Kansas City Royals: Kris Bubic earns much deserved honor

2018 Kansas City Royals draft pick Kris Bubic was recently named as the team’s minor league player of the year. It’s a much-deserved honor for him.

Selected with the 40th overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft, Kansas City Royals southpaw pitcher Kris Bubic has made quite an impact already in the team’s minor league system. Coming out of Stanford,  the 22-year old made 15 starts in his final season in Palo Alto in which he had an 8-1 record with a 2.62 ERA to go along with 101 strikeouts in 86.0 innings of work.

The Royals, who desperately need starting pitching, selected the lefty with the Competitive Balance Round-A pick. He was part of the “fab-five” of 5 pitchers the team selected in the first two rounds of the 2018 Draft.  Bubic was became accilimated to life as a professional baseball player via 10 starts for the Idaho Falls.

He began this season in Single-A Lexington where he made 9 starts with a 2.08 ERA. Bubic tossed 47.2 innings to go along with 75 strikeouts and allowed opponents to bat just 0.164 off him. Pretty incredible numbers for a guy in his first full professional season. Needless to say, it was more than enough to earn him a promotion to High-A Wilmington and it was more of the same for him.

In 88.2 innings of work, Bubic made 15 starts and had 103 strikeouts to just 24 walks while allowing batters to hit just 0.210 off him. His efforts did not go unnoticed as Baseball America named him as the organization’s Minor Leaue Player of the Year.

"“Kris repeats a deceptive delivery and has two above-average offspeed pitches with his curveball and changeup,” assistant general manager J.J. Picollo said. “His curveball is significantly better this year and has become a weapon for him.”"

Bubic finished the season strong as he struck out 78 batters in 61.0 innings to the tune of a 1.77 ERA in his last 10 starts. The Royals 6th best prospect will likely start next season in Double-A NW Arkansas and is projected to be ready by 2021. It’s an extremely encouraging sign to see some of the recent draft picks doing well. Let’s hope that trend continues for the 2019 group.