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.