The Royals agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Taylor Clarke last week, according to the MLB.com transaction log. The 31-year-old returns to the organization after spending one season in the Milwaukee system. He’s represented by the Ballengee Group.
Clarke, a former Diamondbacks draftee, pitched with Kansas City in 2022 and ’23. The former was the best season of his career. Clarke turned in a 4.04 earned run average with stellar command across 49 relief innings. He struggled in his follow-up campaign, allowing nearly six earned runs per nine over 59 frames. The Royals dealt him to the Brewers last offseason for a pair of minor leaguers. Clarke suffered a meniscus injury in his right knee during Spring Training.
That required surgery, leading Clarke to begin the season on the minor league injured list. He struggled in Triple-A upon his return and lost his spot on Milwaukee’s 40-man roster in July. Clarke spent the entire season with their top affiliate in Nashville before qualifying for minor league free agency.
The Brewers used Clarke mostly out of the rotation in the minors. He started 15 of 22 outings, tallying 68 frames of 4.90 ERA ball. He’d pitched exclusively as a reliever or opener over his two seasons in Kansas City (and in his final year in Arizona). The Royals have more need for bullpen depth than they do for a starter, so they’re presumably targeting Clarke as a candidate for middle innings work.
Clarke has strong command and posted roughly average strikeout rates over his two seasons in K.C. He sat in the 95-96 MPH range with his heater in short stints. That dropped to around 93-94 in Triple-A this year, which is to be expected since he was working deeper into games. Clarke has struggled with the home run ball throughout his five MLB seasons, the biggest reason his career ERA sits narrowly above 5.00.
Royals needed help in the fit of the team’s uniforms.
That is why the went out and signed a……………………………..
TAYLOR !!
So does this mean a trade for Taylor Ward is forthcoming, or is one Taylor sufficient?
As a Royals fan, I’m not against this. It’s a minor league deal only guarantee; this is just a tryout for Spring Training. At most, we are talking about a just-barely six figure guarantee. Secondly, Taylor Clarke highly impressed me not only much of the time in 2022, but in the early part of 2023, when for a while I felt like he was the best set up guy on the team. Nothing to lose here for K.C.; nice move.
He did a nice job with Brewers last year just the numbers pushed him out. Think that was the only reason they let him go was that he would get a chance some place else.