Royals take action to address floundering bullpen with pair of glaringly obvious moves

Wednesday afternoon's showdown with the Cleveland Guardians is likely a game many Kansas City Royals gans would like to forget about.

Not only did their slow-starting offense only manage to muster a pair of runs, but after their ace Cole Ragans went down before the first inning even ended after taking a comebacker off the hand, their already struggling bullpen was forced to finish up this game earlier than expected. And boy did they ever disappoint.

In 8.2 innings, the 'pen surrendered seven earned runs off 14 hits and three walks with two of their most underwhelming performers being Luinder Avila (3.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K) and Steven Cruz (1.1 IP, 5 ER, 4 H, 1 HR, 2 BB, 3 K).

Given this wasn't either of their first blowups of the year, it wasn't a shock to see the Royals option them down to the minor leagues in search of some solutions.

In corresponding moves, the Royals brought back a familiar standout from their doubleheader versus the Brewers over the weekend in Eli Morgan along with Triple-A starting arm Mitch Spence.

A seasoned bullpen veteran himself, Morgan should be able to occupy Cruz's middle relief role, while after a scoreless outing in his first start with Omaha this season, Spence will all but add that length that Matt Quatraro said was why Avila remained on the roster for ahead of Wednesday's loss.

The Royals bullpen definitely needs a jolt of life right now after early season woes

After the season started with Carlos Estévez's spring training velocity and command struggles carrying over to the regular season before hitting the injured list and then was followed by the stumbling Bailey Falter landing on the IL himself, the Royals haven't had much help elsewhere.

Apart from closer Lucas Erceg (3.86 ERA) and Daniel Lynch IV (1.69 ERA), no other Royals reliever features a sub-4.00 ERA to start the new campaign.

This has resulted in the Royals' bullpen looking dreadfully poor in comparison to the rest of the league's relief corps. Their 6.40 combined ERA ranks 28th, their .279 BAA also sits in 28th, their 5.36 FIP sits 27th and their 1.73 WHIP ranks tied for dead last.

Triple-A call-ups like Morgan or Spence, don't often re-invent the wheel. However, the Royals' bullpen isn't exactly setting the bar high at the moment, so any improvement could go a long way.

The duo will have their chance to make an impact when the Royals kick off their weekend home series against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday evening. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. CT.