Ex-Braves 21-Game Winner Predicted To Make Royals' Rotation After Brady Singer Trade
It was a bold move for the Kansas City Royals to trade starting pitcher Brady Singer, but the vision behind the swap is beginning to come into full focus.
Last season, the Royals had four quality starters in Singer, Seth Lugo, Cole Ragans, and Michael Wacha. Wacha is back on a three-year extension, but moving Singer, which landed Kansas City a new leadoff hitter in Jonathan India, left two slots in the rotation up for grabs.
Part of that picture came into focus on Tuesday, when it was reported by The Athletic that Kris Bubic, who pitched out of the bullpen after returning from injury in 2024, was expected to make his way back to the Royals' rotation. After that, the fifth spot is slightly more complicated.
The Royals do have another internal candidate with experience from 2024 in Alec Marsh. However, the bigger name under consideration is Kyle Wright, the ex-Atlanta Braves star who had a sparkling 2022 season, then suffered a shoulder injury in 2023 that kept him from throwing a pitch this year.
On Wednesday, Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report predicted that Wright would occupy the fifth slot in the Royals' rotation, overcoming any remaining injury obstacles that might be standing in his way.
"The Kansas City rotation was a revelation in 2024, and the Royals opted to trade from an area of strength when they sent Brady Singer to Cincinnati in exchange for infielder Jonathan India," Reuter said.
"The open spot in the rotation is expected to be filled by Kyle Wright, who missed the entire 2024 season recovering from shoulder surgery. But he is not long removed from going 21-5 with a 3.19 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and 174 strikeouts in 180.1 innings in 2022 when he finished 10th in NL Cy Young voting."
Wright, 29, has six seasons of partial big-league experience, but 2022 was the only one in which he surpassed 0.2 bWAR. Banking on him to rediscover his excellent form from three years ago is risky, but could pay far more dividends than spending significant money on a back-end free-agent starter.
If the Royals still had Singer, Wright would be a nice bonus piece if he clicked. Now that he's being counted on to assume at least partial starting duties, however, it will be intriguing to see whether he can rise to the occasion.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org