Eleventh-hour free agent signing isn't paying off for KC Royals

Ross Stripling has been a major league pitcher of one sort or another since breaking in with the Los Angeles Dodgers the year after the Kansas City Royals won the 2015 World Series. He career has been a fairly pedestrian one, highlighted primarily by excellent control, one All-Star Game selection, and two winning seasons out of nine. He signed a minor league contract with the Royals after spring training began, and toils now in their camp as a non-roster invitee hoping against hope to land an Opening Day roster spot

Perhaps the Royals should have known better than to take a flier on Stripling. He pitched 22 times for the Athletics last season and it's hard to say which was worse — his 6.01 ERA or his 2-11 record. Never had he been so bad, which undoubtedly helps explain why he was still available when the Royals decided to bring him aboard in late February.

Because Stripling has since pitched in only three Cactus League games, his jury is still out. But the verdict seems destined to be against him when all is said and done and the Kansas City brain trust renders a decision.

That's because the evidence derived from Stripling's three outings shouldn't give him or the Royals much, if any, hope that he'll rebound successfully from the disaster that was his one season with the A's, or that he'll contribute in any significant way to Kansas City's 2025 campaign.

Ross Stripling isn't pitching well for the KC Royals

Yes, his control is still good — he hasn't walked a batter in four innings, a performance that compares nicely with his career 5.6 BB% and 2.09 BB/9. But the March 2 scoreless inning he managed against the San Diego Padres in his second outing of the spring doesn't sufficiently mitigate the damage his other two appearances have done to his case to make it to Kauffman Stadium for the club's March 27 Opening Day.

Take, for example, Stripling's first appearance of the spring, a disastrous one-inning stint against the Milwaukee Brewers. After Raynel Delgado struck out to begin the bottom of the sixth, the Brewers rocked Stripling for five runs on five hits — including home runs by Josh Adamczewski and Zavier Warren — and scored all those runs after the second out.

Then, after working that scoreless frame against the Padres, he faced the San Francisco Giants on March 8 and gave up a run in each of the two innings he pitched. And he surrendered another homer, this time a solo shot by David Villar. Stripling also gave the Giants three other hits.

That Stripling's spring line — seven runs (all earned), nine hits, three homers, one strikeout, and a 15.75 ERA over four innings — isn't good shouldn't shock anyone after his poor 2024 performance with the Athletics. And he was 0-5 with a 5.36 ERA in 22 games for the Giants the season before.

To his credit, Stripling has had some success in the majors. He posted an excellent 3.01 ERA, won 10 games, and lost only four for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2022, and was 8-6 with a 3.02 ERA for the Dodgers — and made the National League All-Star team — in 2018. Take those two seasons out, though, and he's 22-44 over his other seven big league campaigns. Even those observers who dislike counting stats should concede that a pitcher who over 66 decisions loses twice as many games as he wins isn't great.

The Royals aren't getting what they need from Stripling. And that doesn't bode well for his chances to stick around major league camp much longer. He may soon join the other Royals who've been reassigned to minor league camp.