KC Royals give red-hot relief prospect his well-deserved shot at the big leagues

After a lackluster performance from the bullpen in Tuesday night's loss to the Cincinnati Reds, the Kansas City Royals made a bit of a switch-up in their relief ahead of Wednesday's series finale.

The Royals announced that they'd selected the contract of Andrew Hoffmann from Triple-A to add to the major league relief corps, filling one of their two remaining open 40-man spots. In a corresponding move the Royals optioned southpaw Evan Sisk back to Omaha.

The move doesn't come entirely as a shock considering how heavily used the 'pen was on Tuesday during the scheduled bullpen day. And while Hoffmann might be somewhat an unknown entity to some, he's proved to be more than worthy of a promotion this season in the minor leagues.

KC Royals give Andrew Hoffmann his well-deserved shot in MLB

After a rough 2024 season in Triple-A, a big league opportunity like this wasn't always a guarantee for Hoffmann. He appeared in 66 innings across 25 games (11 of which were starts) in Omaha last year, pitching to the tune of a very high 6.82 ERA along with a 5.11 FIP, 1.76 WHIP and .303 BAA.

And at no point prior had Hoffmann really displayed any sort of immense promise since arriving to the Royals organization in 2022 other than a 3.60 ERA in a brief five inning stint in Double-A Northwest Arkansas last season.

But Hoffmann completely flipped the script this season, as in 25.1 innings across 19 appearances solely in relief, he’s posted a 2.84 ERA, a 2.24 FIP and 13.14 K/9.

While he shouldn't be expected to come in and challenge for the high-leverage innings, he'll slot in nicely amongst the solid performing group of middle relief arms like Jonathan Bowlan, Taylor Clarke and Steven Cruz, all of whom were his Triple-A bullpen mates at some point this season. His prior days as a starter gives the bullpen some useful length as well.

KC Royals option Evan Sisk back to Triple-A Omaha

In terms of Sisk’s demotion, the writing seemed to be on the wall based on recent appearances. The southpaw had been heavily used in the first two-games of this series against Cincinnati and struggled mightily on Tuesday, surrendering two walks and a hit that loaded the bases before he was pulled after just 0.1 innings of work.

And while his 1.69 ERA ,1.76 FIP and 18.56 K/9 are certainly more than respectable tallies, a 1.88 WHIP brought on largely by an 8.44 BB/9 rate is cause for concern.

Simply put, a pitcher with control issues coming off of a heavy back-to-back game workload in a bullpen that's already spent made Sisk the prime candidate to be sent down in this case scenario.

All that to say, this likely won't be the last we see of Sisk in a Royals uniform in 2025. He’s shown enough promise in the majors to warrant another shot and his minor league stats in Omaha this season have been excellent.