When the news broke that Jason Hammel was no longer going to be a starter, no one was really upset. Hammel has been struggling as a starter since joining the Kansas City Royals in 2017. In fact, the last time he posted numbers as bad as he has in Kansas City, he was a 23 and 24-year-old pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2006 and 2007.
When the Royals signed Hammel, I’m sure they were hoping for a pitcher similar to what he was from 2012-2016. During that time, he posted a 3.88 ERA over 137 games (133 starts) and 771.