Royals Tender All Remaining Unsigned, Including Luke Hochevar

They waited into the night. They waited to get the news. They waited, for hope.

Some other night, I guess, Royals fans.

Official word was just released by the best damn beat writer in the History of Whatever, Bob Dutton, that all remaining unsigned Royals players have been tendered a contract. That list of remaining players included Luke Hochevar.

Now official. #Royals did tender contracts to all remaining unsigned players and, yes, that includes Luke Hochevar.— Bob Dutton (@Royals_Report) December 1, 2012

For each of his five seasons pitching for the Royals, Hochevar has been the very definition of disappointment. He’s never finished the season with an ERA under 4.60, and in three seasons he’s finished with an almost unimaginable 5.51, 5.73, and 6.55.

Hochevar has the 16^th worse ERA in the history of recorded data (that’s 1871, y’all) for all pitchers with more the 500 innings pitched at the major league level at 5.39, which isn’t that bad when you consider it was as bad as 12^th among 500 inning throwers as recently as May. So, improvement?

And despite all evidence to the contrary, despite that Luke Hochevar has been dubiously bad enough to have a hashtag named after him for which inning he’ll implode in on that night, the Royals still believe that he can harness his potential that made him the No. 1 overall pick in the draft in 2006. They have to be the only ones left that believe this.

When Dayton Moore was hired to be the GM of the Kansas City Royals he famously said, “pitching is the currency of baseball”. For six seasons the Royals have chased a competent and consistent starting rotation while giving 771 innings, and Opening Day starts, on a pitcher that is better than only six players in the history of the sport.

Trust the Process.