The Royals have settled on a fifth starter, with supervisor Matt Quatraro saying Thursday that right-hander Alec Marsh will start the season within the rotation (X hyperlink by way of Anne Rogers of MLB.com). The 25-year-old former second-round decide beat a bunch of Jordan Lyles, Angel Zerpa, Daniel Lynch IV and Anthony Veneziano for that spot. Lyles and Zerpa will each start the season in reduction roles, per Quatraro. (The Zerpa determination was introduced final evening.) Lynch and Veneziano, in the meantime, had been optioned to Triple-A Omaha final evening and can presumably work as starters there.
Kansas Metropolis entered camp with 4 of their 5 rotation spots set. Lefty Cole Ragans, acquired for Aroldis Chapman final summer season, loved an enormous breakout exhibiting following that swap and would be the workforce’s Opening Day starter. He’ll be adopted in some order by offseason signees Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, in addition to returning right-hander Brady Singer.
[Related: Offseason in Review: Kansas City Royals]
Per Quatraro, Marsh merely outperformed the remainder of the sphere this spring in what the workforce thought of a real competitors (X hyperlink by way of Rogers). The proper-hander has certainly been sharp, pitching 14 innings with a 1.93 ERA, 17-to-4 Okay/BB ratio and big 68.8% ground-ball price. That efficiency, per Quatraro, “exceeded what we may have hoped for.” Lyles, maybe his main competitors, didn’t make issues notably aggressive. In two official appearances, the veteran pitched 5 innings and was tagged for 5 runs on eight hits (4 homers) and a stroll with 4 strikeouts.
The 6’2″, 220-pound Marsh ranked because the Royals’ No. 14 prospect getting into the 2023 season, per Baseball America. His huge league debut included 74 1/3 innings of 5.69 ERA ball. Marsh made eight begins and one other 9 reduction appearances. He fanned 1 / 4 of his opponents but additionally issued walks at an 11.4% clip. Marsh was exceptionally homer-prone, yielding a median of 1.94 homers per 9 frames because of a paltry 34.6% ground-ball price.
Marsh debuted a new-look sinker late within the 2023 season, throwing the pitch for the primary time on Aug. 27. He used it solely 10-15% of the time for his first few outings with the brand new providing, however tossed it at a 27.4% clip in his remaining two outings of the season. The work on the brand new two-seamer has paid off in a small pattern of spring appearances — no less than if Marsh’s eye-popping grounder price is any indication. He can’t be anticipated to take care of that stage, which might make him one of many recreation’s premier ground-ball pitchers, but it surely’s an encouraging development for a pitcher who sported only a 30.8% grounder price previous to unleashing that new pitch final season.
If Marsh can step up and solidify himself as a rotation cog, he’ll be a long-term possibility. The Royals nonetheless management him for a full six seasons. Marsh solely picked up 94 days of service time final yr, which means he’s not even on observe for Tremendous Two eligibility. He received’t be arbitration-eligible till the conclusion of the 2026 season and might’t turn out to be a free agent till the 2029-30 offseason. Future optionally available assignments may affect both trajectory, however the organizational hope is definitely that Marsh will hit the bottom operating and received’t want additional seasoning in Triple-A.
As for Lyles, the transfer to the ’pen isn’t how he or the baseball operations workers envisioned issues going. The veteran righty inked a two-year, $17MM contract final offseason in hopes that he’d fill the identical innings eater position by which he’d discovered success with the 2022 Orioles. As an alternative, Lyles was rocked for six.28 ERA. He took the ball 31 occasions and soaked up 177 2/3 frames, however his begins had been too usually non-competitive for a 56-win Royals membership. Lyles’ 16% strikeout price was one of many lowest of his profession, and whereas he maintained a really robust 6% stroll price, he additionally allowed a median of 1.98 lengthy balls per 9 frames — third-highest in MLB amongst certified pitchers.
Lyles is incomes $8.5MM this season, and the Royals nonetheless have some inexperience of their rotation within the type of Marsh and Ragans. Sophomore struggles from both pitcher and/or accidents elsewhere within the rotation may result in Lyles beginning some video games even when he begins the yr in an extended reduction position.
