The return of Lucas Erceg

Michael Wacha couldn’t avoid the long ball and the Royals offense could muster few hits but plenty of whiffs against his Astros counterpart, Hunter Brown. The Royals, with the opportunity to put their thumb on the outcome of a mediocre AL West race, came up short in their series opener in Houston, losing 4-2.

With the loss, the long-assumed became official: The Royals have been eliminated from the AL Central. They can officially be eliminated from the Wild Card on Wednesday.

Given that this is the end of an extremely disappointing season, there’s very little reason to tune into the Royals these days. (I will never lie to you in this newsletter.) I thought about doing one of those “What I’m watching these last few weeks” kind of edition, but it was sorta difficult to come up with enough topics to make it worth the while.

And then the Royals made the move to bring back reliever Lucas Erceg from his Omaha exile on Monday. At the time he was mercifully dispatched to Triple-A, the right-hander was striking out a career-low 15 percent of batters faced while walking an almost career-high 14 percent. Through 43.1 innings with the Royals, he posted a 6.23 ERA with a 5.60 FIP.

With the Storm Chasers, he has seemed to rediscover some of that late-inning reliever mojo. His strikeout rate is up to 31 percent and his walk rate is down to around seven percent. In 10.1 innings (yes, it’s a small sample but in reliver terms, it’s about a quarter of his major league workload this year), Erecg has a 1.71 ERA and 2.13 FIP.

His fastball velocity remains unchanged (around 97 mph on average) and Triple-A batters are squaring him up, so I’m not entirely sure how that success in the International League translates back to the majors, other than mentally he has to be in a much better spot. The results say he’s earned the recall. I’m certain that was always the plan—Erceg resets for a stretch in Triple-A and is then recalled in time to get some major league game action toward the end of the season. It’s an opportunity to see how he stacks up over these last two weeks and can hopefully build on his next several outings over the offseason.

Erceg returned to the major league mound on Tuesday against the Astros. And he looked…really good.

His sinker and his four-seam were both routinely at 99 mph. I would say he was amped. And he channeled that energy not only into a little more fire under those fastballs, but with some sharp control. The four-seamer was elevated. The sinker was running arm-side. And the slider was down with some bite. He only threw one changeup that was a waste pitch on 1-2 which was a good thing given that hitters were mashing that with a .542 batting average and an even 1.000 slugging percentage.

He found soft contact—a ground ball at 86 mph off the bat and a liner at 79 mph—and finished off his return with a swinging strikeout on a slider down.

The Royals bullpen is currently made up of journeymen, random veterans and minor league lifers. Outside of Steven Cruz, there isn’t much on the roster that you would look at and go, “That guy has a spot in 2027.” A healthy and confident Erceg could be a solid building block once the roster building for next year begins. It’s good to see him back.

The Royals also welcomed back Maikel Garcia, who returned from the IL where he was recovering from a left hamstring strain. That injury came just three-plus games after his return from an extended stint on the sidelines with a hand strain. He also missed about a week with a right hamstring strain back in late May. It's been a forgettable season for the Royals third baseman, who has now appeared in just 74 games. Hitting cleanup, he went 0-3 with a strikeout and a walk in his return.

That line was on brand for the Royals on Tuesday. Bobby Witt Jr. singled. Carter Jensen doubled, getting back on the extra-base hit bandwagon, which plated a run. Vinnie Pasquantino homered, which is always good to see. Salvador Perez added a pinch hit single in the ninth.

Michael Wacha was up for it, allowing just four hits, but as I noted, three of them left the yard. Two homers came from the bat of Jeremy Peña. He singled ahead of the Yordán Alvarez homer in the fifth. That was enough.

The Quad Cities River Bandits ripped through the Midwest League postseason, sweeping both series in securing the championship. They closed out their season with a 2-1 victory over the Dayton Dragons that featured six shutout innings from starter David Shields who struck out seven. The Dragons plated their run in the seventh and the River Bandits answered immediately in their half of the eighth when Blake Mitchell clubbed a two-run home run. L.P. Langevin closed it out by striking out the side in the ninth.

Five of the Royals top seven prospects according to MLB Pipeline are on the Quad Cities roster. The future looks bright.