The Kansas City Royals celebrate as a team after defeating the Baltimore Orioles 4-1 on April 6, 2025|Photo Credit: Tarik Sykes

Ladies and gentlemen, Kris Bubic is on fire to start the season. He has been the only bright spot with a rotation that hasn’t exactly been nails.

Bubic turned in just the third quality start for this Royals staff and he’s had two of them.

He’s had eight strikeouts in back-to-back starts and he looked like he was in complete control on the mound.

He tossed 6 2/3 innings and only allowed one run. His changeup and slider were fantastic as he was able to throw his changeup and get a 45% chase rate with it. I also noticed he was getting that back door slider in for a strike a lot and the numbers back me up as he found the zone with it 65% of the time which is excellent.

It’s only two starts, but Bubic has shown high-level ability and he may be ready to break out for this team. He was a first-round pick and part of army of college arms the Royals drafted in 18’. If Bubic can stay healthy for the majority of the year and keep up his impressive numbers, the Royals will again have one of if not the best starting rotation in the Majors.

After Bubic departed, we saw what should be the A-Team in the bullpen go to work; Hunter Harvey, Lucas Erceg and Carlos Estévez. The trio (we still need a name for those guys) has been fantastic to start the year teaming up for 12 innings pitched, 14 strikeouts and just three walks (all from Estévez).

The back end of the bullpen is almost at set-it-and-forget-it territory, but there are still some guys that are struggling to find their footing most notably Sam Long and Angel Zerpa. I wouldn’t be surprised if Royals Manager Matt Quatraro started turning to Daniel Lynch and John Schreiber before the aforementioned Sam Long and Angel Zerpa. If I was the Royals, I would think about bringing up Luinder Avila to the bullpen to replace Long or Zerpa if they keep struggling. Avila was a player the Royals loved during Spring Training and can reach 99 mph with his fastball. He could become another high-powered weapon at the Royals’ disposal.

Offensively, there were some good things to take away from the 4-2 contest. Bobby Witt Jr may finally be heating up as he was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle. 96.5 The Fan’s Josh Vernier mentioned that it was the 11th time in his young career he’s been one-leg shy of the cycle and he’s not even 25 yet.

That triple from Bobby started a “keep the line moving” special as Vinnie Pasqauntino drove BWJ in with a sacrifice fly. Salvy and Mark Canha both reached base with singles, and then Michael Massey had a big at-bat in the bottom of the first cashing in on a scoring chance driving in two and pushed the lead to 3-0.

Freddy Fermín drove in Maikel Garcia to plate another run and that was all the Royals needed in this one.

It was a promising day for the offense, but could still use consistency with their outfield bats. No one in their outfield has shown any capability to be productive at the plate. For as good as their starting rotation is, their outfield is on the other complete opposite end of the spectrum. It is the weakest group in the American League and arguably the National League too. The Royals will have no choice but to do something about the outfield later in the summer via trade.

Jac Caglianone could be on his way to KC soon, but he’s working as a first baseman in AA and has yet to get any reps in the outfield, although fans have clamored for the Royals to move him to patch up an immediate hole in the Major League roster. I would caution against rushing him through the Minors and making him learn a new position in only a couple months time. I want Caglianone to come up and be a weapon, I don’t want him to feel like he’s the savior. I do not want Cags learning a new position AND learning Major League pitching at the same time. If he does make it the the Royals this summer, he needs to stick with first base and DH. Next season, after he gets his feet wet would be the time for him to learn a corner outfield spot.

In the meantime, the Royals need to think about possible trades that could fix the outfield. Caglianone is off the table but anyone else in the farm system can be had. They might even have to part ways with some major league talent to do it.

Next up on Bank On It!, we’ll preview the Royals next series against the Minnesota Twins.