Kansas City Royals Countdown: Top 10 Individual Pitching Seasons

The Kansas City Royals have had a number of impressive pitchers over the years. We’ve decided to look back on the best individual campaigns in club history. Here’s out top-10 countdown.

Jason Vargas put together a shocking 2017 season for the Kansas City Royals that saw him tie for the MLB lead in wins with 18. Most of his other statistics were pretty pedestrian due to a rough second half of the season. It’s one reason why the “win” is a stat best left to showing how teams—not individuals—perform, but that’s a discussion for a different day.

Today, we’re showing why Vargas’ incredible season, which came after he missed virtually all of 2016, won’t go down as one of the best in franchise history. Surprising? Yes. Amazing? Also, yes. One of the top individual pitching seasons in franchise history? No.

It’s tough to get on this list. There is no overarching stat or list of criteria we used to select these individual seasons. Awards and honors help but they aren’t a must-have to land on this list. For one thing, awards and All-Star nods are incredibly subjective. They are selected by media and coaches, respectively, while also being influenced by how others in the league are performing at the time.

One challenge is comparing starting pitchers to relief pitchers. The game has changed significantly over the last 30 years with a much greater emphasis being placed on the bullpen.

Another challenging aspect came down to some of the players who had several or maybe just a couple of great years. We could have limited this to one season per player, but that didn’t seem to be fair. However, we did generally err on the side of caution in the hopes of recognizing as many fine pitchers as we could.

Honorable Mention

Here’s a few of the best seasons that didn’t make the cut:

Larry Gura 1978

Gura had a handful of solid seasons in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His 1978 campaign makes this list of honorable mentions as Gura posted a 16-4 record with a 2.72 ERA and 1.10 WHIP. He made 35 appearances with eight complete games, including two shutouts, among his 26 starts.

Kelvin Herrera 2014

Herrera landed on the All-Star team in 2015 and 2016, but his best year actually occurred in 2014. He went 70 innings with no home runs allowed. That alone is incredible. He also finished with a 4-3 record and a career-low 1.41 ERA. His WHIP wasn’t as low as his subsequent two years, but overall his 2014 season was his best—plus he won Game 2 of the World Series. Always a nice bonus.

Charlie Leibrandt 1985

Leibrandt garnered Cy Young award votes in just one season—you guessed it, 1985. He finished fifth after racking up 17 wins in 33 starts. His 2.69 ERA and 1.22 WHIP over 237 2/3 innings helped the Kansas City Royals reach the postseason. He went just 1-3 in the playoffs, although he did post a 2.76 ERA in two World Series starts.

Jeff Montgomery 1989

The right-hander relief pitcher led the league in saves in 1993, while also making the All-Star team. However, he his best season came in 1989—before he made the full-time move to closer. Montgomery put up a stellar 1.37 ERA and sub-1.00 WHIP to go along with a 7-3 mark. The FSKC contributor also had his best strikeout-to-walk ratio of his career at 3.76:1.

Joakim Soria 2010

Soria hasn’t been great in his second stint with the Kansas City Royals, but he put together some fabulous seasons as the closer during his first run with the club. In 2010, he collected 43 saves with a 4.44:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His ERA (1.78) and WHIP (1.05) were both outstanding, as well. The righty earned his second All-Star nod, while finishing 10th in Cy Young and 19th in MVP voting.

No. 10) Mark Gubicza 1988

Mark Gubicza put together back-to-back great seasons to close out the 1980s. The right-hander earned the only two All-Star Game nods of his career in 1988 and 1989. We’re going with his 1988 campaign when Gubicza finished third in the Cy Young voting.

Gubicza piled up 20 wins against eight losses in his 35 starts. He put together career-lows in ERA (2.70) and WHIP (1.19) over 269 2/3 innings. The former second-round pick struck out exactly 100 more batters than he walked (183-83). He tossed eight complete games—half of which were shutouts. Two of his shutouts were two-hit gems with another being a three-hitter in his penultimate start of the season.

He tossed eight complete games—half of which were shutouts. Two of his shutouts were two-hit gems with another a three-hitter in his penultimate start of the season.

For comparison’s sake, Gubicza had a 15-11 mark in 1989. He wound up with a 3.04 ERA and 1.24 WHIP. In a lot of ways, the two seasons were quite similar. He had 36 starts, which led the league, while also pitching eight complete games with two shutouts. His home runs per nine inning rate (0.4) and strikeout rate (6.1) were exactly the same in both years.

Things unfortunately started trending down for Gubicza during the 1990s. He had just one winning season the rest of his career with only two sub-4.00 ERA campaigns. In 1997, he pitched two games for the Angels—the only games of his career he pitched for a team other than the Kansas City Royals. In total, Gubicza finished his career 132-136 with an ERA just a touch below 4.00 at 3.96. He totaled 1,371 strikeouts in his 14 seasons.

No. 9) Dennis Leonard 1977

Between his partial 1974 season and final 1986 campaign, Dennis Leonard never had a losing season in his career with the Kansas City Royals. The 1977 season sits atop his personal list of top individual campaigns, as he led the league with 20 wins and finished fourth in Cy Young voting.

Leonard finished with a 3.04 ERA and 1.11 WHIP over a remarkable 292 2/3 innings. The second-round pick pitched in 38 games. He made 37 starts and closed out one game to earn a save. Of his 37 starts, he remarkably pitched 21 complete games, including five shutouts.

His September, plus another start on Oct. 2, could be the single best month in franchise history. Leonard made seven starts—six complete games and one eight-inning performance. He had two shutouts in the month and never gave up more than three runs in a single game. The incredible final month of the season boosted his record from 15-11 to 20-12.

Leonard closed the year with nine strikeouts, six hits and a walk in a shutout of the Angels—a team he owned during the season. He made three starts against the Angels and went the distance each time, allowing a total of four runs and striking out 28.

He went on to toss a complete game in a Game 3 victory over the Yankees. However, Leonard blew a chance to close out Game 5, allowing three runs in the ninth inning after entering with a 3-2 lead.

The postseason often proved to be Leonard’s downfall, as he went just 3-5 with a 4.32 ERA in the playoffs. During the regular season, though, Leonard often excelled. In his career, he finished 144-106 with a 3.70 ERA and a Royals record in complete games (103) and shutouts (23).

No. 8) Greg Holland 2014

Greg Holland had consecutive All-Star appearances in 2013 and 2014, as he held down the fort at the backend of the Kansas City Royals bullpen. His 2014 regular season was actually a notch below his 2013 one, but his work during the Royals’ run to the World Series boosts his 2014 campaign onto this list.

Let’s start by looking at Holland’s 2013 and 2014 seasons to see just how dominant he was during this two-year stretch. In both years, he finished ninth in Cy Young voting, while earning 15th and 16th place, respectively, in MVP voting.

In 2013, he had an ERA of 1.21 and a WHIP of 0.87. The next year those numbers ticked up slightly to 1.44 and 0.91, respectively. He racked up a total of 93 saves (47 in 2013 and 46 in 2014) over the two seasons. Holland gave up exactly three home runs in each year. Perhaps most impressively, the right-hander posted incredible strikeout-to-walk ratios—5.72:1 in 2013 and 4.50 in 2014.

Holland appeared in 11 games, including each of the eight through the ALCS.

As mentioned before, those numbers would suggest 2013 was Holland’s best in a Kansas City Royals uniform. However, we do take postseason accomplishments into consideration on this list. That’s enough to push his 2014 season to the forefront.

Holland appeared in 11 games, including each of the eight through the ALCS. He closed out 10 of those games with the lone exception being the Wild Card Game. Holland gave up just one run in 11 innings, while recording seven saves. He saved two of the three ALDS wins over the Angels, and he followed that up with saves in all four ALCS victories against the Orioles. Holland getting J.J. Hardy to ground out to end Game 4 sent the Royals to their first World Series in 29 years.

He signed with Colorado prior to the 2017 season and led tied for the NL lead in saves (41).

No. 7) Wade Davis 2015

Speaking of former Kansas City Royals closers who are now in the NL, Wade Davis lands one spot ahead of Holland on our list. The man who helped the Cubs reach the NLCS for a third straight year became a revelation in the Kansas City bullpen after failing as a starting pitcher. Davis, who came over in a blockbuster deal with Tampa Bay, had three fantastic seasons to close out his Royals career.

It’s the middle of those three seasons that lands on this list, though. His 2014 season was sensational, The trio of Herrera, Davis and Holland befuddled teams throughout the regular season and, especially, the postseason. However, he really came into his own in 2015 when asked to take over the closer role from an injured Holland.

Davis put up a ridiculous 8-1 record with a minuscule 0.94 ERA and 0.79 WHIP during the regular season. He recorded 27 saves against just three blown saves in 40 appearances. The sensational campaign earned him his first of three consecutive All-Star nods. As great as he was during the regular season, Davis kicked it up a notch to help the Kansas City Royals win their first World Series in three decades.

After giving up just a single run in 12 innings during the 2014 postseason, he made eight scoreless appearances in 2015. Davis struck out 18 against just three walks over 10 2/3 innings. The single most incredible thing about his 2015 campaign? Davis didn’t allow a single home run to the 290 combined batters he faced in the regular season or the postseason.

Two of his performances in the 2015 postseason were so important they landed on our countdown of the top moments of the team’s World Series title-winning run. If Davis hadn’t been traded prior to the 2017 season for Jorge Soler, he might have usurped even this tremendous season—but probably not.

No. 6) Kevin Appier 1993

During his time with the Kansas City Royals in the 1990s, Kevin Appier was the model of consistency. From 1990-96, he had seven consecutive winning seasons. Appier’s record dipped to 9-13 in 1997, but he still managed a 3.40 ERA. After a rough 1998 season, the righty bounced back, posting a 9-9 mark before a midseason trade to Oakland.

Appier put together consecutive outstanding seasons in 1992-93. In ’92, he sported a ridiculous 2.46 ERA and 1.13 WHIP with a 15-8 record. It’s somewhat baffling that Appier didn’t receive even a single Cy Young vote. That changed the following season.

In our book, it’s the best season by a Kansas City Royals starter that didn’t end with a Cy Young award.

As great as Appier had been the year before, he improved almost across the board in 1993. His record was 18-8, his WHIP was 1.11, he allowed two fewer home runs, pitched two more complete games and improved his strikeout-to-walk ratio. One of his few numbers that went up was his ERA. It crept up to 2.56, but it, ironically, was good enough to lead the league.

The ’93 campaign marked Appier’s career-high in innings pitched with 238 2/3. He made 34 starts on the season—four more than the season prior. He didn’t make the All-Star team either year and would have to wait until 1995 to earn that honor. However, Appier did finally earn some postseason award love. The then-25-year-old finished third in Cy Young voting and 24th in MVP voting.

For the advanced stat lovers out there, Appier led the league in FIP and tied for the league lead in ERA+ among starters in 1993. In our book, it’s the best season by a Kansas City Royals starter that didn’t end with a Cy Young award.

No. 4) David Cone 1994

The 1994 season will always be infamous for the strike that caused the cancellation of the World Series—the first year without one since 1904. It led to heartbreak in more than a few cities across the country. Montreal suffered the most, as the Expos had the best record in baseball before the stoppage. Kansas City also had been enjoying a solid season, and the Royals were just four games back in the newly developed AL Central.

Despite the season ending on Aug. 11, awards were still handed out with Kansas City Royals pitcher David Cone winning the Cy Young award. Had he been given a chance to play out the rest of the season, Cone might not have won the award. (He only beat Jimmy Keys by 12 points.) On the other hand, if he continued to pitch at the same pace, Cone might well have moved up this list.

He almost certainly would have reached 20 wins had the season not ended nearly two months early.

Either way, the Kansas City native had an outstanding season with his hometown club. Cone pitched to a 16-5 record while posting a 2.94 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP. He almost certainly would have reached 20 wins had the season not ended nearly two months early. Unfortunately, it was also Cone’s final season with the Kansas City Royals.

Despite having a stellar career, Cone bounced around quite a bit in his 17 seasons in the majors. The Rockhurst (Missouri) High School graduate started his career with the Royals after being drafted in the third round in 1981. But just prior to the 1987 season, he was traded to the Mets.

He spent five-and-a-half solid seasons in New York before a trade to Toronto midway through the 1992 season. After a few months with the Blue Jays, the free agent signed with the Royals during the offseason. Cone pitched OK in 1993 before his remarkable ’94 campaign. It wasn’t enough to keep the Royals from trading him—yet again—this time to the Blue Jays.

He also pitched for the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets again before finally calling it quits.

No. 3) Zack Greinke 2009

One of the first sabermetrics Cy Young winners, Zack Greinke showed that even bad teams can have the best pitcher in the game. Despite having fewer wins than the other AL hurlers to finish in the top-five, Greinke clearly boasted the best overall numbers. It showed, as he took 25 of the available 28 first-place votes.

The right-hander put up a minuscule ERA (2.16) and WHIP (1.07). He also struck out 242 batters en route to a ridiculous 205 ERA+. Greinke’s ERA, WHIP, ERA+ and FIP (2.33) all led the league. His 10.4 WAR, according to Baseball Reference, is easily the best for a pitcher in a single season in Royals history.

He came back down to earth in 2010 before an offseason trade to Milwaukee prior to the 2011 season. His 2009 season—in a way—helped the Kansas City Royals win the 2015 World Series. Even with his subpar 2010 campaign, trading Greinke earned the Royals a king’s ransom from the Brewers. Two of the players sent to Kansas City—Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar—went on to win ALCS MVP honors, while another—Jake Odorizzi—helped bring James Shields and Davis to the Royals.

In that way, Greinke made a world of difference to the Kansas City Royals organization. The former first-round pick brought the spotlight to the Boys in Blue even when the team was mired in one of the worst stretches in baseball history. He not only brought excitement to the club during trying times, but also his value earned the Kansas City Royals two of the core pieces of their championship group. Not a bad legacy to leave behind.

No. 2) Bret Saberhagen 1985

Many of you were probably expecting this to top the list. That’s understandable given the overall importance 1985 has in Kansas City Royals history. However, we felt like Saberhagen’s 1985 season—even factoring in his postseason work—falls just shy of the top spot. That’s not to say it wasn’t amazing. I mean it beats out every other season a pitcher has had in franchise history—save for one.

If this list excluded playoff performances, Saberhagen’s 1985 season would be neck-and-neck with Greinke’s 2009 campaign. But the postseason matters, thus Saberhagen pushes himself ahead.

During the regular season, the right-hander went 20-6 with a 2.87 ERA and 1.06 WHIP to earn his first Cy Young award. His WHIP and 2.89 FIP led the league, as did his incredible 4.16:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 235 1/3 innings.

His work in the World Series earned him MVP honors. He went 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA and 0.67 WHIP, while striking out 10 and walking just one.

This season might have topped the list if Saberhagen hadn’t struggled in the ALCS. He started two games against Toronto but lasted just 7 1/3 innings combined, while giving up five total runs. Saberhagen came back rejuvenated in the World Series, though. He had two complete-game victories, consisting of a Game 3 win to keep the Royals in the series and a shutout in Game 7 to bring the elusive trophy to Kansas City.

His work in the World Series earned him MVP honors. He went 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA and 0.67 WHIP, while striking out 10 and walking just one.

Saberhagen’s 1985 campaign will live long in the memories of those fortunate enough to see it. However, it wasn’t the best individual season in Royals history. In fact, it wasn’t even Saberhagen’s best season.

No. 1)  Bret Saberhagen 1989

That’s right. We think Saberhagen’s 1989 season was even better than his 1985 one. That’s why Taylor Swift named one of her albums “1989” in honor of the best individual season by a Kansas City Royals pitcher. While the former part of the previous sentence may or may not be true, the latter part certainly is.

Despite not having the postseason boost his campaign, Saberhagen undoubtedly pitched better throughout his 1989 season. Across the board, his statistics were better than in 1985. Record? 23-6 vs. 20-6. ERA and WHIP? 2.16 and 0.98 vs. 2.87 and 1.06. Strikeout-to-walk ratio? 4.49 to 4.16. Everything was better than four years prior; everything was better than any other pitcher in 1989, as well.

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Saberhagen held (or was tied for) the league lead among starters in the following categories: wins, complete games (12), innings (262 1/3), ERA, WHIP, K:BB ratio, FIP (2,45) and ERA+ (180). It’s unsurprising that he brought home his second Cy Young award at the end of the season.

For good measure, Saberhagen won the only Gold Glove of his career and finished ninth in MVP voting. He actually didn’t make the All-Star team, despite a solid 8-4 record and 2.61 ERA in the first half. Perhaps fueled by the snub, Saberhagen reeled off a sensational 15-2 record and 1.74 ERA in the second half. Ironically, he earned an All-Star nod the following season with a 5-7 record and a 2.98 ERA before the Midsummer Classic.

After the 1991 season, the Kansas City Royals traded Saberhagen to the Mets. He had a couple good years with New York, including an outstanding 1994 season cut short by the strike. Saberhagen finished out his career with half a season in Colorado, which included the franchise’s first postseason trip, and a few years in Boston.

Next: Top 10 Outfielders in Royals History

However, it’s Saberhagen’s time with the Kansas City Royals that will go down as the best portion of his career. A career that includes the two best individual seasons by a pitcher in franchise history.