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Richard Lovelady

Royals Expected To Re-Sign Richard Lovelady

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The Royals are expected to re-sign lefty Richard Lovelady on a minor league deal, according to Alec Lewis of The Athletic. The 26-year-old was non-tendered by the club yesterday. Lovelady seemed to be in the midst of a nice breakout campaign in 2021, but it ended on a sour note as he required Tommy John surgery in September.

The Royals selected the southpaw in the tenth round of the 2016 draft and he dominated in the minors, quickly rising the ranks to make his MLB debut in 2019. Though he struggled in limited action over his first couple of seasons in the show, 2021 saw him throw 20 2/3 innings out of the Royals’ bullpen with an ERA of 3.48, 27.4% strikeout rate, 7.1% walk rate and 56.6% ground ball rate.

Unfortunately, his injury and subsequent surgery put a stop to his 2021 campaign and likely wiped out his 2022 season as well, which is what led to yesterday’s non-tender. Although he’s lost his spot on the 40-man roster, it seems he will stay within the organization for the year as he rehabs and attempts to make his way back to health. Recovery times for Tommy John surgery usually fall in the range of 12-18 months, meaning it’s within the realm of possibility for Lovelady to contribute down the stretch in 2022, but the start of 2023 is likely more plausible for his return to action.

American League Non-Tenders: 11/30/21

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The deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players has come and gone. The Tigers’ decision to non-tender Matthew Boyd — more on that here — represents the most prominent name cast into free agency tonight, but here’s a quick rundown of the rest of the non-tenders in the American League.

Note that MLBTR’s Anthony Franco also has a rundown of this year’s National League non-tenders, and MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz published his annual projected arbitration salaries earlier this offseason.

Onto the transactions…

  • Outfielder Tim Locastro was non-tendered by the Red Sox, the team announced. The speedy HBP-magnet was claimed off waivers from the Yankees earlier this month after an injury-marred season. He is likely to be an in-demand depth option for teams if his ACL tear recovery goes well.
  • The Rangers announced that outfielder Billy McKinney and catchers David Garcia and Yohel Pozo were non-tendered. Texas also assigned outfielder DJ Peters outright to Triple-A Salt Lake after he went unclaimed on waivers.
  • The Royals non-tendered lefty Richard Lovelady, per a club announcement. Lovelady underwent Tommy John surgery late in the 2021 season and is expected to be sidelined for the entirety of the 2022 season.
  • The Twins non-tendered right-hander Juan Minaya, left-hander Danny Coulombe and right-hander Trevor Megill, per a team announcement. Megill’s non-tender is particularly curious, as he was only just claimed off waivers a few hours ago and was not arbitration-eligible. Presumably, the team will try to quickly re-sign him to a minor league pact and bring him to Spring Training as a depth piece.
  • Infielder Phil Gosselin has been non-tendered by the Angels, per an announcement from the team. The journeyman saw a career-high 373 plate appearances in 2021, but is unlikely to challenge that number next year owing to below average offensive and defensive metrics.

Royals’ Richard Lovelady Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Royals left-hander Richard Lovelady announced late last night on Instagram that he underwent Tommy John surgery this week. It’s not entirely out of the blue, as the 26-year-old southpaw was placed on the 10-day injured list due to a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in late August.

Tommy John surgery will quite likely wipe out the entirety of the 2022 season for Lovelady, as most pitchers require more than a year of rehab work. The Cardinals’ Dakota Hudson is one recent exception, but even he returned just four days shy of his operation’s one-year anniversary. It’s technically possible that Lovelady could be ready late next September, but precedent very strongly suggests Spring Training 2023 is a likelier target date.

Losing Lovelady for a full year’s time is a notable hit to Kansas City’s bullpen outlook next season. Long rated as one of the organization’s most promising relief prospects, Lovelady has dominated in the minors and, in 2021, had begun to carry that success over to the big leagues. While Lovelady struggled in 21 MLB frames from 2019-20, he pitched to a 3.48 ERA with strong strikeout (27.1), walk  (7.1) and ground-ball (56.6) percentages in 20 2/3 innings this year. Combine that success with a career 2.12 ERA in the minor leagues, including a 2.51 mark in 107 1/3 Triple-A frames, and it’s easy to see why the organization is increasingly bullish on the lefty’s future.

The recent injury surely doesn’t change the Royals’ view that Lovelady can be a big part of their pitching staff down the road, but the wait for him to cement himself as such will now be further prolonged. That said, the Royals still control Lovelady all the way through the 2026 season, so even if he’s not back on a big league mound until 2023, they could still enjoy four full seasons of the talented lefty before he’s eligible to test the free-agent market. He’ll accrue a year of service time and big league pay next year on the 60-day injured list due to the fact that the injury occurred while he was pitching on the big league roster.

Looking ahead to the 2022 campaign, the Royals will lean heavily on the late-inning duo of Scott Barlow and Josh Staumont to close things down, while lefty Jake Brentz and righty Domingo Tapia have quite likely punched their tickets for a spot on the big league staff as well. Bullpen help, however, already figured to be a priority for the Kansas City front office this winter. Losing one of the team’s more promising arms for the majority or entirety of next season only makes that an even likelier area of focus for newly promoted president of baseball operations Dayton Moore, general manager J.J. Piccolo and the rest of the Royals’ baseball ops department.

Royals Select Gabe Speier

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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.

Royals Place Richard Lovelady On IL With UCL Sprain, Recall Tyler Zuber

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The Royals have placed left-handed pitcher Richard Lovelady on the injured list with a left UCL sprain, per a team announcement. Right-hander Tyler Zuber has been recalled to take his place on the roster.

While the extent of the injury isn’t known at this time, anything involving the UCL is always a cause for alarm. If this does end up as a serious injury, it would be very unfortunate for both Lovelady and the Royals. The lefty seemed to be finding his groove this year, after struggling a bit in his first tastes of the big leagues. In 2019, Lovelady logged 20 innings out of the Royals’ bullpen, but with a bloated ERA of 7.65. In the shortened 2020 season, he was only able to get a single appearance of one inning. But in 2021, in 20 2/3 innings, he has an ERA of 3.48, with strikeout and walk rates of 27.4% and 7.1%. (League averages are 23.4% and 8.7%.) The 26-year-old will now go on the shelf and figure out what options he has for recuperating.

Zuber, also 26, has an ERA of 6.00 across 18 big league innings this season, with a below-average strikeout rate of 20.7% and unsightly walk rate of 18.3%. His Triple-A performance has been much better, however. In 26 2/3 innings with the Omaha Storm Chasers, he has an ERA of 3.04, with a gaudy strikeout rate of 35.4%. He has still struggled with command, as evidenced by a walk rate of 13.8%.

Royals Place Wade Davis On 10-Day Injured List, Recall Richard Lovelady

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The Royals placed Wade Davis on the 10-day injured list yesterday with a right forearm strain. Southpaw Richard Lovelady was recalled from Triple-A Omaha to take his spot in the Royals’ bullpen, per the team transactions log on MLB.com.

The Royals are scuffling. They earned pats on the back from many around the game for their aggressive offseason, and when they jumped out to a 15-9 start in April, the idea of Mike Matheny’s club making a run seemed like it might have legs. But they tumbled to an 11-17 record in May, and fell even further in June, entering play on Wednesday with a 7-19 record for the month. Now losers of seven straight, the Royals have fallen behind the Twins for last place in the AL Central.

Pitching has been a particular challenge for the Royals this month. With a team ERA of 5.97, they have produced -0.7 fWAR this month, tied with the Diamondbacks for the worst mark in the Majors. Davis has, unfortunately, been no small part of their struggles, as the Royals’ legend has given up 11 earned runs on 14 hits and and five walks while serving up five home runs in 9 1/3 innings this month. For the year now, Davis has a 8.06 ERA/6.50 FIP.

His control issues of the past couple seasons have settled down to a not-horrible 9.2 percent walk rate, but the trouble stems largely from the fact that, at 35 years old, Davis simply isn’t missing bats anymore. His four-seamer velocity is down to an average of 92.6 mph, which lands in just the 16th percentile league-wide. His O-Swing%, the percent of pitches batters swing at outside the zone, is down to 23.9 percent, quite a bit below the 30.6 percent average for relievers. Overall, his 18.5 percent strikeout rate is a good tick below average as well.

Lovelady, 25, will make his first appearance of the season and try to provide some support to the Royals’ pen. Lovelady relies mostly on a fastball/slider combo, though he’s worked to add a change-up to his arsenal as well. He has 26 career appearances, all but one coming back in 2019 when he logged 20 innings with a 7.65 ERA/4.16 FIP while posting walk and strikeout rates of 8.3 percent and 17.7 percent, respectively.

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.

AL Central Notes: Castellanos, Perez, Lovelady

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As BBWAA writers in Detroit prepare to vote on the “Tiger Of The Year” award, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press reveals that his vote will go to a player who didn’t suit up for the Tigers after the trade deadline — Nicholas Castellanos.  A case could certainly be made that Castellanos was still the best performer on the woeful Tigers, though Fenech took something of a more symbolic stance, arguing that Castellanos “provided a fitting look at the front office’s failure to gain serious ground in their rebuilding process.”  After several months of fruitless attempts to move Castellanos, Detroit finally unloaded the slugger to the Cubs for two decent but unspectacular pitching prospects, only to see Castellanos start tearing the cover off the ball after arriving in Chicago.

“How did the Tigers not know this hitter was in there? And why does every player that leave Detroit improve?” Fenech asks, also wondering why the club didn’t make more of an effort to extend a player who openly desired to be a long-term piece for the Tigers.  Instead, the lack of progress on either a trade or an extension seemed to wear on Castellanos in the first half of the year, which didn’t help his trade value.

More from around the AL Central…

  • The Indians announced that catcher Roberto Perez underwent arthroscopic surgery in order to remove bone spurs from his right ankle.  The procedure isn’t considered serious, and Perez is expected to be fully ready for the start of Spring Training.  Moving into a starting role for the first time, Perez responded with a career year in 2019, hitting .239/.321/.452 with 24 home runs over 449 PA.  He was also arguably the game’s best defensive catcher, throwing out 20 of 49 would-be base-stealers and ranking at or near the top of the league in blocking and framing metrics.
  • Royals left-hander Richard Lovelady also went under the knife, as the team announced that the rookie will be sidelined for six-to-eight weeks after right knee surgery.  A tenth-round pick in the 2016 draft, Lovelady made his MLB debut last season, posting a 7.65 ERA over 20 innings (25 games) out of Kansas City’s bullpen.  A .412 BABIP contributed to Lovelady’s inflated ERA, as his 4.16 FIP/4.75 xFIP/4.58 SIERA presented a much more respectable picture of his first season.  The 24-year-old is expected to compete for a job in the Royals’ pen during Spring Training.
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