Struggling KC Royals reliever's spring training proving to be a total mirage

While there were some positive signs in the bullpen in Tuesday night's loss to the New York Yankees, it was also a key contributor as to why the Kansas City Royals lost their second straight game - and dropped the midweek series to their fellow American League contenders.

The middle innings between the starters and the anchoring names in high-leverage innings have proved to be the area that have caused issues for the Royals. While they've seen some glimmers from a few of their bullpen regulars in recent weeks, last night proved those innings are still marred by uncertainty.

One name in particular who had big expectations entering the year, but has scuffled out of the gate is Ángel Zerpa, who happened to be the man on the mound when everything went wrong in Tuesday's contest.

Ángel Zerpa's spring training is proving to be a total mirage

After a respectable 3.86 ERA season in 2024 followed by a 2.25 ERA in the postseason, Zerpa was thought to be someone that could be a complementary arm to the anchoring trio of Hunter Harvey, Lucas Erceg and Carlos Estévez.

And he showed every sign of fulfilling those lofty expectations during spring training this year. In nine innings of relief across nine total outings, the southpaw didn't surrender and earned run, sported a 0.22 WHIP and .069 BAA and racked up nine strikeouts with no walks issued.

However, all of that quickly vanished come the regular season, as Zerpa suffered a major reality check right off the bat, surrendering three hits, one earned run and one homer in 1 1/3 innings on Opening Day against the Guardians. His ERA would then inflate to 7.71 after his next outing in Milwaukee upon giving up a run on two hits and a walk in an inning of work.

That being said, things started to go Zerpa's way again in his next three outings, as in two combined innings of work he didn't allow a run with only two hits and two walks in that span. They weren't the spring training-type numbers h posted, but they were solid enough for him to hang his hat on and demonstrate that perhaps his first two rough appearances were simply just that...two tough days at the office.

All of that came crashing down and the progress he made was all but erased in just 2/3 of an inning of work in the Bronx on Tuesday though. After coming on for Michael Wacha in a bases loaded jam in the sixth, Zerpa would immediately walk in a run before giving up a bases clearing double to Jasson Domínguez, and suddenly a 2-0 lead quickly turned into a 4-2 deficit.

Now, it's early to everything Zerpa showed this spring is a complete mirage, might be a slight overreaction. However, he doesn't quite yet have the MLB track record to really deserve the benefit of the doubt, nor do his extremely poor looking underlying metrics this season help his case.

In the end, Zerpa might not be the relief arm that Royals fans hoped he'd be in 2025, indicating that Matt Quatraro may need to look elsewhere in this 'pen for more reliable impact in the middle innings.