Royals Re-Sign Luke Hochevar, Continue to Improve Bullpen

Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

According to a report from CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman, the Royals have re-signed Luke Hochevar to a two-year, $10 million deal. The team’s former top draft pick missed the entire 2014 season due to Tommy John surgery after having an excellent debut season as a reliever in 2013. That season, Hochevar pitched 70.1 innings with a 1.92 ERA and 10.5 strikeouts per 9 innings.

The Royals showed a lot of patience – probably too much – with Hochevar as a starter, allowing him to post a 5.44 ERA in 128 career starts. He really struggled with runners on base, which consistently kept him from pitching up to his peripherals, shown by a 4.44 FIP in his time in the rotation. But once the Royals finally moved Hochevar to the bullpen, he immediately thrived.

Hochevar was able to focus on his best pitches – that is, his fastball, cutter, and curveball – instead of worrying about changing things up constantly to keep hitters off balance for the next plate appearance. As a reliever, he could just let it rip. And he did. He added 3 MPH to his fastball, and 1 MPH to both his curveball and his cutter. Hochevar’s stuff has always been pretty good, but the shift to the bullpen helped it play up even more.

That last paragraph should sound familiar. A failed starter with good stuff moves to the bullpen, adds some velocity to his fastball, curve, and cutter, and puts up ridiculous numbers as a reliever.

Luke Hochevar was Wade Davis before Wade Davis was Wade Davis. Now the Royals have the original and the remix.

With Hochevar back in the fold, the Royals have once again improved what was arguably the best bullpen in baseball. He may not be fully recovered from surgery in time for the start of the season, but once he returns, the team should have 4 different guys that over half of the league would take as their closer. Seems kind of unfair, doesn’t it?

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That being said, I should caution that Hochevar may not be as good as he was in 2013. While Tommy John surgery is usually a very successful procedure, there are no guarantees that the pitcher will bounce back all the way, especially not right off the bat. Coming off of injury is a tough thing to do.

Beyond the injury stuff, we also don’t know if Hochevar’s success will stick anyway. He only has 1 season out of the bullpen, and as we all know, 70 innings is hardly a large enough sample size to draw wide-sweeping conclusions about a player. However, we do have a pretty good idea about Hochevar’s stuff, and 70 innings is a larger sample than 0 innings, so I do expect another solid performance, even if he doesn’t look like Mariano Rivera with a beard.

Hochevar will now join Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland as some kind of four-headed monster of destruction in the back of the Royals’ bullpen. The team will also have Jason Frasor, and 2 other relief arms, possibly Tim Collins and Louis Coleman. All of those guys have had success as relievers, which gives the Royals an advantage over just about any opponent. Some questioned the depth of the pen last season. I think it’s safe to say those questions have been answered.

Or maybe they haven’t. This move could also give the Royals more flexibility in how to handle the rest of the offseason. The annual breakdown of Hochevar’s contract hasn’t been released yet, but assuming he’ll earn about $3 million in 2015, the team will be paying more than $23 million for 5 relievers to pitch roughly 300 innings. With baseball revenues increasing everywhere, it’s a feasible option, but the Royals could also use their depth to improve the team in other areas.

Trading Holland has been something many have advocated for in the past, including myself, but it seemed like the Royals wanted to hold onto their back-end of the bullpen. Now that they have Hochevar, the team could look to use Holland (or any of the relievers, really) to add some offense to a lineup that desperately needs more production. I won’t dive into this scenario too deeply now, but Hochevar’s return opens that door again.

This signing makes a lot of sense for the Royals, considering they want to maintain their outstanding run prevention ability from 2014, especially in the later innings. I don’t know if I would have given the second year guaranteed, but it’s unlikely Hochevar produces nothing in 2016, and his salary shouldn’t keep the Royals from making other moves. Hochevar is a good reliever, and the Royals now have the option of either having an absolutely crazy-good bullpen, or just a crazy-good bullpen with perhaps a better offense, and neither of those options appear to be too bad.

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