It has been no secret that the Royals have struggled to develop starting pitching under Dayton Moore, and those struggles have continued, despite what was supposed to be a stellar college pitching draft class in 2018. The crop did yield Brady Singer, who has turned the corner to become a solid performer this year, but other pitchers from that class have regressed and the Royals find themselves with few solid rotation options going into 2023. Currently, Royals starters have a 4.77 ERA, fourth worst in baseball, with the sixth-worst walk rate, and fifth-lowest strikeout rate.
The pitfalls in the Royals’ pitching development practices were detailed this week in an excellent piece at The Athletic written by three former Royals beat writers - Rustin Dodd, Andy McCullough, and Alec Lewis.