KC Royals: Bubba Starling Is At A Career Crossroads

Bubba Starling Gets Back On Track

To start off 2015, Starling repeated a level for the first time in his career, which proved to be very beneficial to him. Through his first 12 games of 2015, Starling mashed the Carolina League. He posted a triple slash of .386/.471/.614. This performance earned Starling a very quick promotion to Double A, where he continued to hit well.

Starling was now back on the prospect radar.

This turnaround happened due to minor adjustments to his swing. The biggest change was shortening his leg kick at the plate. He also made adjustments to his bat path. Both these changes really helped Starling unleash some power, as he improved his slugging percentage from .338 to .448.

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Starling Crashes Again

Now that the hype was back with Starling, many Royals fans were itching for him to reach the majors. Starling went back to AA to begin 2016, where he would soon be quickly exposed. With all of the inconsistencies in his swing, AA pitchers figured him out, attacking him more inside.

But many people in the Royals organization believed that this was a mental issue, more than a mechanical problem. After hitting 36% below league average, the Royals hoped to get Starling the jump start he needed. Disappointingly, that’s not what happened. Starling hit even worse in AAA, producing an ugly .478 OPS.