie advanced & One of the Dominican summer leagues. High A Wilmington is where the next wave was this year….With the exception of Jackson and Brady, pitchers who were promoted to AA back in may & June.
kris bubic, etc, are getting me excited about the future