KC Royals Trades: The club acquires a new reliever

After making some fairly routine moves before the lockout and signing Daniel Mengden and Brad Peacock to minor league deals just before it ended, the KC Royals have made their first big move at the major league level.

The club announced via Twitter that it has traded veteran starting pitcher Mike Minor to the Reds Wednesday for left-handed reliever Amir Garrett and cash.

Last season, Minor went 8-12 with a 5.05 ERA in his second Royals stint. The trade proved correct King’s of Kauffman writer Mark McCarthy’s thought that Kansas City could trade Minor before season’s end; the deal just came sooner rather than later.

While the Reds get a respectable veteran to help out their pitching staff, the Royals receive a reliever who had an 0-4 record, 6.04 ERA, and 61 strikeouts in 47.2 innings last season, but has been good in the past.

 What has Amir Garrett’s career been like before joining the KC Royals?

Cincinnati drafted Garrett in the 22nd round of the 2011 amateur draft. He was selected for the 2015 All-Star Futures Game and finished that season 9-7 with a 2.44 ERA, 133 strikeouts in 140.1 innings, and a 1.23 WHIP in High-A ball.

In 2016, Garrett pitched in both the Double-A and Triple-A, notching a combined 7-8, 2.55 record and 132 strikeouts in 144.2 innings. In 2017, he made Cincinnati’s Opening Day roster, started April 7 and won his first major league game by tossing six shutout innings and allowing just two hits in the Reds’ 2-0 victory over St. Louis.

After his first start, things went downhill for Garrett—he went 2-2 with a 5.10 ERA over his next five starts. The Reds sent Garrett back down to Triple-A and he was up and down throughout the remainder of the season.

He ended the year 3-8 with a 7.39 ERA in 16 games (14 starts). After that year, Garrett was relegated to a bullpen role and in 2018 had a 1-2 record, 4.29 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 63 innings.

Garrett improved in 2019 to 5-3 with a 3.21 ERA and fanned 78 batters in 56 innings.

He pitched well again in the short 2020 season, going 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA in 21 relief appearances and striking out 26 in 18.1 innings. But things went downhill for him last season when he was 0-4 with a 6.04 ERA.

What KC Royals fans can expect to get from Amir Garrett in the 2022 season.

Overall, Garrett has a 10-17 record, 5.10 ERA, 299 strikeouts in 255.2 innings and a 1.43 WHIP. His K/9 ratio has exceeded 11.50 for the past three seasons.

His pitch arsenal, according to Baseball Savant, consists of a slider, sinker and four-seam fastball, although he throws the slider and four-seamer much more than the sinker. Garrett’s slider is lethal, yielding only a .212 BA with a 47.8 whiff rate last year and a .139 BA and 57.1 whiff in 2020.

The Royals can expect a solid 2022 season from their new reliever.

The Royals acquired Amir Garrett from the Reds Wednesday.