KC Royals Free Agent Hunt: 3 Tampa Bay pitchers

Corey Kluber could be a nice addition to the KC Royals’ starting rotation.

Corey Kluber has pitched in the American Leaguer for his entire 12-year big league career and, judging from his numbers, it’s fair to say he enjoys pitching against Kansas City, against whom he’s 12-7 with a 3.38 ERA in 26 starts.

His ability to beat the Royals reflects the kind of success he’s had against the rest of the league. After helping spearhead Tampa Bay’s run to the 2022 postseason, Kluber boasts a nice 113-71, 3.31 record, two Cy Young awards, three All-Star berths, and a 20-win season and two 18-victory campaigns. He’s also led the majors in complete games three times and shutouts twice.

And now, Kluber is a free agent, available to any club needing a solid veteran starter.

Like Kansas City. Thanks to Brady Singer and to a lesser extent Zack Greinke, the Royals’ rotation didn’t completely humiliate itself last season, but it came close. Starters Daniel Lynch and Kris Bubic both lost 13 games. So did Brad Keller before he moved to the bullpen (and lost one more). As a group, the starters were largely ineffective, which means new pitching coach Brian Sweeney has a lot of work to do.

Kluber could help. Although injuries, including a broken arm, teres tear, and shoulder strain, limited him to 24 big league games from 2019-2021, he can still pitch—his 10 wins last season gave him double-digit victories for the first time since 2018, he led the majors in BB/9 (1.15) and BB% (3.0) (not surprising achievements considering his career 1.97 BB/9), and he gave the Rays 164 innings in 31 starts.

Picollo makes no secret of his desire to add a veteran starter to the rotation. Kluber could be it. He’ll be 37 in April, but a one or two-year deal could give the Royals some stability pending further development of their younger hurlers, especially if Greinke doesn’t return.

Tampa Bay has a righthanded reliever the KC Royals might be able to use.

Righthander Matt Wisler spent most of his first four major league seasons with Atlanta, where his transition from rotation to bullpen turned him into the reliever he remains today.

Wisler, 30 and a veteran of eight big league years, still starts occasionally but he’s primarily a bullpen piece, and a good one for Tampa Bay in 2021 and 2022.

The Rays acquired him in a June 2021 trade with San Francisco, where he’d been knocked around for 13 runs in 19.1 innings. But his 2.15 ERA in 27 relief appearances for the Rays tended to prove the wisdom of the deal, and he erased any lingering doubts about it with his 3-3, 2.25 record last season.

Wisler also opened five games; although he didn’t earn any decisions, he struck out six and gave up just two runs in 7.2 innings.

He’ll enter the 2023 campaign with a 25-36, 4.59 234-game career record, including 16-23 as a starter and 9-13 out of the bullpen. His 4.68 ERA as a reliever needs improvement, but Wisler’s two years in the Rays’ pen strongly suggest he’s making it.

Kansas City’s bullpen needs almost as much help as it’s rotation. Perhaps Picollo should give Wisler some thought.

Could this lefty Tampa Bay free agent start and relieve for the KC Royals?

Lefthanded pitchers, especially those who can start and relieve, are good things to have. Ryan Yarbrough fits that bill and is someone who might be on Kansas City’s radar considering the states of its rotation and bullpen.

Primarily because he’s started and relieved in each of his five seasons with the Rays, Yarbrough sports an interesting 40-31, 4.33 career record. He went 16-6 as a Tampa Bay rookie in 2018, winning twice as a starter but 14 times out of the bullpen. An 11-6 sophomore season followed with Yarbrough winning three as a starter, eight as a reliever. He went 1-4 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign—all four losses came in starts and his only win was in relief.

And 2021? Yarbrough was 9-7, winning five times as a starter and four as a reliever. Then he went 3-8 last season; his wins all came out of the pen and his losses were divided equally between starting and relieving.

Overall, he’s 10-20, 4.75 as a starter and 30-11, 3.82 in relief.

Yarbrough, a free agent after the Rays let him go last month apparently to clear protective space on its 40-man roster for Rule 5 Draft purposes, has an eclectic pitch repertoire that’s included a sinker, curve, cutter, changeup and occasional four-seamer. He has good control (2.03 career BB/9).

Yarbrough, 30, seems like a pitcher the Royals could use as a swingman—a pitcher capable of serviceably starting and relieving—but time will tell whether they have any interest in him.

Three Tampa Bay free agent pitchers should give Kansas City some things to think about.