Kansas City Royals Breakdown: The Rotation

Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

One of the strengths for the Kansas City Royals over the past two seasons has been their pitching staff. The starting rotation has been able to pitch deep into the game, allowing the Royals dominant bullpen to do perform at their optimal level. It certainly seems to have worked, as the Royals pitching was a major part of their run of success last season.

This year, it has been a different story for the starting rotation. Heading into yesterday’s contest against the Texas Rangers, the Royals starting rotation ranked 23rd in baseball with a 4.67 ERA and ranked 22nd with a 1.38 WHiP. The Royals also have the third lowest strikeout to walk rate among their starters, with 1.83 strikeouts for every walk. Obviously, the struggles of the rotation go far beyond one pitcher.

Last week, we looked over some possible options as to how the Kansas City Royals could approach their rotation woes. We examined trade candidates, internal options and whether or not patience would be the best choice for the Royals. Now, let us look at each of the Royals starters, and see if we can delve into what the underlying causes may be for their problems this season.

There is still quite a long way to go in the regular season, and there is still time for the starting pitching to get back to being the same asset for the Royals that it has been. In fact, there may even be positive signs through all of the problems thus far.

Next: Easily the best starter thus far