Kansas City has a decent history of dominant closers over the past 20 seasons. Since 2005, a relief pitcher who pitched at least 60 innings has logged an ERA of 1.60 or lower 54 times. Six of those seasons have been by Royals closers - good for 11 percent.
From Joakim Soria to Greg Holland, Wade Davis, and Kelvin Herrera, Kansas City had it good for a long time. However, since Davis’ dominant 2016 campaign, the Royals haven’t had a cyborg in the back of the bullpen. Scott Barlow had some good years, and even Ian Kennedy was serviceable, but nothing special.