Victor Marte Optioned to Omaha

With his recent poor performance, Victor Marte was optioned to Triple A Omaha before today’s game against Minnesota.  To take his place, Bryan Bullington returned to Kansas City to pitch in long relief.

On June 28, Marte had a 2.95 ERA.  One month later, his ERA had ballooned to 9.76.  In eight of his ten July appearances, Marte gave up 2 or more runs, surrendering 24 earned runs over 9.1 innings in that stretch.  That July ERA of 23.14 earned him a trip back down to Omaha.  He gave up five homers in July and while he was unlucky to an extent (batters hit an unreal .526 on balls in play against him), he still walked ten batters.

Bullington made three appearances for Kansas City before being sent back to Omaha at the end of May.  He pitched three innings, walking five batters and giving up a homerun and four earned runs (a 12.00 ERA).  The former number one overall pick (2002) produced a 2.82 ERA over 102 innings in Triple A, making 15 starts and 5 relief appearances.

He pitched today against the Twins, giving the Royals two scoreless innings in relief of Brian Bannister.  Bullington walked one, struck out one and surrendered two hits in the loss.

You can stay current on all the Kings of Kauffman content and news by following us on Twitter, Facebook, or by way of our RSS feed.