It's all about pitching these days

The story in the early days of camp has been all about the pitching. As it should be.

If 2023 was a year of evaluation in Kansas City, the 2024 season is shaping up to be the year of the pitcher. At least, if this upcoming season is to be any kind of substantial improvement over what we’ve seen the last two seasons, it’s going to be all about the pitching. That’s where JJ Picollo and the front office focused much of their free agent firepower. The result is an overhauled bullpen and a rotation that is currently 3/5ths different from the one they opened with last year.

Everything hinges on the pitching. Everything.

With four spring training games under their belts, the Royals are 3-1 and have pitched back-to-back shutouts. It’s foolhardy to draw any kind of conclusions at this point in the exhibition season, but yeah…the pitching has looked strong.

Daniel Lynch IV opened the spring slate by reportedly popping his fastball between 93 to 91 MPH, which is about where the pitch was living last season. You would think with a few more outings as he gets into game shape he could add a tick or two to the velocity. Lynch struck out one in his inning of work.

On Sunday, it was Cole Ragans’ turn in the rotation against the Angels. It was the first time I was able to watch a game this spring and let’s just say that Ragans was incredibly impressive in his 2024 Cactus League debut. He spun two innings, striking out five. He allowed three hits, but those seemed to be sliders that just didn’t have enough movement. And it’s not like those hits were squared up. The Angles couldn’t make solid contact.

Every year I head into spring training repeating a mantra: I will not get bamboozled by a strong Cactus League performance. Then damn if Ragans didn’t look like he was dealing in August. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a breakout pitcher from the previous season show up and destroy a hitter’s collective will to live in his first outing in Arizona. (I probably have, but spring training games are an exercise in fungibility, so…)

Everything was working for Ragans on Sunday. From pumping first-pitch strikes to a wicked changeup to a fantastic tempo to really nice command, he looked in mid-season form. Ragans seemed pleased.

“Thought first pitch strikes were great. Thought I was commanding my stuff for the most part pretty well…It felt really good.”

He’s selling himself short. For the first outing of the spring, it was impressive. (I need to pace myself with this kind of praise. It’s February for crying out loud.)

Ragans is continuing to refine the slider he unveiled last year after his move to Kansas City. He’s also working on adding a two-seamer to his arsenal. Here’s his take on those two offerings:

“Slider felt…it felt good, but still some tweaks (to be made). The movement on it is not where I want it. That’s what I gave up the two hits in the second inning on. So the movement, still got some tweaking to do. Arm-wise, throwing it and stuff, felt great. Two-seam, I threw one. It was alright. Kind of came out a little weird. Trying to get comfortable with it, obviously it’s a really new pitch. Still trying to get the comfortable mindset with it, I mean obviously the more I throw it the more comfortable it’s going to get.”

I would agree with his assessment. But the changeup he threw was absolute filth. It’s not often you say that about a pitch in early spring training.

Monday, it was newcomer Seth Lugo’s turn to make his spring debut. This game wasn’t streaming anywhere, so I can only go off the postgame reports and Lugo’s own interview after his outing where he talked about the difficulty commanding his curve in the thin desert air. Still, it was a strong overall outing where he threw two innings, allowing a hit, a walk, a strikeout and a hit batter (on a wayward curve).

Lugo’s batterymate was his former teammate in San Diego and newest Royal, Austin Nola. After the game, Lugo said he has a good rapport with Nola behind the dish. Then dropped this nugget of info.

“I threw to him a lot last year, but I’ve had a couple of pitch upgrades since then so he got to see some of my new stuff that I didn’t use the last time I pitched with him…New sweeper, new cutter, new changeup since the last time I threw to him. The changeup and sweeper were (added) in the middle of the year last year. The cutter is this offseason.”

For reference, he is Lugo’s pitch mix from Statcast from last season.

If you were looking to summarize Lugo’s repitorire, I suppose you would say he’s a fastball/curve/sinker kind of pitcher. Yet his mix shows a lot more depth than that. He moved off the curve as the season progress, leaned a bit more on that changeup that he mentioned and then developed the sweeper, throwing it around 10 percent of the time over the final two months over the season. The slider is the fourth (or fifth, or sixth) pitch that a hitter has to be aware of.

Prior the game, manager Matt Quatraro spoke of how Lugo has been the guy who has been everywhere this spring.

“(First impressions of Lugo have been) great. More than I could’ve hoped as far as what he’s contributing to the other pitchers. First of all he’s an incredible athlete…pick moves, fielding his position, all that kind of stuff. But he’s also been super involved…He’s watching every live BP. He’s watching every bullpen. He’s sharing, interacting…It’s been really cool.”

Lugo sounds like a true student of his craft. That’s something I can get behind. Again, process doesn’t always lead to the desired results, but when someone is as dialed in as Lugo seems to be about how to attack hitters, you have to appreciate the thoughtfulness.

Here’s Lugo on the development of that cutter this winter.

“With the new cutter it’s just to give hitters a different look. I feel like in this game it’s important to come up with new stuff, give hitters different looks especially guys you’ve been facing ten-plus years. It’s always nice to have a new weapon when you’re facing familiar faces.”

He threw the pitch three times in his two innings. He also noted he threw it once in a bullpen earlier in camp. It’s clearly still a work in progress, but if he becomes comfortable enough to offer it a handful of times in a game that gives him seven pitches at his disposal. Seven.

It’s early days, but I’m impressed with Lugo. Feels like the Royals nabbed a good one in free agency.

The under the radar guy in camp would be non-roster invitee Walter Pennington who has faced six batters and struck out all six. That’s how you pitch your way into the conversation.

A lefty, Pennington features a plus slider. He split time between Double and Triple-A last summer, striking out over 25 percent of batters he faced in both stops.

He’s a longshot to make the team, but you have to get noticed to get thrown into the mix. I’d say that with his first two outings, Pennington has caught my attention.