The Royals have claimed southpaw Randy Rosario off waivers from the Cubs, as per a team announcement. Rosario was designated for assignment by Chicago earlier this week. To create a 40-man roster spot, Kansas City recalled infielder Kelvin Gutierrez and placed him on the 60-day injured list.
Rosario posted a 5.91 ERA over 10 2/3 innings for the Cubs this season, a decided step back from the 3.66 ERA he delivered over 46 2/3 relief frames in his 2018 rookie season. Per ERA predictors, however, Rosario was fortunate (4.68 FIP, 4.60 xFIP, 4.74 SIERA) to escape at least an extra run’s worth of damage in 2018, as the grounder specialist only notched a 5.79 K/9.
This season saw Rosario miss more bats to the tune of an 8.4 K/9 in his brief time in Chicago, though his Triple-A numbers (3.11 ERA, 2.21 K/BB rate, 7.4 K/9) were almost an exact match for his career numbers over 413 minor league innings in the Cubs’ and Twins’ organizations. Rosario has shown some very good splits against left-handed batters, giving him a possible path to regular work as a specialist in Kansas City’s bullpen.