This KC Royals reliever might be turning a corner after early season struggles

After a stunning spring training display this season, Ángel Zerpa entered the 2025 campaign with the lofty expectations on his shoulders to be an impact reliever in this new and improved Kansas City Royals bullpen.

However, early season struggles hit and suddenly the once fairly reliable southpaw from a year ago turned into a untrusted liability.

After hitting rock-bottom just a few weeks ago, Zerpa has strung together a series of respectable outings and suddenly looks like perhaps he could become that reliable impact left-hander the Royals hoped he might be.

Angel Zerpa might be turning a corner after early season struggles

After surrendering five earned runs on four hits in an inning of work on May 10, Zerpa's ERA rose to a staggering 7.20 clip. For additonal context of how bad that looks, Chris Stratton's ERA rose to that same mark that day and the Royals DFA'd him not long after.

Zerpa was in a place where the conversation needed to be had of whether or not he still warranted a spot in this bullpen any longer.

Since that lowly day in mid-May, Zerpa has seemingly put a better foot forward and built up some more trust manager Matt Quatraro's 'pen.

Zerpa has appeared in nine games since then. He's given up just five hits and one earned run since then. This has resulted in a 1.35 ERA, 2.49 FIP, 0.75 WHIP and .200 BAA in that span. Much better than the 7.20 ERA, 6.15 FIP, 2.00 WHIP and .373 BAA in 15 appearances before that.

To put his newfound success this season into perspective, his ERA and BAA both sit third in the Royals bullpen amongst qualified relievers in that span since May 10, and his FIP and WHIP both sit second.

This has resulted Zerpa suddenly popping up in more high leverage situations, like he did during Sunday's narrow 1-0 defeat to the Detroit Tigers.

While it may not have been in a winning situation when he came on in the top of the eighth, a one run game is as surmountable as any deficit in baseball. And in this situation he dazzled, going 1 2/3 innings retiring all five hitters he faced.

Whether or not he can continue this type of pace remains to be seen, but Zerpa has the makings of reliever that could stick around, making stretches like this all the more a promising sight.