Royals taking a flier on former Nationals pitcher is a classic J.J. Picollo move 

In a perfect world, the Kansas City Royals pitching staff would have been unscathed by the injury bug in 2026. Pitchers like Cole Ragans and Carlos Estévez would have been able to play the entire season and the team would have likely been able to muster more than 69 wins by the end of the year. 

In reality, the decimated pitching staff struggled to keep its head above water, and Royals general manager J.J. Picollo has been scrambling to patch the holes ever since. However, with limited resources to work with, Piccolo’s patchwork in recent years has not exactly been stellar. As we continue to make our way toward the end of 2026, that trend is alive and well.  

According to Ari Alexander of 7News, the Royals have signed former Washington Nationals reliever Hobie Harris to a minor league contract. The deal also includes an invitation to spring training with the Major League club. 

The 33-year-old pitcher has spent 11 seasons in the minor leagues throughout his career, including the last two years in the Boston Red Sox farm system. For a team that sported one of the worst bullpens in all of baseball this past season, the signing of Harris likely won’t instill confidence in many Royals fans. However, it’s exactly the type of move that Picollo has thrived on these past few seasons. 

Similar to last offseason, the Royals have once again attempted to address the holes in the bullpen by looking to the trash heap. The signing of Alex Lange didn’t pay off in 2026. The signing of Harris now probably won’t result in the discovery of a game-changing reliever in 2027 either. But he could be worth taking a flier on.     

Harris projects to be nothing more than pitching depth for the Royals 

Equipped with a mid-90s fastball, a solid splitter, and a serviceable cutter, Harris doesn’t have the most explosive arsenal of pitches. However, he has demonstrated the ability to get his fair share of swings and misses at the minor league level. In 477 career innings pitched, Harris has racked up 532 strikeouts. That’s something that the Royals believe could possibly translate at the big league-level. 

After spending the better part of a decade in the minor leagues, Harris enjoyed the best season of his career in 2022 with the Nashville Sounds in the Milwaukee Brewers minor league system. In 53 games, Harris collected eight saves while allowing just 29 hits in 53 innings. His 2.04 ERA was also the lowest on the team among pitchers with at least 50 innings.   

That strong season caught the attention of the Nationals, who signed the pitcher following the 2022 season. Harris finally got his big break when the Nationals included him on their Opening Day roster in 2023. Although he would eventually shuttle back and forth between Washington and Triple-A Rochester during the season, Harris appeared in 16 MLB games that season.  

In 19.1 innings of work for the Nationals, Harris sported a 5.12 ERA and a WHIP of 1.759. He also added 13 walks while only striking out 9 batters. It was quite the 180° turn from his previous season in the minor leagues and surely not how he envisioned his time in the big leagues would go. 

While spending the last two seasons with the Red Sox organization, Harris primarily pitched with Triple-A Worcester. He missed the first half of the minor league season in 2026 due to a dreaded bout of forearm tightness. After returning from the IL, Harris appeared in 18 games for Worcester, notching a 9.9 strikeouts-per-nine rate in 24.2 innings.        

The Royals will surely give Harris a decent look in Spring Training, offering him a chance to make the club. He likely won’t be a long-term solution for the bullpen though. He has shown glimpses of potential throughout his lengthy minor league career, but that has not been enough to warrant an extended stay in the big leagues up until this point. With little risk attached to Harris’ signing, Picollo and the Royals don’t really have much to lose.     

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