Big questions (with key answers) for every KC Royals position heading into 2025

Pitching: Is moving Kris Bubic to the rotation the right move?

Transitioning Bubic, a Royals starter until last season, back to the rotation is happening. Time will tell whether it's the right thing to do, especially considering how he performed as a reliever in 2024.

Back from the Tommy John Surgery that sidelined him for all but three big league games in 2023, Bubic spent last season in Kansas City's bullpen and enjoyed arguably the best of his five big league campaigns. Showing no ill effects of his forced time away from major league mounds (he pitched nine times during rehab assignments to the Arizona Complex League, Double-A Northwest Arkansas, and Triple-A Omaha last year before being reactivated), he struck out 39, walked only five, and posted the first sub-3.00 ERA of his career (2.67) in 30.1 innings. He also earned his first big league save.

Bubic's career statistics don't offer tremendous support for his return to the rotation. As a starter, he's an unimpressive 9-27 with a 4.99 ERA, including an ugly 3-13, 5.88 ERA campaign in 2022. But in 37 career relief appearances, he's 2-2 with a 2.97 ERA. Those numbers alone suggest moving Bubic out of the pen is risky and may not work.

And then there's the most recent alteration to the club's pitching landscape — after briefly testing the free agent market, Michael Lorenzen is back with the Royals. Kansas City should lean toward giving him Singer's vacated rotation spot and making either Alec Marsh or Kyle Wright the fifth starter, moves which would necessarily keep Bubic in the pen where he fared so well in 2024.

Even if Bubic starts the season in the rotation, there's always a place for him as a reliever.