Why Royals Starter's Dominant 1st Outing Could Be Game-Changer For 2025 Campaign
The Kansas City Royals scored 11 runs in a much-needed blowout win on Monday, but the offense wasn't the real story.
27-year-old lefty Kris Bubic was making his return to the starting rotation for the first time since 2023, and he didn't just meet expectations. He blew them completely out of the water, tossing six scoreless innings, allowing three hits, and striking out eight.
The Royals put a big bet on Bubic this offseason when they traded fellow starter Brady Singer to the Cincinnati Reds for leadoff man Jonathan India.
The former first-round pick had an ERA close to five as a starter in his career, but Kansas City was counting on the adjustments he made to his game last season, when he returned in July as a reliever coming off Tommy John surgery, carrying over into 2025.
It's only one game, but the results from Monday seem to indicate that all those adjustments are paying off for a player who is as big an x-factor as any on the Kansas City roster.
“Even throwing 90-plus pitches again -- it’s been a minute,” Bubic said postgame, per MLB.com's Anne Rogers. “It’s cool. But I think where I’ve matured a little bit is not making it bigger than it is. There’s no more [being] starstruck. I think now it’s just, ‘This is it, here it is, go get outs.’”
It's not only that Bubic has improved his arsenal over the past calendar year. He said himself that the lessons he learned in the bullpen are already translating to the rotation.
“Now it’s, ‘OK, I’m a reliever for one inning. The next inning, I’m a reliever for one inning,’” Bubic said. “It allows me to focus on the present a little more instead of looking ahead, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get this number of innings and pitches today,’ which in reality, it’s just a byproduct of what you do early in the game.”
The Royals made it to the playoffs last season because their starting rotation was deep enough to get them there. Whether they'll have that depth again rests squarely on Bubic's shoulders.
And so far, the returns couldn't be more promising.
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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