KC Royals bullpen is starting to take shape after series clinching win over Twins

The Kansas City Royals have faced their fair share of issues when it come to relief pitching in the early going of the 2025 campaign, as the search for who would step up to complement the big three in the backend of Carlos Estévez, Lucas Erceg and Hunter Harvey loomed large.

But amidst the struggles, manager Matt Quatraro has remained steadfast in the confidence he has for his bullpen.

Now, a gutsy come-from-behind 3-2 victory on Thursday afternoon, against their American League Central rivals in the Minnesota Twins, did wonders in proving why Quatraro was right to stand by his relievers. And not only that, the Royals now seem to be forming a structure to better complement their formidable anchoring trio in the bullpen.

The bullpen is starting to take shape for the KC Royals

After Michael Wacha left the game in the fifth after 5 1/3 strong innings of work, it was John Schreiber who was called upon for the second time in the series - after an 1 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball on Tuesday - to get out of the jam. While he did end up bringing home the go-ahead run of the runner he inherited, he limited the damage to just that single run before getting out of the inning.

Then after Schreiber recorded an out in seventh, it was time for Daniel Lynch IV to shine for the second time in the series as well - after picking up the one out save in Tuesday's victory - and he delivered, striking two to end the inning.

It was then the usual late-inning suspects after that, as Erceg pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, before
Estévez came on to perform his Dragon Ball Z celebration in the ninth after collecting his fourth save of the season.

While the Royals have not gotten it down to a flawless science quite yet - as Schreiber did allow his inherited runner to score, Lynch walked one of the three batters he faced and Estévez had fans a little worried with a single and hits batman in the save effort - it's easy to see the larger plan for the 'pen now.

If Schreiber and Lynch can continue to cover the key middle innings, it does several things. Quatraro won't be required to turn to struggling arms like Sam Long as much anymore, it saves the backend arms of Harvey, Erceg and Estévez for the crucial late innings, and it also takes the pressure of the starting staff to have to be perfect in order to have a chance to win. This becomes especially important with the amount of close games Kansas City has found themselves in with how inconsistent the offense has been in generating runs.

The bullpen will look to build upon it's momentum in another key division rivalry series against the Cleveland Guardians over the weekend.