The long-term success or failure of this franchise over the next few years will largely depend on their ability to convert their crop of impressive pitching prospects into a quality Major League staff. This is a task that has largely eluded the Royals under Dayton Moore - the only notable homegrown starting pitchers they have developed in the last decade and a half are Danny Duffy and Yordano Ventura.
So there is a lot riding on the new minor league pitcher development program headed by Paul Gibson, and on Royals Major League pitching coach Cal Eldred. Eldred has been on the job since 2018, having come over from the St.