How KC Royals closer Lucas Erceg became a high-leverage ace as ALDS begins in NY
Ahead of the 2024 MLB trade deadline, Kansas City Royals general manager J.J. Picollo scoured the market for a power arm.
The Royals had struggled to get high-leverage outs late in too many games. Relief pitchers Will Smith and James McArthur were shuffled into, and out of, the closer’s role.
The solution remained elusive, so Picollo looked outside the Royals organization. He landed on Lucas Erceg, a young right-handed reliever with the Oakland Athletics.
Erceg had all the tools for high-leverage pitching. He thew a four-seam fastball that touched 98 mph alongside a sinker, slider and changeup. The A’s were using him in a setup role for rookie phenom Mason Miller.
While the Royals loved Erceg’s physical characteristics, they were equally enamored by his competitive spirit and mental capacity.
Picollo decided he needed to see Erceg in a Royals uniform. So KC acquired Erceg from the Athletics in exchange for three minor-league prospects and instantly handed him an important late-inning role.
“Everything we heard about him from the people in Oakland, and all the intel we tried to dig up, was his competitiveness is what stood out,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “He has not backed down from any of those challenges.”
The primary one: Close out games without blowing leads.
“You don’t know how he is going to respond in those moments where he is the closer,” Picollo said. “But I think what he has gone through over the last two months gives us a lot of confidence that we do have a closer.”
Indeed, Erceg seemed to check every box for the Royals down the stretch. He posted a 2.88 ERA and 12 saves in 23 relief appearances following the trade to KC. He struck out 31 men in 25 innings while walking just three.
In the American League Wild-Card Series against the Baltimore Orioles, Erceg earned two saves as the Royals won their first playoff games since 2015.
Erceg is the Royals’ closer, and closer of the future, too. It’s a role for which he is grateful and wants to keep making his own.
“The more I have gone out in those situations, I have gotten more comfortable,” he said. “But at the end of the day, man, it’s just you’re playing baseball in front of a ton of people. It’s a cool moment to be in. I just like to take it all in before I get going.”
Erceg is stepping onto the biggest stage of his major-league career now as the Royals open a best-of-five American League Division Series against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium in New York.
With some 50,000 fans expected on hand for Saturday’s Game 1 of the ALDS, Erceg will almost certainly be called upon in the most critical moments of one or more contests to come against the Yankees.
Erceg said his experience as a former position player allows him to compartmentalize the situation and simply attack opposing hitters.
“I kind of understood that hitting is definitely a little harder than some of these guys make it look, right?” he said. “... I have a hard fastball and decent secondary stuff that I can throw for a strike. It’s going to kind of make the hitters guess what’s coming.”
The Royals’ bullpen has become very effective in recent weeks. Erceg and fellow KC relievers Daniel Lynch IV, Sam Long, Kris Bubic, Angel Zerpa and John Schreiber all have experience pitching in pivotal moments.
The Royals also have Michael Lorenzen and Brady Singer available out of the bullpen.
The relief corps’ next challenge will be shutting down the Yankees’ high-octane offense.
“I’m a big believer that the more decisions you make opposing hitters make at the plate, the better it is for you,” Quatraro said. “Now, they might beat you sometimes, but the more swing decisions they have to make, the better.”
Erceg will be handed the baseball if the Royals hold a late lead. He understands the stakes and will be prepared to answer with lock-down pitching when that bullpen phone rings.
“We work a lot on harping on the same two to three things,” he said, “and that’s stay aggressive in the (strike) zone and let the baseball take care of itself.”
This story was originally published October 5, 2024 at 4:39 PM with the headline "How KC Royals closer Lucas Erceg became a high-leverage ace as ALDS begins in NY."
