The story of the Royals bullpen in 2024 was pretty simple - Lucas Erceg came in mid-season and immediately was the best guy, and the rest of the bullpen jelled toward the end of the season. This change bears out in the larger team performance. The Royals bullpen was 22nd in fWAR in the first half with a 4.21 / 4.14 / 4.57 ERA / FIP / xFIP line. In the second half, they improved to 11th in fWAR with a 4.00 / 3.54 / 3.89 line. Strikeouts were up, walks were down. Simple.
But they sure seemed a lot worse in the earlier part of the season, didn’t they?