The Royals announced they’ve selected reliever Gabe Speier to the big league roster. Wade Davis has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to September 12, due to right shoulder inflammation. To clear space for Speier on the 40-man roster, Kansas City transferred lefty Richard Lovelady from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list.
Speier is up for the first time this season. The southpaw logged some big league time in 2019-20, combining to throw thirteen innings of eleven-run ball before being outrighted off the 40-man roster last offseason. Speier has spent all of this year with Triple-A Omaha and been dominant. Across 45 1/3 innings, the 26-year-old has posted a 2.98 ERA in a hitter-friendly environment. He’s punched out a strong 29.8% of batters faced while only walking 4.7% of opponents. Speier still has a couple minor league option years remaining, so he could be a long-term depth option for the Kansas City bullpen if he manages to stick on the 40-man roster.
Davis returned to Kansas City on a minor league deal last winter. He was arguably the best reliever in baseball for a stretch of his first stint in Royal blue, but he’d struggled mightily over the past couple seasons in Colorado and hasn’t righted the ship in return to K.C. Over 42 2/3 frames, Davis has managed just a 6.75 ERA with below-average strikeout and ground-ball rates. He’ll be a free agent again at the end of the season.
Lovelady’s season is officially over, although that’s not much of a surprise. The southpaw landed on the IL with a UCL sprain in late August and always seemed unlikely to return this year. He posted a 3.48 ERA over 20 2/3 innings this season, the largest workload he’s shouldered over his three years at the game’s highest level.
Davis been on the 2 year IL let’s be honest
Speier deserves a shot in the MLB and either the Royals or a team that has a worse bullpen.
Speier has been with at least 5 organizations, starting with Boston and then Detroit in Porcello deal
Yeah, Speier has been considered valuable in the past. He’s been involved in some decent trades.
I wish him well.
Wade Davis is officially done as a Royal. He won’t be back this year and DEFINITELY won’t be back next year!
Getting the bullpen gang back together was a nice story, and maybe will even generate some positive vibes for players considering the Royals as a destination showing they’re an organization that treats their stars well, but one has to wonder how many additional games the Royals lost this year having Davis and Holland pitch in over 90 games, one with an ERA around 6.70 and the other around 5.70.
Wade Davis’ 2014/2015 was as dominant a two-year run as any reliever has had, and one can argue that the success of the Holland/Davis/Herrera trio permanently influenced bullpen construction on contending teams to this day.
Time for KC to move on from both.
Will Speier has lasted longer than Aaron Blair who was cut by the Giants AA team this year