The Kansas City Royals have acquired RHP John Schreiber from the Boston Red Sox in an effort to bolster their bullpen ahead of the 2024 campaign.
Schreiber posted went 2-1, with a 3.86 ERA, and 1.41 WHIP across 46 games in 2023 with Boston. The 29 year old reliever struck out 53 batters in 46.2IP and figures to play a prominent role in KC’s late game rotation this season.
Originally drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 15th round of the 2016 MLB Draft, Schreiber has spent the last 3 seasons in Beantown after making his Major League debut in 2019 with Detroit. With only 9 career saves, and 2 career starts in 139 appearances, the Ohio native has served almost exclusively as a set up man throughout his career. A role he figures to take up once again with his new club, acting as a bridge to 9th inning for the newly acquired Will Smith who’s expected to take over closing duties this year.
“We’ve been trying to continue to address the bullpen, and we wanted somebody who had been in some leverage situations before,” Royals GM J.J. Picollo said. “We were real happy with our reports, real happy with the data we have on him.”
In addition to having multiple years of high leverage experience, Kansas City was willing to pay a premium for Schreiber’s services due to his 3 remaining years of team control. The former Red Sox reliever isn’t eligible to become a free agent until the 2027 season.
“He can bring not only diversity with a different arm slot, different look from the bullpen,” manager Matt Quatraro told reporters “but somebody that’s pitched in high leverage, somebody that we consider able to make us a deeper bullpen overall and just a better team.”
Schreiber represents what’s likely to be the final piece of KC’s revamped rotation and bullpen ahead of spring training in what’s been a busy offseason for the front office. In addition to the righty, the club has also brought in relievers Smith, Chris Stratton and Nick Anderson, as well as starters Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha.
Heading back the other way is the club’s 19th rated prospect RHP David Sandlin. The 6’4″ righty is a young arm with above average strikeout potential, having whiffed 90 batters across 68.2IP in the minor leagues thus far. Some scouts believe he could have been ranked even higher amongst the Royals prospects had an oblique injury not limited him to 15 starts in 2023.
“[Sandlin] was someone we had identified early on as someone that we think is on the rise, has the makings of a legitimate starting pitcher,” said Boston’s chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. “And I think we’ve talked for a while about our right-handed relief depth. That’s something we feel strongly about, something we feel confident in. We talked about the need, when the opportunity exists, to create more starting pitching depth. So I think this was one example of a chance to do that.”
“[His] fastball as an amateur was kind of low 90s,” continued Breslow. “In pro ball, it’s been up to 98, 99. He pitches at probably 95 to 97. He has a good breaking ball and a change that we see room to optimize. So it was a combination of kind of raw stuff, projection and a chance to maybe tweak the usage a little bit and improve performance.”
Initial reports believe Sandlin will likely begin 2024 with Boston’s High-A affiliate in Greenville, but could rise quickly through the ranks given the teams lack of quality starting pitching prospects.
With Schreiber now headed to Missouri, Boston’s late game options will likely focus around Closer Kenley Jansen, Chris Martin, and whomever doesn’t make the starting rotation out of Garrett Whitlock, Josh Winckowski, and Tanner Houck. Greg Weissert and Isaiah Campbell could also see some late inning looks depending on how they fare in spring training as well.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Mysteryman28.