Lyles is an important piece for next season
Last year the Royals rotation consisted of:
Zack Greinke
Brady Singer
Cole Ragans
Alec Marsh
Daniel Lynch
Castillo, Keller and a few others made a few starts for the Royals. Heading into next season, Jordan Lyles is likely the weak link of the Royals rotation and rightfully so. The right-hander has a career ERA of 5.24, and last season it was even worse as the 33-year old posted an ERA of 6.28. The long ball continues to hurt Lyles in his career. Last offseason the Royals signed Lyles to a 2-year deal worth $17 million guaranteed. Kansas City made it clear when they signed Lyles his job was to be the workhorse of the rotation: "The reason we’re excited about Jordan and Ryan,” Picollo said, “is when we look at their track record, they’ve been able to pitch significant innings. We’re going into this season thinking between the two of them we can secure or stabilize 300 innings, which is a pretty good chunk between two pitchers.” Obviously Yarbrough is no longer with the team, but he originally only signed a one-year deal with the Royals before being dealt to the Dodgers last season. As mentioned earlier, Lyles signed a two-year deal, meaning the Royals expected the right-hander to be a member of the rotation this upcoming season whether Royals fans like it or not. Kansas City also has a couple of pitchers coming back next season from injury. Kris Bubic is coming back from Tommy John surgery and Daniel Lynch is recovering from a shoulder injury he suffered in the second half of the season last year. Although I am saying Lyles is an important part of the rotation, he is still a guy that will continue to have an ERA above a high four; but if he stays healthy he will get close to cracking 200 innings for Kansas City. Baseball writers aren't the only ones who have taken notice of how Lyles continues to get starting gigs in the big leagues despite the awful stats, and he will continue to after his tenure with the Royals is up. An article from The Guardian sums up the right-hander's career: "How Jordan Lyles made a $50m career out of the art of losing." The Guardian also quoted Lyles saying: "It was another reminder that shaking hands after games is a lot of fun,” a relieved Lyles said afterward. “Obviously, we haven’t done that when I’ve [started]. It feels really good to win.'' If you have followed the Royals long enough, you should know that they have a hard time developing quality starting pitchers and signing top of the line starters besides this offseason. I mentioned earlier in the article, that Lyles is the workhorse of the rotation Royals general manager J.J Picollo said almost the exact same thing when the team signed the veteran starter: "What it’s done is stabilize our pitching and create a lot of competition for spots in our rotation,” executive vice president/general manager J.J. Picollo said. “Jordan will occupy one of those spots, but the competition that will be created is important to us and how we take our next step forward. [Lyles] has shown in the last two years that he can really handle a heavy workload.” The word “workload” should explain to Royals fans enough to why the team signed the right-hander. Lyles himself mentioned the following when he signed with Kansas City. "The first thing that stuck out to me and my agent was the interest level from JJ and Scott, the interest level early and being consistent with that throughout the process and always keeping us in the loop just the quality of people I have had conversations with means a lot to me when you sign a multi-year deal, going to a city for multiple years, you wanna be in the best situation baseball wise but you also want to be comfortable lifestyle wise, I've always enjoyed coming to Kansas City as a visitor, always loved standing on that mound, and knowing that it is a pretty spacious outfield, having Salvador back there, playing against him the past ten years, I've always thought it would be pretty neat to go over lineups and try to get through lineups with him." Why did I mention what Lyles said about signing with Kansas City? The right-hander never brought up what he will bring to the team. He knows his job and doesn't care what the haters say. Unfortunately, many Royals fans are too stubborn to realize he wasn't brought in to have a nice ERA. Yeah that would be nice, but his main job, as I have mentioned time and time again along with other baseball writers, is that Lyles has been around for years to eat innings. So what are my expectations for Lyles next season? Not much different from what he did last season except maybe have a 5.00 ERA instead of 6.00. My main expectation for the right-hander next season is that he leads the team in innings pitched; and who knows, maybe with the additions of relievers Will Smith, Chris Stratton, and Nick Anderson will improve Lyles stats a little bit. Maybe the new additions to the bullpen can get through innings without giving up too many runs and give Lyles the chance to post the best numbers of his career.
