Grading the KC Royals: Reliever Anthony Misiewicz

As trade deadline deals go, and compared to Kansas City’s trades that sent Andrew Benintendi to the Yankees and Whit Merrifield to Toronto, the Aug. 1 transaction that brought relief pitcher Anthony Misiewicz to the KC Royals attracted little attention.

That many fans completely missed the trade is probable. Misiewicz just didn’t seem to be on anyone’s trade deadline radar, and understandably so.

He’d been designated for assignment by Seattle only the day before; after starting the season with the M’s, he quietly went 0-1 with a 4.61 ERA in 17 appearances before spending the rest of his Mariner time at Triple-A Tacoma. The lefthander was a serviceable, but unspectacular, 0-0 with a 3.65 ERA in 13 games for the Rainiers when the organization DFA’d him.

And the trade to Kansas City didn’t make much more noise than Misiewicz had in Seattle and Tacoma; the fact the Royals gave up only cash to land him added to the under-the-radar character of the deal.

How did the transaction work out for Kansas City?

After the trade, Anthony Misiewicz pitched fairly well for the KC Royals.

Because the Royals assigned Misiewicz to Triple-A Omaha as soon as the Aug. 1 deal was done, he didn’t make his Kansas City debut until Aug. 26 against San Diego. Manager Mike Matheny summoned him to rescue Amir Garrett, who’d replaced José Cuas to start the seventh inning and promptly allowed the Padres to expand their two-run lead to six by giving up four runs on five hits.

Fortunately for the Royals, Misiewicz retired Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado to end the inning without further damage.

Misiewicz wasn’t as efficient when he faced the Padres two games later with a five-run lead and a clean inning. But he walked leadoff man Profar and served up a home run to Juan Soto before settling in. The two runs he surrendered turned out to be inconsequential—the Royals won 15-7.

He gave up another two runs in two innings against the White Sox three days later.

Misiewicz pitched 12 more times and finished 1-1, 4.11 for Kansas City. He gave up only three earned runs in those final 12 games (2.13 ERA) and, in the 15.1 innings he pitched after the trade, struck out 19 (11.15 K/9) and walked only four (2.35 BB/9). Only the pair of two-run outings he had against the Padres and White Sox prevented him from posting a nice ERA.

Misiewicz, chosen by the Mariners in the 18th round of the 2015 amateur draft, pitched in the majors for the third straight season and is now 6-9, 4.43 in 119 big league games.

Whether the Royals bring him back for a full year remains to be seen, but we’ll give him a B for the time he spent with Kansas City this season.

Other than two of his first three games, Anthony Misiewicz pitched fairly well for Kansas City in 2022.