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Royals: 3 pitchers whose stock fell during the 2019 season

By David Scharff |
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(Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
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(Photo by Reed Hoffmann/Getty Images)
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With pitching being a major concern for the Kansas City Royals in 2019, some pitchers may have to fight even harder to earn back their spot in 2020.

It’s likely that most Kansas City Royals fans have heard of the struggle surrounding the Royals and their pitching in 2019. If it hasn’t been heard, it’s been read in articles, on the twitter feed, or just about anywhere else Royal’s news surfaces.

While it may get old for some, the pitching problem talk can be expected to stick around until something is done about it. This could come in many forms. The easiest is that somehow, every pitcher on the Royals roster gets it together and helps the team win 100 games in 2020. Not likely.

The team could also bank on their drafted college talent that is making its way through the minors, but there is no reason to rush the young arms. The third, and quickest way to take care of the pitching is through free agency.

It’s likely the Royals will not make a huge splash in free agency this year, but with a new manager and owner, anything is possible. It’s more believable that the Royals will do the typical thing and find some reclamation projects and hope for the best. This could definitely work in their favor, or it could just set them up for another 100 loss season.

Either way, there will be familiar faces playing the field next season, and it’s likely that a great deal of the 2019 pitching staff will find their way into the rotation or bullpen at some point.

There were definitely some pitchers during the 2019 season that showed some positives and deserve their spot on the roster for 2020. There were some pitchers, though, that saw their stock fall during the regular season. For this article, let’s take a look at three players who might have to fight a little more for their position in 2020.

(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

A complete game shut out from this Kansas City Royals pitcher might not be enough to justify a starting position for 2020.

Glenn Sparkman is a pitcher for the Kansas City Royals who has great moments and at times seems like he is becoming an important member of the pitching staff. Unfortunately for Sparkman, the moments never seem to last long.

Take for example Sparkman’s start on July 16, 2019. Sparkman pitched a complete game shutout against the Chicago White Sox. In the two games before, Sparkman gave up 8 earned runs and 4 earned runs, respectively. In the two games that followed the shut out, Sparkman gave up 4 earned runs, followed by another 8 earned run game.

Sparkman is no model for consistency. He did, though, start 2019 relatively well. His ERA for May was 2.84 and for June when he saw some more starts the number jumped to 3.94, both decent numbers for a pitcher like Sparkman. He fell off after June, though, finishing the year with Monthly ERAs of 7.53, 7.58, and 6.85.

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Sparkman ended 2019 with an ERA of 6.02 and an FIP of 5.93 over 136 innings pitched, giving up 96 runs and 41 walks. Most of Sparkman’s numbers got worse in 2019, and if they didn’t, they still didn’t look great.

The case with Sparkman may be that he needs to return to a full-time bullpen role. His workload greatly increased in 2019, starting 23 games as opposed to 3 in the previous year, and pitching 136 innings as opposed to 38.1.

Sparkman obviously has the pitches at times, but he has to be able to prove that he can bring that to the mound every night, not just once every few games. Sparkman will likely be among the Royals pitching staff in 2020, but as he saw some stock fall in 2019, he will have to fight to keep his place on the mound.

(Photo by Ron Schwane/Getty Images)
(Photo by Ron Schwane/Getty Images) /

In a short season with the Kansas City Royals, this pitcher gave up as many runs as he pitched innings and saw a drop in his confidence on the mound.

Eric Skoglund did not see a lot of time with the Kansas City Royals in 2019. The sample size for his season is relatively small, but there is enough there to work with, and enough of a reason to put him on this list.

Skoglund started the season on an unfortunate note, with an 80 game suspension for PEDs. After rehab assignments with Arkansas and Omaha, and a few recalls and options, Skoglund once again found himself on the mound in Kauffman Stadium.

In 2018, Skoglund played in 14 games for the Royals, starting 13 of those, and pitched to a 5.14 ERA and a 5.06 FIP over 70.0 innings giving up 40 earned runs and striking out 49 batters. Before his suspension, Skoglund looked to be a candidate to fill out the Royals rotation in 2019

Related Story. Where the team led the way in 2019. light

When Skoglund finally appeared in a game for the Royals, it looked as though he may get off to a good start. Over 5.0 innings he gave up 2 runs. He was unable to strike out a batter, which caused some concern, but his ability to keep the Royals in the game was important.  Unfortunately, the rest of the season didn’t go as well.

Skoglund looked as though he couldn’t throw strikes, pitching 21 innings to an ERA of 9.00, giving up 21 runs and walking 9 batters. Again, Skoglund’s 2019 sample is not large by any means, but his inability to throw strikes while giving up 21 runs in as many innings is not a good look for someone fighting for a rotation spot.

Its possible fans will see Skoglund in the spring working for a spot on the staff, but after a couple of disappointing seasons, Skoglund’s stock cannot be very high. There is every possibility he will shake off 2019 and get his head on straight, but Skoglund has a long way to go to build his reputation back up.

(Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
(Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images) /

With the lack of consistency from this Kansas City Royals pitcher, there may not be any room for him on the mound in 2020, at least in the rotation.

Jorge Lopez is another Kansas City Royals pitcher like Sparkman. Lopez has flashes of great pitching and provides hope that he is turning things around. Unfortunately, his inability to be consistent on the mound hurts him more than anything.

Lopez saw his time split in 2019, getting some starts throughout the season, but also coming out of the bullpen to relieve on multiple occasions. The best month for Lopez came in June where he saw no more than 2 innings in any game and held a monthly ERA of 3.27.

Strangely enough, and sadly enough, Lopez saw a range of monthly ERAs in 2019. Though they weren’t in numerical order, during the seven months of baseball Lopez had seven monthly ERAs each one starting with a different number, 3-9. In five different months, Lopez carried ERAs of 5.26 and higher.

The Royals were hurting for pitching during the season, but with numbers like this, Lopez can’t be the best option. Yet, he managed to find his way to the mound for 123.2 innings in 2019. Lopez ended the year with a 6.33 ERA, an FIP of 5.55, and earned 87 runs over those 123 innings. He did record 109 strikeouts and had the highest strikeouts per 9 innings of his career at 7.9, but that alone won’t save him.

When the Royals acquired Lopez, he looked to be a possible piece of the puzzle for a future Royals team. The more time he spends with the team, though, the less he looks like an important role player. Lopez could turn it around, and there is a good chance the Royals will want a better look at him in the spring, but he definitely took a hit on his stock in 2019.

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It’s unlikely the Royals will make any drastic changes during the offseason, so there is every reason to believe the pitchers on this list could be seen fighting for their spot in spring training. After disappointing 2019 seasons from all three, though, they will have to work even harder to instill confidence in their pitching with the Royals organization.

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