Kris Bubic could soon become Kansas City's secret weapon

After the Royals fired pitching coach Cal Eldred in the fall of 2022, the organization brought in Brian Sweeney and Zach Bove to enthusiastically overhaul the pitching coaching and overall philosophy. Even though long-term results were most important, Royals fans still awaited early returns, and Kris Bubic quickly became a revelation.

Bubic was drafted alongside Brady Singer, Daniel Lynch, Jackson Kowar and Jonathan Bowlan as highly touted college pitchers in the 2018 MLB Draft. He made his debut during the shortened 2020 season, and his first three years have been difficult to say the least. In 2022, he posted an unsightly 5.58 ERA, and it looked like his starting days were over.

But then Sweeney and Bove taught Bubic new tricks, and Bubic looked like a completely different pitcher to start 2023. In his first three seasons, Bubic threw a three-pitch arsenal: fastball, changeup, curveball. Royals fans were delighted to witness Bubic's fourth pitch, a slider, on April 4 against Toronto.

During that start and his next start against the San Francisco Giants, Bubic pitched 11 innings and had 13 strikeouts against a single walk, allowing only one extra base hit. Bubic threw his new slider about 20% of the time. We haven't seen such improvement from a pitcher in a long time.

Unfortunately, Bubic left his third start of 2023 with an injury, which turned out to be a UCL injury that required Tommy John surgery. It seemed unfair to witness one of the most intriguing cases of player development in recent memory only to have it taken away from us.

Fortunately, the wait is over. Bubic made three appearances in the Arizona League beginning on May 7. In those three innings, Bubic struck out seven. The Royals then moved his rehab to Double-A Northwest Arkansas, where he allowed one (1) baserunner in three innings of work.

Bubic pitched one more game for the Naturals before the Royals clobbered him again, this time against the Triple-A Storm Chasers. Bubic was excellent once again, pitching 3.2 innings, striking out seven and allowing just two baserunners.

It appears that Bubic's return to the Royals is imminent in the coming weeks. If this was last year, the Royals would bring him back as quickly as possible. Fortunately, the Royals have a real big league rotation – and not just a real one, but the second-best rotation in the league. None of the pitchers in the rotation are likely to lose their spot anytime soon, and of those players, only Alec Marsh is a real possibility this year.

So what will Bubic's role be? We'll likely see him in the bullpen, which has plenty of open spots. Among lefties, Will Smith is probably toast, and Angel Zerpa has been good, but his ERA/FIP split suggests he's about to experience some regression. And even among righties, only James McCarthur and John Schreiber have defined roles.

Regardless, sometimes it just takes a few tweaks to take a pitcher to the next level, and Bubic is almost certainly better than at least a few pitchers currently on the roster. Getting it back will be a real help for the long marathon of the season.