The 4 biggest bombs of this KC Royals season

Brady Singer hasn't been close to the pitcher the KC Royals hoped he'd be

After a brief demotion to the minors last season, Brady Singer returned to Kansas City and suddenly became the pitcher the Royals envisioned when they picked him in the first round of the 2018 amateur draft. He finished the campaign 10-5 with a 3.23 ERA; those 10 wins were one more than he'd picked up in his first 39 big league starts and the ERA was his first to dip under 4.00.

So it was that Singer's role in the rotation became more important than ever, and deservedly so: if he wasn't the staff ace, who was?

Now that question, seemingly answered by his 2022 performance, is open again. Other than his first start, a five-inning, one-run effort against Texas that gave him his only win of the season, Singer hasn't been good.

He gave up six runs in five innings against the Giants April 8. Atlanta battered him for eight runs in five frames six days later, and Texas tagged him for five runs in five Wednesday afternoon. All told, he's surrendered an atrocious 19 earned runs in 21 innings, and his sinker and four-seamer velocities are down. He's 1-2 with an 8.14 ERA.

In short, Singer isn't the pitcher who returned so triumphantly from Triple-A Omaha late last May. A disappointment? Unequivocally.

But there are others.

Nate Eaton remains versatile, but has bombed at the plate for the KC Royals

Nate Eaton didn't tear up the American League after Kansas City called him up for his first taste of the majors last year. As one of the minor league replacements for 10 Royals whose vaccination status prohibited them from crossing the Canadian border for a four-game series at Toronto, he went 2-for-12; then, after a short trip back to Omaha, he finished the campaign with the Royals and a .264 average. Together with his defensive versatility, it was enough to establish Eaton as a legitimate Opening Day roster candidate.

Eaton made that roster on the strength of a .324/.390/.514 spring training line. But his bat has since gone silent—he owns only one hit, an April 10 single against Texas, and is 1-for-25 (.040) in a dozen games. He's been valuable in the field, however, playing every outfield position without committing an error.

But all the versatility in the world won't protect Eaton if he can't hit. And that astonishingly unproductive bat has rendered him a major disappointment. Time will tell if he can solve the problem, but time is a precious commodity he may be losing.

Who's the fourth major disappointment for the Royals?

This relief pitcher has been a big disappointment for the KC Royals

Last season, in a move predicated by team needs, his good minor league career, and the 1.42 ERA he posted in a late-2021 callup, the Royals gave Dylan Coleman a seat in their beleaguered bullpen. He rewarded their confidence with a 5-2, 2.78 ERA record in 68 appearances and headed home for the baseball winter solidly locked into a 2023 roster spot.

Spring training wasn't as kind to Coleman—he gave up five runs and walked nine in eight Cactus League innings, a performance that laid the unfortunate groundwork for what happened after Kansas City broke camp and began the regular season.

Although Coleman pitched a scoreless inning in the club's 2-0 Opening Day loss to Minnesota and another scoreless frame against Toronto six days later, he gave up 10 runs in the other three innings he's pitched so far this season. Texas hammered him for six of those runs in just two-thirds of an inning April 10.

Unsurprising, then, was the demotion to Triple-A Omaha he received April 13. Carrying an ugly 18.00 ERA and burdened by one of the most disappointing performances of any KC pitcher this season, the time had come for Coleman, an obviously talented reliever, to regroup in the minors.