3 pitchers who need great springs to make the KC Royals

Packing spring training camps with pitchers is nothing new. It's a necessary practice for the KC Royals and every other major league club, all of whom must carefully stretch out their hurlers, have enough pitching to get through around 30 exhibition games, and effectively audition those pitchers who don't come to camp guaranteed of Opening Day big league jobs.

Counting those on their 40-man roster and a flock of non-roster invitees, (but not Kyle Wright, who'll spend 2024 on the Injured List, Christian Chamberlain, who recently tore his UCL, and the several minor leaguers who the club will occasionally borrow from minor league camp), the Royals are lucky enough to have almost three dozen pitchers working on the major league side of their Arizona training base and in Cactus League games.

Only 13 pitching staff openings are available to teams for Opening Day, and the Royals' spots seem spoken for already. But the shoulder soreness now plaguing Carlos Hernández, and the fact Daniel Lynch IV and Jake Brentz are both trying to put the finishing touches on comebacks from injuries, mean some unplanned vacancies could occur.

The Royals probably prefer to plug any such openings with pitchers with big league experience. But three of the possible candidates must have near-perfect springs to warrant serious consideration.

If necessary, can Anthony Veneziano make the grade for the Royals?

For Veneziano, ranked by MLB Pipeline as Kansas City's 16th-best prospect, making the club as even a temporary stop-gap hurler is a long shot. Yes, he has big league experience, but not much — he pitched 2.1 innings for the Royals last September, so he'll need a superb series of Cactus League appearances to qualify for Kansas City's Opening Day date with Minnesota.

So far, he's off to a decent start. Through Wednesday's games, he's pitched twice, struck out five, walked two, given up two hits, and yielded one run over four innings.

Who else might make the roster?

Will Jonathan Bowlan get a chance to prove himself?

In 2019, his first full season of pro ball, Bowlan looked exactly like the top-shelf starter the Royals believed he could be when they drafted him the year before. In 26 games split evenly between Lexington and Carolina, then the club's Class A affiliates, he went 11-5 with a 3.14 ERA, a 9.25 K/9, and a nifty 1.42 BB/9. The thought of Bowlan making it to the majors after another couple of seasons in the minors didn't seem unreasonable.

But after pitching only at Kansas City's Alternate Training Site during the pandemic season, misfortune struck Bowlan in 2021 when an elbow issue required Tommy John Surgery; he missed almost all of that season, pitched only 17 times the next and, working first at Double-A Northwest Arkansas and then Triple-A Omaha last year, went 7-11, 5.91 in 24 appearances. To say he hasn't been quite the same since his TJS states the obvious.

But the Royals still see much good in Bowlan — he wouldn't be on the 40-man roster if they didn't — and he'll certainly get his share of Cactus League work and find himself under the proverbial microscope when he does.

Can he now find his way back to Kansas City, where last September he started and lost the only big league game he's appeared in? Considering Picollo's retooling of the club's pitching corps, the task won't be easy, and the odds may not be in his favor. That makes Bowlan's Cactus League performance more critical; he'll need a stellar effort.

How's he doing? In 3.1 innings, he's given up two runs, five hits and two walks, and fanned two. Although he's 2-0, opposing batters are hitting .385 against him and he has a 2.10 WHIP.

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