Former first-round pick to miss 2024 season for Royals

Royals left-hander Asa Lacy announced on Instagram that he’ll miss the 2024 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. He’ll likely be sidelined into the early portion of the 2025 campaign.

Lacy, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2020 draft after a standout college career at Texas A&M, ranked as one of the sport’s top pitching prospects in the year following that selection but has seen injuries and shaky performance tank his stock. 

Shoulder and back injuries have hobbled the lefty to this point in his pro career. He didn’t throw a pitch for a Royals affiliate in 2023 and will now also miss the 2024 campaign. Overall, Lacy has just 80 innings pitched since being drafted, and he’s posted a 7.09 ERA with a 21.3 percent walk rate in that time.

Lacy won’t turn 25 until June. There’s still time for him to eventually get back to full strength and resume the once-promising trajectory that made him a slam-dunk first-round pick and had him in the conversation for the No. 1 overall selection at times heading into that 2020 draft. 

As it stands, Lacy is one of several high-profile college arms around whom the Royals structured their most recent rebuilding efforts — an endeavor that simply hasn’t panned out.

Lacy, Brady Singer, Daniel Lynch IV, Kris Bubic, Jackson Kowar and Alec Marsh are among the names the club envisioned filling out a pipeline of young pitching. 

Singer has, at times, looked like a high-end starter but has lacked consistency. The others have yet to establish themselves in the majors. 

Stalled development among that group of college arms has been one of the key reasons for the Royals’ struggles in recent years and was surely a driving factor behind the team’s decision to spend a combined $77M to sign Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha in free agency this winter.

Kansas City will also be without lefty Jake Brentz for a decent chunk of time. The 29-year-old reliever has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 hamstring strain and will miss at least six weeks of action, manager Matt Quatraro announced to the team’s beat this week (X link via Anne Rogers of MLB.com).

Brentz was a solid member of the Kansas City bullpen back in 2021, tossing 64 innings with a 3.66 ERA, 15 holds and a pair of saves. His 13.3 percent walk rate was an obvious reason for concern, but Brentz helped to mitigate his subpar command with a hearty 27.3 percent strikeout rate and strong 49 percent ground ball rate. 

Injuries have taken their toll on the southpaw over the past several years, however. He dealt with a shoulder impingement late in that 2021 season and saw his 2022 campaign almost entirely wiped out by a flexor strain and a subsequent UCL tear that required Tommy John surgery.

Brentz inked a two-year, $1.9M deal with the Royals covering the 2023-24 seasons, with the clear hope that he’d be at full strength again this year and serve as a key member of the bullpen. 

But a lat strain (coupled with that Tommy John rehab) limited him to just 2 2/3 minor league frames last year. He’s struggled mightily this spring, walking 11 of his 32 opponents and yielding a whopping 14 runs in just 5 1/3 innings of Cactus League action. 

When healthy, Brentz averaged 97 mph with his heater, missed bats in droves and kept the ball on the ground nicely. 

It’s been three years since we’ve seen that version of the lefty, but he’ll have the rest of this season and potentially another two years of arbitration eligibility with the Royals to get back on track.

The injury to Brentz thins out the competition for the final couple of bullpen spots in Kansas City. One name that’s impressed the club thus far in camp, writes Jaylon Thompson of the Kansas City Star, is left-hander Sam Long. 

In camp as a non-roster invitee, the former A’s and Giants hurler has tossed 7 1/3 frames and held opponents to one run on five hits and a walk with 13 punchouts.

Long, 28, signed a minor league deal back in December. He’s pitched in the majors in each of the past three seasons, logging 128 innings between MLB’s two Bay Area clubs. 

In that time, Long has pitched to a 4.92 ERA with an 18.5 percent strikeout rate and 9 percent walk rate. He’s at 1.160 years of big-league service time, so if he wins a spot in Kansas City’s bullpen and can cement himself as a consistent option, they’d be able to control him for as many as five seasons.