The Opening Day pitching staff for the Kansas City Royals is beginning to take shape, although the scourge of COVID-19 has made preparations for Manager Mike Matheny more challenging than expected.
On the good news front, right-hander Brad Keller has returned to Royals Summer Camp after producing two negative COVID-19 tests at least 24 hours apart. He returned to the team for Friday’s workout at Kauffman Stadium, and participated in a Zoom call with media members that evening.
Heading into this weekend’s season opening series at Cleveland, the Royals are attempting to work on stretching out Keller’s workload. While throwing in Cleveland doesn’t look realistic, Kansas City is hopeful that Keller could be ready for a four-game series starting Monday, July 27th in Detroit. For Cleveland, it had appeared that Danny Duffy, Jakob Junis, and Mike Montgomery would get the starts.
However, Junis is out of the picture, at least for awhile, as the right-hander was placed on the Royals Injured List on Monday. Junis is continuing to prepare for the 2020 season with the team, but his recovery from COVID-19 has been slower than expected. He had been among the initial group of players not reporting for the opening of camp after receiving a positive test. He was cleared to return just over a week ago, but the Royals staff deemed him “not yet ready for regular season competition”.
The early season hole in the rotation could mean opportunity for one of the bright young pitching lights in the Royals farm system, as Brady Singer, the #2 prospect for Kansas City, according to MLB Pipeline, has been performing to rave reviews, both in February in Arizona, and this month at Kauffman Stadium. Singer met with the media via Zoom on Sunday afternoon, saying whatever occurs between now and Friday, he is enjoying his experience with the big-league club:
Singer threw four shutout innings in an intrasquad game on Friday night. The uncertainty with the time involved in Keller’s return to the rotation, along with Junis’ trip to the injured list, certainty have boosted Singer’s chances of being in the dugout on Friday night.
Two more Royals tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, with catcher Nick Dini and left-hander Daniel Tillo receiving that news. Tillo, just 24 hours earlier, had undergone an MRI, revealing damage to the UCL in his left elbow. The injury to Tillo, who is expected to seek a second opinion, came at a difficult time, with catcher Cam Gallagher out with COVID-19 while fellow backstop Meibrys Viloria was just reinstated from the injured list.
Added to the Royals 60-man player pool over the weekend was career minor-leaguer, 25-year old pitcher Jake Brentz. He will head for the team’s satellite camp at T-Bones Stadium in Kansas City, Kansas. Brentz has played the last six seasons with the Toronto, Seattle, and Pittsburgh organizations. He was released by the Pirates last summer.
