Bubba Starling announces his retirement
The former first round selection is stepping away from the game after 10 years in the organization.
We should begin with this “in case you missed it” moment, because I think most of us definitely missed it.
Let’s hop into Peabody’s Wayback Machine and travel back to June, 2011. The Process had yet to fully take shape but the bats were progressing throughout the minors and were starting to arrive in Kansas City. The rumor ahead of the MLB draft was that the Royals, seeking to quickly supplement those bats, were focused on college pitching. (Sounds kind of familiar.) The draft was taking shape well ahead of the first pick. There was a solid consensus on the top six players available. Starling was the top prep bat in the draft, but the headliners were the pitchers. There were four who were touted at top-five material: Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer from UCLA, Danny Hultzen from Virginia and high schooler Dylan Bundy. The top college bat was Anthony Rendon from Rice.
With four pitchers expected to go early, the Royals would require help to get one of those arms to fall to their selection at number five. The industry consensus was the Royals were hoping that one of the three college arms would be available. It was supposed to work out that way. The buzz had the Mariners, with the second pick, coveting Rendon. That would allow the Royals to nab the remaining pitcher of the quartet with their first-round pick.
The Pirates held the first pick and went for Cole. Then the Mariners surprisingly passed on Rendon and selected Hultzen. When Bauer and Bundy went with the next two picks, the Royals were on the clock and all of the premium pitchers were off the board.
I’ve often wondered about the Royals’ true strategy in this draft…If they were, in fact, going for a pitcher, but planned for this scenario—if there was a Plan B if all of the pitchers were off the board. Or was it truly the hope that they could grab Starling with the fifth pick. Really, it was too good of a story. Hometown kid gives up a football scholarship to patrol the outfield at Kauffman Stadium. Starling fit the Royals mold in that he was a capital “A” athlete. The fact that he was from Gardner-Edgerton was just a fantastic piece of the story.
The Royals signed Starling for a $7.5 million bonus, the second-highest amount given to a pick that year. (Cole got $8 million from Pittsburgh.) He was rated as the 24th best prospect by Baseball America ahead of the 2012 season and the 35th best prospect prior to 2013.
Starling got his professional career off to a strong start. He hit .275/.371/.485 for the Rookie League Burlington Royals in 2012. That performance saw him named to the Appalachian League All-Star team at the end of the season. In 2013, Starling was promoted to A-ball and the Lexington Legends. The results were decent—he hit .241/.329/.398—but with 128 strikeouts in 498 plate appearances, you started to hear rumblings that he was having difficulty reading pitches. He underwent laser-eye surgery that summer.
The performance in Lexington saw the luster fully removed from his prospect shine. He dropped from top 100 lists. Baseball America rated him as the eighth-best prospect in the /organization/ ahead of 2014. That year he went to the brutal hitting environment of Wilmington. Unsurprisingly, his offensive output cratered. He hit .218/.304/.338 with 150 whiffs in 549 plate appearances.
Despite the struggles, Starling received a non-roster invite to 2015 spring training but was assigned once again to Wilmington. This time, he dominated, hitting .386/.471/.614 through 51 plate appearances before getting the bump to Double-A Northwest Arkansas. There, he hit .254/.318/.426 with 91 strikeouts in 366 plate appearances. That performance earned him a spot on the Royals’ 40-man roster that winter to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.
Starling opened 2016 back in Northwest Arkansas and continued to scuffle. Despite hitting .185/.251/.322, he was bumped to Triple-A Omaha in early July. He didn’t fare any better after the promotion, hitting .181/.213/.265.
Apologies for the recitation of his minor league stats, but those really do tell the story of his career. He struggled frequently and the Royals still brought him along, following their process, making adjustments to his batting stance and hoping…hoping that he would be able to put that athleticism together into becoming a productive hitter. But after five seasons in the organization, it was painfully obvious that it just wasn’t going to happen.
From there, Starling was a fixture in the Omaha lineup over the next two seasons. By this time, it was clear that Starling just wasn’t going to hit enough to be a regular major leaguer—or even a fourth outfielder. The defense and the speed—that athleticism the Royals covet—clearly played. He was a major league-ready defender by his second or third professional season. But the bat always betrayed him.
Twice, Starling was released by the Royals when they needed his roster spot for someone else ahead of the Rule 5 draft. He signed minor league contracts both times to remain with the organization. He made his major league debut on July 12, 2019, against the Detroit Tigers as the center fielder, batting seventh. He recorded his first major league hit (and RBI) the following evening.
That actually kicked off an 11 game hitting streak. But after that, it was one rough night at the plate after another.
Some may be tempted to call Starling a bust because he didn’t live up to the expectations normally associated with the fifth overall pick in the draft. He wasn’t helped by the fact Rendon, picked next at number six, has posted a 32.2 bWAR over his entire career, the most of any first-rounder from the 2011 draft. In fact, Starling’s -1.8 bWAR is the worst of any first rounder from the 2011 draft. But I have to give Starling credit. He stuck with the game when he could’ve walked away. He wasn’t good enough to hold down a regular job in The Show, but he still got there. Overall (counting supplemental picks) 17 players were drafted in the first round in 2011 and never played a game in the majors. Starling played for his hometown team, in front of his family and friends. That’s the dream, isn’t it? The results weren’t there and the journey was difficult, but in a way just by reaching the majors, he still had a successful career.
The kid made it to the show which is more than I ever did or ever will.
I agree with you - he worked hard and kept at it. He's no HOF'er but congratulations to him for chasing and living out part of his dream!
Always sorry Bubba didn't work out. Interesting to play a little "what if?" If the Royals had selected Rendon, he broke into the majors in 2013, and has played 3rd and 2nd in the bigs. We theoretically could have seen him at 2nd and Moose at 3rd as the Royals were gearing up for their back-to-back series years. Rendon instead of Getz and Infante during those years? Would his bat have made just enough of a difference in the '14 series? He was hurt the first part of 2015, but returned and would have been part of the 2015 Championship.