3 Kansas City Royals who could make a significant leap in 2020

With each passing season, Royals fans have become increasingly more irritated with Junis, as his solid stuff isn’t enough to prevent some really awful starts that inflated his ERA. After a solid 4.30 ERA during his rookie season, Junis saw that number increase to 4.37 in 2018 and a ghastly 5.24 in 2019. Rather than give up on him, Kansas City reaffirmed their faith in him, naming him the No. 2 starter behind Danny Duffy.

Junis’ plus fastball and sweeping slider are a good enough 1-2 punch to help him break the sub 4.00 ERA barrier. His problem has been consistently stringing together a run of quality starts. In a shortened season, Junis needs to show that he has what it takes to pair with top prospect Brady Singer and give the Royals rotation a solid backbone for the next half-decade.

If he flounders, Kansas City might have to cut their loss and leave the task of resurrecting his career to a team with more depth in the rotation than they do.

The Philadelphia Phillies finally had enough of Franco, cutting ties with the man who held down their starting third base spot for the last five seasons after he hit just .234 with 17 home runs. His inconsistency at the plate and poor glove at third helped Phillies fans turn on the former top prospect, but Kansas City through him a lifeline, as his power was too enticing to pass up, especially when they can get him at a discount.

Franco did hit 22 or more home runs in three straight seasons with Philadelphia, and he is entering his athletic peak at just 27 years old. While he may never become the elite, game-changing slugger that Philadelphia thought he would become, there is a quality power hitter that could easily mash 30 home runs in a full season buried underneath all of Franco’s many flaws. If Matheny is able to coach him out of some of his bad habits, don’t be surprised if Franco starts off the second act of his career with a bang in Kansas City.