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Royals’ Brad Keller To Make Season Debut Thursday

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Royals starter Brad Keller will make his season debut Thursday against the Cubs, manager Mike Matheny announced (via Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com). The right-hander has been behind schedule because of a positive coronavirus test.

The 25-year-old Keller is about to begin his third season as a member of the Royals, who grabbed him during the December 2017 Rule 5 Draft. While Rule 5 picks rarely turn into productive major leaguers, Keller has proved to be a steal for the Royals. He has totaled 2.0-plus fWAR in each of his two seasons in Kansas City, with which he has amassed 305 2/3 innings of 3.68 ERA/3.98 FIP pitching with 6.42 K/9, 3.53 BB/9 and a 52 percent groundball rate.

Getting Keller back won’t suddenly turn a 3-9 club into a a contender, but it should at least make KC more competitive. The Royals’ rotation hasn’t been particularly productive this year, but Danny Duffy and rookie Brady Singer have performed respectably over a combined six starts.

Royals Reinstate Jakob Junis, Cam Gallagher From Injured List; Designate Oscar Hernandez

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The Royals have activated right-hander Jakob Junis and catcher Cam Gallagher from the injured list, as per the team’s official Twitter account.  To create roster space, catcher Oscar Hernandez was designated for assignment and righty Ronald Bolanos was optioned to the club’s alternate training site.

Junis is slated to start Kansas City’s game against the White Sox this afternoon, while Gallagher is behind the plate.  Both Junis and Gallagher are making their first appearances of the season after receiving positive COVID-19 diagnoses during Summer Camp, which set back their preseason preparations.

The 27-year-old Junis has been a reliable eater of innings since becoming a full-time member of the Royals’ rotation, though his overall performance has been inconsistent.  Junis has a 4.80 ERA, 3.25 K/BB rate, and 8.4 K/9 over 352 1/3 innings since the start of the 2018 season, with a 4.37 ERA in 2018 and a 5.24 number last year.  Despite that notable gap in ERA totals, there wasn’t much different in Junis’ peripheral stats between the two seasons.

Gallagher will assume his regular role as Salvador Perez’s backup.  Gallagher has hit .230/.297/.352 over 238 plate appearances in his three seasons in Kansas City, with 142 of those PA coming in 2019 when Gallagher received more playing time due to an unusually unsettled catching situation — Perez missed the season recovering from Tommy John surgery, and interim starter Martin Maldonado was traded in July.

Hernandez appeared in four games for the Royals this season, which marked his first MLB action since he played in another four games for the Diamondbacks in 2016.  All told, Hernandez has 26 big league games on his resume during an 11-year pro career that has seen him clock 549 games (and a .246/.323/.417 slash line in 2140 PA) in the minor leagues with the Rays, Diamondbacks, and Red Sox organizations.

Royals To Promote Kris Bubic

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The Royals will promote lefty Kris Bubic to make his MLB debut, manager Mike Matheny tells reporters including Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com (via Twitter). He’ll take the ball on Friday.

Bubic, who’ll soon turn 23, was selected with the 40th overall pick of the 2018 draft. He followed Brady Singer in that draft and will now join him in vaulting quickly to the majors.

At the time, the Royals made clear they hoped their slate of incoming college arms would move swiftly through the system and help launch a rapid return to contention. The first prong has come to pass. Now we’ll see what kind of near-term and long-term output the team will get from its promising hurlers.

Bubic, a Stanford product, cracked the Baseball Prospectus top-100 prospect list entering the 2020 season. He earned that placement with an excellent showing at the High-A level in his first full season as a profession, racking up 101 2/3 innings of 2.30 ERA ball with 9.7 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 over 17 starts.

Impressive though that was, Bubic still hasn’t been exposed even to upper-minors bats. The Royals obviously saw enough from him in camp to make the bold move to bring him up. Though he won’t spend enough time on the active roster to accrue a full year of service, even if he stays up for all of 2020, Bubic now profiles as a potential Super Two player.

White Sox Outright Cheslor Cuthbert

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The White Sox have outrighted infielder Cheslor Cuthbert, James Fegan of The Athletic was among those to cover on Twitter. He has cleared waivers after recently being designated for assignment.

The 27-year-old Cuthbert had hoped to carve out a role in Chicago after parts of five seasons with the division-rival Royals. But he’ll now have to earn his way back after taking a lone plate appearance on the 2020 season. He will remain with the organization as part of the 60-man player pool.

Cuthbert’s peak to this point came in a 2016 season in which he took 510 plate appearances for a competitive Kansas City outfit that was then seeking to defend a World Series title. He popped a dozen home runs and finished with a .274/.318/.413 slash, good for a just-below-average 95 OPS+, but has struggled badly with the bat ever since.

Patrick Mahomes Joins Royals Ownership Group

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Not long after inking a monster contract with the Kansas City Chiefs, star quarterback Patrick Mahomes has undertaken an interesting new business venture. He’s now a part owner of MLB’s Kansas City Royals, per a club announcement.

Much as Mahomes stands to earn over the next decade, if he stays healthy, he’ll be far less wealthy than majority Royals owner John Sherman. When he landed the club last fall, Sherman and his group posted a hefty $1B.

Odds are that the ownership stake isn’t a terribly significant one. Still, it’s a notable development for sports in Kansas City. Mahomes, the son of long-time big leaguer Pat Mahomes, is arguably the top player in the NFL.

Royals Sign Matt Harvey

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JULY 28: This deal is now official. Harvey’s pact will be worth a prorated $575K if he makes the Royals, Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com tweets. It also includes performance bonuses for games started.

JULY 23: The Royals are close to a deal with free agent right-hander Matt Harvey, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). It seems quite likely to be a minor league pact for the Scott Boras client, who would need to be added to Kansas City’s 60-man player pool before reporting to their alternate training site. Joel Sherman of the New York Post adds that a deal between the two sides is expected to be completed today.

Harvey, 31, struggled with the Angels in 2019 when he totaled 59 2/3 innings with a 7.09 ERA, 5.9 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9. He had a solid run in Cincinnati following a trade in 2018, though, pitching to a 4.50 ERA and 4.33 FIP in 24 starts. By all accounts, he fit in well in the Reds’ clubhouse, and Harvey himself spoke to the New York Post’s Dan Martin earlier this year about the manner in which he feels he’s grown since his early years with the Mets. “I’ve grown up and matured on and off the field,” Harvey told Martin. “There are a lot of things I’d do differently, but I don’t like to live with regret.”

The Royals are already carrying a pair of Boras-represented reclamation projects in right-handers Greg Holland and Trevor Rosenthal, and Harvey will hope to join that bunch. It’s been years since he was New York’s “Dark Knight,” a budding ace who took the NL by storm with a 2.53 ERA, 9.5 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 through his first 427 MLB innings. Harvey’s arm has been put through the ringer since then, however, as Tommy John surgery and Thoracic Outlet Surgery have sapped his heater and rendered him a shell of that previous self.

It’s easy to forget, though, that Harvey is still only in his early 30s. A rebound shouldn’t be ruled out completely, as the raw talent is clearly there, but adjustments clearly need to be made. A successful Harvey rebound would make for quite the storyline, but we’re a long way from the point at which that feels especially plausible.

Royals Activate Ryan O’Hearn

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The Royals announced that they’ve activated first baseman Ryan O’Hearn from the injured list. Left-hander Richard Lovelady was optioned to the team’s alternate training site to make room on the 30-man roster. O’Hearn, who turned 27 yesterday, tested positive for Covid-19 three weeks ago and had been absent from the club since.

O’Hearn has spent parts of the past two seasons in the big leagues, and it’s been a tale of two seasons for the slugger. His 2018 debut was outstanding, as he raked at a .262/.353/.597 clip (153 wRC+, 154 OPS+ ) and belted a dozen homers, 10 doubles and two triples in 170 plate appearances. In 2019, O’Hearn’s production plummeted to .195/.281/.369 in a larger sample of 370 plate appearances. As it stands, his left-handed bat is likely to pair with the right-handed-hitting Ryan McBroom to share time at first base, although it’s possible that either could produce enough to play his way into the lion’s share of playing time.

Even as one southpaw was sent down, another came down with a potentially worrisome injury. Former first-round pick Foster Griffin was cruising through his MLB debut on his birthday before feeling something in his pitching arm. He’ll undergo an MRI on his left forearm to diagnose the problems.

In other Kansas City roster news, the club has formally added catcher Cam Gallagher to its taxi squad, as Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star reports on Twitter. He’s still on the injured list for a previous COVID-19 diagnosis but has obviously now registered the requisite negative tests. The 27-year-old saw 45 games of MLB action last year while helping the Royals fill in for the injured Salvador Perez.

Royals Promote Brady Singer, Option Meibrys Viloria

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July 25: The Royals have officially announced the roster move, optioning catcher Meibrys Viloria and adding Singer to the active roster. The former first-round pick is slated to make his first Major League start tonight in Cleveland.

July 22: The Royals will promote righty Brady Singer to open the 2020 season, manager Mike Matheny tells reporters including Alec Lewis of The Athletic (via Twitter). Singer is expected to start the team’s second game.

It seems the Kansas City club won’t stand on service-time considerations to put its best foot forward this year. They’d only need to keep Singer down for about a week to gain another year of club control over him, but they’ll instead come right out of the gate with who they feel is their best arms. It’s possible, of course, that Singer could be optioned later or eventually agree to a long-term deal that renders the common service time games moot anyhow.

Singer, who’ll soon turn 24, has yet to appear in the Majors. The No. 18 overall pick from the 2018 Draft opened the season as a consensus top-100 leaguewide prospect, as did promising young Royals arms Jackson Kowar and Daniel Lynch. It seems that Singer will get the first look of the bunch, but that pair and highly touted lefty Kris Bubic might not be far behind.

Singer has just one full professional campaign under his belt, but it was a good one. He blitzed through the High-A level and took 16 starts at Double-A, pitching to a 3.47 ERA with 8.4 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 over 90 2/3 innings.

Royals Activate Brady Singer For Debut

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Tyler Zuber made his debut out of the Kansas City Royals bullpen last night in a week that will see quite a number of newly-minted big-leaguers dirty their cleats on major-league soil for the first time in their careers. Count highly-touted Royals’ prospect Brady Singer among them. The 18th overall selection of the 2018 draft is slated to start tonight’s game against the Indians. The Royals activated Singer earlier today, moving Ronald Bolanos to the taxi squad, the team announced on Twitter.

It’s not the ideal debut in that Singer’s friends and family won’t be able to be in attendance, but after just 26 professional starts, the Royals and Singer both are eager to see the 6’5″ righty against the game’s top competition, per Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star. Said Singer, “Obviously, the difference between the Futures Game and your first big-league start is much different. I feel like the Futures Game you’re kind of just showing what you’ve got and getting through that inning. But (Saturday) is day one. Locking in for as many games as I can go. Absolute huge game plan and studying tonight and figuring out what to do.” 

If there were a Triple-A season, it stands to reason that Singer would be making his debut there this season given that he only just reached Double-A in 2019. Still, the Royals would not put him in the majors if they felt he were not ready to handle that level of competition. In his only full season of professional ball, Singer went 12-5 with an eye-catching 2.85 ERA across 26 starts between High-A and Double-A in 2019. Singer notched 8.4 K/9 versus 2.4 BB/9 for an overall 3.54 K/BB as a 22-year-old last season. He’s the #4 ranked prospect in the Royals’ system by both Baseball America and Fangraphs.

Predict The AL Central Division Winner

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With final roster decisions in the books and the 2020 season underway at long last, it’s time to make some predictions. We’ll poll the MLBTR readership on each of the game’s six divisions — though plenty more teams will crack the postseason under the rather inclusive new playoff qualification system.

There’s rather an interesting dynamic in the American League Central division this year. The Twins stepped up in 2019 and have added Josh Donaldson to an already potent lineup. They’ll try to hold off the Indians, who had previously enjoyed a stranglehold on the division and have some of the best core talent around. There’s no denying the immense potential that resides on the White Sox roster, which features both elite youngsters and newly inked quality veterans. The Royals feel they’ve got quick bounceback potential after a few down seasons; if a few players hit their ceilings, perhaps they could surprise. It’s harder to see a path for the Tigers, but they’ve also got a load of elite young hurlers pushing into the majors and will enter the season determined to make strides.

Which team do you think is the best of the bunch? (Poll link for app users.)

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