KC Royals Must Fix Rotation At Trade Deadline

The KC Royals 2016 season hangs in the balance. Also hanging: way too many pitches from Chris Young and Ian Kennedy. The Kansas City Royals need to fix their rotation at the trade deadline if they are to have any chance to make the playoffs.

After giving up four home runs in the first five innings against Cleveland Wednesday afternoon, Kennedy has now allowed more home runs than any other big-league pitcher this year. Young sits in the No. 2 spot.

Pitching was supposed to be the KC Royals downfall this year. For a while, it looked like all the experts were wrong. Again. Back in April, I posted about the Kansas City Royals pitchers who were exceeding expectations.

At that time, some 10 games into the season, KC Royals pitchers were second in the American League and fourth in baseball with a 2.70 ERA. Perhaps the sample size was much too small.

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Entering Wednesday’s game against Central-leading Cleveland, the Kansas City Royals had dropped to 13th-best in the majors with a 4.20 ERA. That’s sixth best in the AL. Kansas City’s 73 home runs allowed on the road are second-worst only to Cincinnati’s 76 homers allowed. As the Reds have the third-worst record in all of baseball, it’s not a favorable comparison.

With the trade deadline looming, the KC Royals season may hinge on the ability to find a fifth starter. The Kansas City Royals take a day off Thursday to head to the White House, and that will mean avoiding that dreaded fifth spot in the rotation for a few days, but it will again rear its ugly head.

Let’s take a look at how the rotation has performed in 2016:

Next: The Rotation