Should KC Royals fans be reading between lines after All-Star’s early exit?

The KC Royals have a lot to worry about as the second half really starts rolling. There's winning as many games as possible before the trade deadline so they can be buyers, and then there's winning enough games that they contend for a playoff. Should Kris Bubic's short outing on Sunday be added to the list of concerns?

The Royals handed the ball to Bubic on Sunday, hoping desperately to avoid getting swept at the hands of the Miami Marlins. The de facto ace of the staff did his job. He threw five shutout innings and helped the team take a win away from the series finale. The thing that has some fans nervous is that he only threw five shutout innings. In a game as important as Sunday's was in staying in the playoff race, it might have made sense to have him go longer and make sure the win was locked in.

Kris Bubic innings management sparks fresh debate about the KC Royals’ second-half strategy

With that in mind, some concerns surfaced after the KC Royals game that perhaps this was about preserving Bubic so that he can be dealt, if and when the club turns into sellers. However, considering that Bubic isn't a free agent after this year and because of how good he's been, there's probably a better reason for shutting him down when they did.

First of all, there's the fact that the Royals were up 6-0 when he was lifted from the game. Manager Matt Quatraro probably thought his team was cruising to a big win. He'll have to lean on his bullpen as the season goes on, and he couldn't have known the Marlins would make things so interesting in the ninth inning. It's hardly unheard of for a pitcher to get taken out during a blowout win. And for the Royals' offense, 6-0 counts as a blowout.

However, the best reason of all that the Royals took Bubic out is because they're going to need to manage his innings. Hopefully, they'll need him for the rest of the season. He is currently 17 innings short of his career high in a single season.

More than that, his 113 innings so far this season are nearly three times as many innings as he's thrown in the previous two years (30.1 in 2024 and just 16 in 2023), and sooner or later, he's going to start feeling fatigue.

The long and short of it is that it doesn't make a ton of sense for the KC Royals to limit his innings if he's headed elsewhere in the next 10 days. Why not wring all the club can from Kris Bubic before he's shipped out.

It makes far more sense that the team is planning on keeping Bubic around no matter what, and not having him pitch longer than he needed to on Sunday is more proof of that.