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Royals’ MiLB News: Back to the Minors for Finnegan?

By Wayne Cavadi

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It appears last years’ youngest middle reliever on the Kansas City Royals run to OKCtober will be starting the year in the minors.

If there was an award in Major League Baseball for the fastest riser, Brandon Finnegan would have won it in 2014. He was drafted in the first round, selected 17th overall of the 2104 draft. He signed on June 28th. By September 1st, he was in the major leagues heading to the postseason. 

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He had a solid minor league debut, posting a 1.33 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP while striking out 26 and only walking four in 27 innings split between High-A and Double-A ball. His success continued out of the bullpen over his September debut. He struck out two batters in his first Major League appearance, one being New York Yankees’ hit king Derek Jeter at Yankee Stadium. Finnegan posted a 1.29 ERA, a 1.00 WHIP and a 10:1 strikeout to walk rate over 7 innings.

His unbelievable run would come to an end in the playoffs, where he was tagged for five runs in a pivotal game four loss to the eventual World Champion San Francisco Giants. Still, he was the first pitcher to appear in the College World Series (which he did for Texas Christian University months earlier) and the Major League World Series in the same calendar year. It was quite the run for the 21-year old lefty.

The problem is that the Royals drafted Finnegan to be a starter. The 2015 rotation, even with the departure of James Shields, appears to be currently set. It seems that the powers that be are hinting that Finnegan will have to start the year in the minors to get stretched out and work his way back into his more familiar role as opposed to the bullpen role he was used in last season. Finnegan wants nothing to do with that.

“(I want to be) definitely up with the big-league club,” Finnegan told McCullough of the Kansas City Star. “I think anybody would say that. The minor leagues isn’t fun for a reason. Everybody wants to get up there.”

Unfortunately for Finnegan, he won’t have much say in the matter, however he probably won’t have to be in the minors for too long. Finnegan just needs to prepare himself to pitch deeper into games and hone his already sharp three pitch arsenal. He was able to get comfortable with his fastball in relief last season, which hits the mid-90s pretty consistently on the radar gun. His claim to fame at TCU was his slider. What started out more as a slurve, has become a reliable pitch for the young lefty. He also has a solid changeup as an out-pitch.

The Royals just inked Franklin Morales to a minor league deal to most likely compete for a bullpen spot. Along with Tim Collins, who had a rough 2014 after two solid seasons, and Luke Hochevar, who found new life as a bullpen arm in 2014, as bridges to the three headed monster of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland, the Royals bullpen seems to have enough arms to let Finnegan work this out in the minors until he is ready to start. He may not like it, but it could make the Royals’ rotation that much better if he shows a little patience in the minor leagues. If Finnegan pitches anywhere close to how he performed in the minors last season, by the time he and Kyle Zimmer are ready to supplant some of the current veterans in the starting rotation, the Royals’ rotation becomes only stronger.

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