The Royals brought Lucas Erceg in for exactly the kind of late-inning punch they needed, and for a while it looked like they had found it.
Kansas City landed the right-hander ahead of the 2024 trade deadline while chasing a postseason spot, and Erceg’s power arm made him an obvious fit. The velocity was loud, the strikeouts came fast, and in his first 25 innings with the club he gave up only eight runs while punching out 31 hitters.
He followed that with a solid 2025, even after his role changed. Once the Royals signed Carlos Estévez, Erceg shifted into a setup job instead of handling the closer’s role. He finished the year with a 2.64 ERA over 61 1/3 innings, but the swing-and-miss stuff backed up a bit, with his strikeout rate dropping from 28.5% in 2024 to 19.3% in 2025, according to Statcast.
That decline mattered heading into 2026, and so far the season has gone in the wrong direction fast.
Erceg has been part of a Kansas City bullpen that has simply not been good, and his own numbers have taken a hit. Through 43 1/3 innings, the 31-year-old owns a 6.02 ERA and is tied for the third-most blown saves in MLB with six.
The most troubling part is that the fastball is still there. Erceg is averaging 97 mph, but the missing edge is showing up in the rest of the profile. His strikeout rate has fallen to 15.1%, which ranks in the sixth percentile.
The command has gone with it. Erceg has 27 walks and 31 strikeouts, a 13.2% walk rate that underscores how often he’s working in trouble rather than out of it.
That showed up again in Game 2 of the Dodgers series on Wednesday. Erceg entered for the 10th inning, walked two batters and then gave up a walk-off hit to Max Muncy. Extra innings already stack the deck with the automatic runner on second, but the walks and the final hit only added to what has become a brutal year.
Still, cutting him loose doesn’t make much sense. Erceg is under club control through 2029 and won’t be arbitration-eligible until 2027. The Royals also know what kind of arm he can be, and with Kansas City’s bullpen short on velocity, keeping that kind of arm in the mix has value.
Even so, his struggles sharpen the offseason question for the Royals. If they can’t trust Erceg in high-leverage spots next year, they’re going to have to find another pitcher who can finish games, because the current options in Kansas City are thin.
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Gomez has stood out in the Dominican Summer League, where his early professional work has drawn attention well beyond his age. He is part of a broader group of Royals prospects that also includes Josh Hammond, Ramon Ramirez, David Shields, Zion Rose, Taylor Rabe and Jack Slightom, giving Kansas City a mix of upside across multiple levels and positions. For a club that has spent plenty of time selling the future, this is the kind of development that keeps the pipeline interesting, even if the order of the names is still very much in flux. [Read more 🡒]