After a strong season within the Royals’ bullpen, left-hander Angel Zerpa is drawing commerce consideration from rival groups, MLB.com’s Anne Rogers writes. There isn’t any sense a deal is shut or even when Kansas Metropolis is open to shifting Zerpa, however Rogers notes that the Royals may deal from what appears to be a surplus of left-handed pitching.
Cole Ragans sits atop the Ok.C. rotation and clearly isn’t going anyplace, and Kris Bubic most likely received’t be dealt because the Royals need to see how he fares in a return to beginning pitching. Zerpa, Daniel Lynch IV, Sam Lengthy, and prospects Noah Cameron and Evan Sisk are the opposite left-handers on the Royals’ 40-man roster, with Rogers noting that Lynch and Cameron may even be competing for a rotation job in Spring Coaching.
Kansas Metropolis may want to see how the rotation competitors performs out earlier than making any choices on trades, as a way to gauge Bubic’s well being now that he’s a bit additional faraway from an April 2023 Tommy John surgical procedure, and to observe Kyle Wright’s return after he missed all of 2024 recovering from shoulder surgical procedure. There’s additionally the truth that Zerpa is not only one in every of a number of lefties, however he’s at present the highest left-handed possibility within the Royals bullpen. Given how the reduction corps was middling on the entire in 2024, the Royals may choose so as to add to the pen somewhat than subtract, particularly because the group’s pitching depth already took a success when Brady Singer was dealt to the Reds.
Nonetheless, there’s no hurt in listening to what groups may need to supply for the 25-year-old Zerpa, who’s team-controlled by means of the 2028 season. An newbie signing out of Venezuela in 2016, Zerpa has spent his complete profession within the Ok.C. group, and made it to the majors for a single look in the course of the 2021 season. The Royals shuttled him forwards and backwards from Triple-A a number of occasions in 2022-23, however Zerpa additionally handled two notable accidents — a patellar tendon tear in his proper knee reduce brief Zerpa’s 2022 season, and a shoulder downside saved him from making his 2023 debut till August.
With a 3.84 ERA in his first 58 2/3 innings (beginning six of 19 video games), Zerpa broke camp in 2024 in a full-fledged reduction position. He nearly matched his earlier profession ERA with a 3.86 ERA in 53 2/3 reduction frames final yr, together with an impressive 58.2% grounder price. Zerpa’s skill to maintain the ball on the bottom helped him paper over below-average strikeout (20.4) and stroll (8.3) charges, and however his .325 BABIP, plenty of the exhausting contact he allowed ended up staying on the bottom.
It isn’t your customary recipe for bullpen success, and so it appears believable the Royals may think about promoting excessive on Zerpa if one other membership has sufficient curiosity. Rogers means that rival groups may even be taking a look at returning Zerpa to a beginning position, which could additionally bump up his worth in commerce talks to some extent.
