3 Royals who will improve in 2024 and 2 who will not
By Joel Wagler
3. SP Brady Singer will give the Royals a much more promising 2024
2023 was not a great season for Brady Singer as it was, in many aspects, the worst of his career. He set a new career high in ERA with a hideous number of 5.52. He also set career-worst marks for Batting Average Against and Slugging Percent Against and his Strikeout Rate dropped significantly from the year before from 24.2 percent to 19 percent.
Still, there is some reason for optimism. In the second half, in all the areas mentioned above, he improved in the second half. Maybe 2023 can be written off to a small extent as a bad few months.
One thing working in his favor is some of the pressure and spotlight should be removed from Singer. Cole Ragans, acquired in a trade with Texas, had a terrific last two months of the season, and the Royals added Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha. This will move Singer down in the rotation to the number four slot, rather than one or two, and maybe that can help him turn things around.
This is a make-or-break season for Singer. He's not really lived up to his billing as a top college pitcher in the 2018 draft. He basically just throws two pitches - a slider and a sinker - which makes it incredibly difficult to be a starting pitcher, but he has slowly been developing a changeup. If he can master this offering a bit more, and use it more, it could help move his career in the right direction.