Here’s why Kansas City Royals continue to back Cal Eldred as pitching coach

Kansas City Royals pitching coach Cal Eldred’s job is safe.

Despite this week’s move that ousted Terry Bradshaw from his previous post as major-league hitting coach for sub-par results, the club’s front office decision makers are standing by the coach responsible for a staff that entered Tuesday with the American League’s worst team ERA, WHIP, strikeouts per 9 innings and strikeout-to-walk ratio.

There’s no refuting the Royals’ significant offensive woes. When they pulled the trigger on replacing Bradshaw, the Royals ranked 27th of 30 MLB teams in on-base percentage and 28th in OPS.

Heading into their recent nine-game road trip, the Royals averaged a MLB-low 3 runs per game (they scored an average of 5.3 runs per game and homered in three straight games during the trip).

Meanwhile, general manager J.J. Picollo and president of baseball operations Dayton Moore have taken the blame for the pitching struggles.

Why the difference?

One factor is the Royals’ hitting group has much more relative experience. The lineup regularly includes as many as five players 30 or older with significant experience in the majors in Salvador Perez, Carlos Santana, Hunter Dozier, Michael A. Taylor and Merrifield.

That represents more than half the hitters in the lineup on a given day. That doesn’t include left fielder Andrew Benintendi, who has played in parts of seven major-league seasons but is still just 27.

“I think it’s a totally different animal,” Picollo said. “A completely different animal. Four out of every five nights, we’re running out a starter that’s 26 years old or younger with not many starts in their career. You take Zack (Greinke) out of this and Brad Keller has got the most starts.

“The rest of them are still learning their way. It’s really hard for any pitcher to break into the major leagues and dominate.”

Keller, 26, entered this season having thrown 494 total innings in the majors and having appeared in 104 games with 83 starts since 2018.

Brady Singer (39 starts, 192 2/3 innings), Kris Bubic (39 games, 30 starts, 180 innings), Daniel Lynch (15 starts, 68 innings), Carlos Hernandez (29 games, 14 starts, 100 1/3 innings) and Jonathan Heasley (three starts, 14 2/3 innings) had combined for less than 560 innings and barely more than 100 starts in the majors entering this season.

“We knew that young starting pitchers — they’re going to go through these ups and downs,” Picollo said. “You want them to make strides. Right now, Daniel Lynch is throwing the ball pretty good. That’s a positive. Carlos Hernandez was throwing the ball pretty good last year. Kris Bubic, once he went back in the rotation, was throwing the ball pretty good (last year). They’re all showing signs of being able to do it, now it’s just doing it consistently.

“It’s not like guys have come up here and shown no ability to pitch in the major leagues at all. They’ve shown some ability. Now, it’s our job to get it out of them on a more consistent basis. That just comes with time.”

By comparison, AL division leaders New York, Minnesota and Houston each have multiple starters who are 27 or older. They all also have multiple pitchers in their rotation who were acquired from outside of their organization.

The Tampa Bay Rays, who many view as a small market model of success, hasn’t developed its own starting rotation either. Of their four starters (not including openers), only one has been an entirely homegrown product, and they have two veterans 30 or older.

Not only has the Royals front office asked the coaching staff to develop young and inexperienced pitchers, but they’ve also primarily stuck with their own pitchers and pushed them aggressively through the farm system.

“The pitching is on me,” Moore said. “We rushed our young pitchers to the major leagues because I had such great confidence in Mike Matheny, Cal Eldred and (bullpen coach) Larry Carter’s belief in them and their desire to have them, knowing we’re in uncharted waters with COVID and trying to develop guys.”

Prior to the pandemic, which wiped out a year of Minor League Baseball, none of those five had pitched above Double-A. Yet the Royals jumped Singer and Bubic to the majors in 2020. Hernandez hadn’t even been part of the original 60-man alternate site group, but the Royals decided to jump him to the majors at the end of that season.

“We knew we would have to develop them at the major-league level,” Moore said. “When you try to develop a lot of pitchers at the major-league level, it’s a very difficult chore, a very difficult task — not impossible — but it’s a huge, huge challenge.”