Less pressure may help Singer

This offseason Kansas City's front office added a ton of pitching to the starting rotation and to the bullpen. And Brady Singer may be the biggest beneficiary of all the signings. The additions of Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha will hopefully take some weight off the former first round pick. Although the team added two pieces to the rotation, Singer must have a big impact in the rotation this upcoming season. The Royals avoided arbitration with the right-hander on a one-year deal worth $4.85 million. Singer is penciled in as a member of the starting rotation possibly as the fourth starter with Jordan Lyles being the fifth. Royals fans will likely see the following: 

1. Michael Wacha 

2. Cole Ragans 

3. Seth Lugo 

4. Brady Singer 

5. Jordan Lyles 

The combined $77 million dollars spent on Lugo and Wacha put them in the first and third spots in the rotation. Singer is entering his fifth big league season, and the past four years he was viewed as the team's number one before the team acquired Cole Ragans from the Rangers last season. Many fans view Ragans as the team's number one starter; however, with Wacha in the mix that very well bumps Ragans to the number two slot. What do Wacha and Ragans have to do with Singer possibly having a bounce back year, or maybe even a career year? With the two additions to the rotation, Singer in my opinion, can take a great amount of stress off his shoulders of having to be the top pitcher in the rotation like many fans and maybe even some in the Royals front office did when he was drafted. Although much of the pressure may be off Singer, he still has to go out every fifth day and have quality starts. With some of the pressure being lifted off the 27-year old, the right-hander will look a bit different with the addition of a few new pitches to his arsenal. Singer this spring has added a four seamer and a sweeper to go along with his other three pitches. Singer's arsenal will look something like this heading into the season:

fastball 

slider

changeup

four seam fastball 

sweeper 

Up to this point in his career, Singer owns an ERA of 4.49. And last season his ERA was way above 4.00 with a disappointing 5.52; but Singer showed he has swing and miss stuff with 133 punchouts. Aside from the strikeouts, Singer had a pretty rough year. Health added to the 27-year old's struggles in 2023. Singer himself believes he can improve this upcoming season as well: "Just learning how to get through the ups and downs of a really long season,” Singer said. “I kind of went through a lot of that last year trying to stay consistent more and more throughout the past year.” Before adding two pitches to his arsenal in the offseason, he was primarily a two pitch type of pitcher. Many believe the right-hander relied too much on his sinker and slider. If you know baseball well enough, some veteran pitchers might add a pitch to their arsenal to throw off the hitter, and Singer is doing it pretty early in his career. Some fans believe the right-hander missing most of spring training last season while with Team USA at the 2023 World Baseball Classic had a negative impact on his year. Singer will now have a full spring training under his belt when the season begins. Singer's spring training numbers this year after three games are awful with an ERA of 7.36. Thankfully it's just spring training stats, but Singer can’t allow his spring training struggles to follow him into the regular season. Before his struggles in the spring, the 27-year old was confident that he would have a good season: "I feel really good. I feel healthy, ready to go and had a good offseason,” Singer said. “I was a full-time dad, but I obviously learned to get better, try to figure out some new pitches.” Both fans and Singer himself expect him to have a good season like he did back in 2022 when he posted an ERA of 3.23. Unfortunately for young pitchers like Singer, the Royals don't have as long of a leash with young players as they once did under Dayton Moore. If Singer can return to his 2022 form, the Royals rotation will likely be one of, if not the best in the American League Central this upcoming season. 











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