Kansas City Royals Biggest Surprises in 2015

Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Wade Davis has been better than last year.

Just as Lorenzo Cain was expected to regress this season, the same was expected for Wade Davis. The Kansas City Royals setup man had one of the all time best seasons of any pitcher who had over 50 innings of work, posting an ERA of exactly 1.00 while not allowing a home run all year. It would be difficult to even match those numbers, let alone outperform last season.

Yet, by some metrics, Davis has done just that. His 0.99 ERA and 0.823 WHiP entering last night’s game are both better than his performance last year. While his strikeout rate has decreased to 10.4 K/9 in 2015, Davis has improved his control and has simply used his cutter to generate ground ball after ground ball.

In doing so, Davis has come into a bit of a time share at the closer role with Greg Holland. As Davis has been a strike throwing cyborg, remorselessly mowing down the competition for the past two seasons, his ascension into a share of the role is understandable. With Holland struggling at times, it appeared to be a matter of when, not if, Ned Yost would make the move.

Wade Davis was not expected to be this good for a second year in a row. However, at this point, who is to say that the Kansas City Royals set up man does not improve even more next season?

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