Royals’ Brady Singer feels like he’s ready to compete in the majors
Brady Singer knows enough to step out of line or step on any toes by proclaiming himself ready for the majors, but he’s also too darn competitive to say he’s not ready.
The Kansas City Royals’ top draft pick in 2018 and the top pitching prospects in their farm system according to MLBPipeline.com, Singer appeared a bit of a long shot to make the Opening Day roster before the pandemic.
However, he remained in big-league camp when MLB suspended spring training. He continued to impress when camp shifted to Kansas City, and he made a strong case that he’s among the best of the Royals’ starting pitching options going into a 60-game season where the pitching staff figures to get used in unconventional ways and clubs will begin the season with an expanded 30-player active roster.
The Royals wrapped up camp on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium. They’ll host the Houston Astros on Monday night and Tuesday afternoon in a pair of exhibition games. They’ll play their third and final exhibition game in St. Louis on Wednesday.
When asked about his chances of making the club, Singer, 23, deflected and said that decision wasn’t his to make. But when the 6-foot-5 right-hander with a reputation for being ultra-competitive was asked if he felt like he was prepared to compete in the majors, he didn’t shy away.
“I’ve been working on this for a long time,” Singer said. “I feel extremely good. I feel like this is the best I’m going to be, right now. I feel like I’ve worked on everything as much as I can. I feel 100 percent ready to go.”
Singer, who is not currently on the 40-man roster, earned the organization’s Double-A Pitcher of the Year award. He went 12-5 with a 2.85 ERA in 26 starts in his first professional season.
He struck out 138 and walked 39 in 148 1/3 innings. Opponents batted .247 against him and he registered a 1.19 WHIP between stints at High-A (10 starts) and Double-A (16 starts).
His first experience in major-league spring training featured a three-month interruption due to the COVID-19 coronanvirus pandemic. Singer said the extra time served him well.
“That was actually something that was actually super-beneficial to me, that break,” Singer said. “I learned so much in spring training and figured out what I needed to work on and then I had two months to go work on it. That’s exactly what I did.
“I continued to throw. I had some live (batting practices) and some bullpens in there during the break and got to work on a lot of things. Now, I feel stronger than ever. I feel better than I ever have. Everything is working really well.”
Singer features a strong fastball-slider combination, and he’s been working on making his changeup a more consistent pitch. On Saturday, Royals manager Mike Matheny discussed how the Singer’s need for a third pitch may be overstated because of the way he can manipulate his slider and make it work as more than one pitch.
Singer explained how he views his slider.
“I just call it a slider, but sometimes I can have a curveball and a slider that day,” Singer said. “I just manipulate the ball around and it works well.”
A tough spot
Royals right-hander Glenn Sparkman gave up three consecutive home runs in Saturday night’s intrasquad game against a trio of Jorge Soler, Alex Gordon and Maikel Franco.
Matheny sought to view the performance with some measure of nuance because Sparkman was throwing to a catcher who’d never caught before in super-utility player Erick Mejia.
Sparkman threw a live batting practice session with Mejia catching before he entered the intrasquad. Mejia caught Sparkman’s first inning in the game and Oscar Hernandez, who has played in the majors, caught the second inning.
“I think it’s just one of those great reminders of how much catchers do for you by knowing your stuff, knowing how to position. Erick is back there just trying to survive a little bit, and Sparky is trying to just walk him along.
“That second inning that we saw out on the big field, I thought Sparky did a real nice job. He started implementing his breaking stuff a little bit more. There’s that little bit of hesitancy, you don’t want to be bouncing stuff at a guy back there. All that kind of plays in. Sparky never said a word, gave an excuse. I’m giving it for him because I put him in a tough spot. He did a nice job coming out that second inning. It looked much more like him.”
Reynolds returns
Infielder Matt Reynolds returned to camp on Sunday. He’d been out with an unspecified injury since the start of camp. Signed as a minor-league free agent in November with an invitation to big-league spring training, Reynolds is not on the club’s 40-man roster.
Here’s Monty
Left-hander Mike Montgomery will start Monday’s exhibition game against the Houston Astros, while right-hander Glenn Sparkman is scheduled to start Tuesday against the Astros and rght-hander Jesse Hahan will start Wednesday in St. Louis.
While starting on Monday would appear to line up Montgomery to start the second game of the regular season on Saturday, Matheny said that’s not necessarily the case and that the coaching staff was still “sorting through” some things as far as pitching probables. He cautioned against reading anything into the starters for the exhibition games.
This story was originally published July 19, 2020 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Royals’ Brady Singer feels like he’s ready to compete in the majors."
