Six solutions to the Royals’ most annoying problem

No, I don’t have a solution for the parking pass prices.

Now that MJ Melendez has been safely demoted to terrorize Storm Chasers fans, Royals fans have turned their icy gaze upon another underperforming Royal. Chris Stratton has appeared in nine games, and though the Royals have won two of those and he still sports a 0-0 record, he’s taking the brunt of the fan displeasure as the Royals have hovered around .500 for much of the season.

Sure, he doesn’t have a record, so you could make a reasonable argument that it isn’t his fault the team has lost seven of the nine games he has pitched in, but on a staff where every other pitcher has shown flashes of being quite good, the fact that he has allowed runs in six of those nine appearances, and multiple runs in five of those, it’s easy to see why Royals fans would like him gone.

By the way, it doesn’t make sense for manager Matt Quatraro to take the blame for all the times he’s pitched. Q has limited input on which guys are on the roster, and as long as Stratton is on the roster, he’s going to have to pitch him at least occasionally. I think it’s a credit to Q that Stratton has primarily pitched in games where the outcome was already likely decided. The only Royals pitcher with a lower Average Game Leverage Index (a stat that attempts to measure how uncertain the outcome is when a pitcher arrives to the mound) is Jonathan Bowlan.

In that sense, Stratton probably isn’t hurting the Royals much. But it sure feels like he is. Despite the low leverage innings, he is still third-worst on the Royals in Win Probability Added (WPA, which measures the difference in a team’s win probability before and after the player’s efforts). Angel Zerpa and Sam Long are much worse, but they have also been given much higher leverage situations to pitch in. When they screwed up, it hurt the team worse, and cost them more Win Probability.

When the Royals demoted Jonathan Bowlan before Noah Cameron’s Major League Debut on Wednesday, I theorized on social media and on the Royals Rundown podcast that perhaps the Royals simply felt they had to hold on to Stratton because there weren’t enough major league-ready relief options in the minor leagues. So I went looking. That’s wrong. Here’s every pitcher the Royals could be using instead of Chris Stratton.

Taylor Clarke

Clarke was the Royals’ next choice up from the minor leagues when they demoted Noah Cameron. Evan Sisk or Jonathan Bowlan might have made more sense, but there is a 15-day waiting period after optioning a player to the minor leagues before he can be recalled unless there is an injury. He hasn’t pitched particularly well in Omaha, but he had a good spring, and he’s a veteran pitcher, which can count for something sometimes.

Listen, he wouldn’t be my first choice, but he has two scoreless outings so far, so he’s still a better choice.

Jonathan Bowlan (on May 15)

As noted above, Bowlan was demoted prior to Cameron’s debut. That makes him eligible to return on May 15. If I had had my way, Stratton would have been cut before that game, Bowlan would have remained on the roster, and then they could have recalled Clarke without having to first move James McArthur to the 60-day IL.

Bowlan hasn’t been a particularly effective big league pitcher, but a shift to the bullpen late last year had him showing some promise, he had a great spring, and in the two innings he pitched before being demoted again, he faced six batters and got them all out. There might still be something there. Something that does not appear to be true for the current iteration of Stratton.

Andrew Hoffmann (would have to be added to the 40-man roster)

This is the guy most Royals writers and many Royals fans would have rather added to the roster and recalled instead of Taylor Clarke. Like Bowlan, he was shifted to a relief role late last season. He didn’t immediately take to it, but his last 10 appearances, spanning 17 innings, saw him sport a 2.65 ERA. This season, he has been dominant in Omaha with a 32.3% K-BB% and a 2.30 ERA across 15.2 innings in 11 outings. He’s fairly demanding the Royals give him a shot, but Chris Stratton continues to pitch instead.

Evan Sisk (on May 10)

Sisk has already been up once this season and was demoted to allow Bowlan to join the team when the Royals felt they needed more right-handed pitchers to face the Astros. Sisk has bedeviled AAA hitters since the start of last season, holding a sub-2.00 ERA all last year and so far this year. His K-BB% isn’t quite as impressive as Hoffmann’s, but it’s still very good. In the two games he’s pitched in MLB, he’s struggled with allowing baserunners, but he’s also struck out five in 2.1 innings, aka seven outs. He’s shown he won’t be overwhelmed by the moment; his debut was in Yankee Stadium, for goodness’ sake!

Austin Cox

Cox is a lot like Clarke, a veteran arm who has pitched for KC before, but from the left side. Not the best option, maybe not even a good option, but better than Stratton.

EDITOR’S UPDATE: Austin Cox was released over the weekend.

Ryan Brady

Brady came to the team when the Brewers traded for Taylor Clarke. Along with the deal that sent Michael A. Taylor to the Twins for Sisk and Stephen Cruz, he represents a bright future where the Royals seem to be able to get solid wins when trading marginal talent, but that’s a topic for another time.

Brady hasn’t gotten much play as a prospect, but he made it on FanGraphs’ top 42 Royals prospects list from last July as a prospect of note. He has been solid in Omaha this year after beginning the season in Northwest Arkansas and earning an early promotion.

Per the linked FanGraphs article, he’s always suppressed home runs, but that suddenly changed when the Royals acquired him. If you believe that’s likely a small sample-size fluke, you’d think the numbers were even more impressive.

All of this is likely moot. As noted in the title, this problem is more one of annoyance than true damage to the club. Also, Hunter Harvey is beginning his rehab assignment this week. Hopefully he won’t need a long time in Omaha, and there’s no better than a 50/50 shot Stratton keeps his job once Harvey returns.

Even if they cut Clarke instead, will the Royals really keep Bowlan and Sisk in Omaha after their wait periods end after how well they pitched and how poorly Stratton has pitched? I like to think they’re not that foolish. I hope they’re not that foolish.

Please tell me they’re not that foolish.