Jeff Suppan is a Royal once again. Well, almost. Suppan has signed a minor league contract with the Royals and will report to AAA, where he will teach a three semester course in pitching, veteran presence and leadership. The textbooks have been ordered and can be picked up at the on-campus bookstore starting Tuesday afternoon. Guest lecturers include Jason Kendall, Jeff Francoeur and Kyle Davies.
"We've got young pitchers there that could benefit from his experience and obviously Ned has a comfort level with him," Royals general manager Dayton Moore said.
Yost joins an exclusive list of every other manager ever that can claim to be comfortable with an old starting pitcher on his zillionth team.
Should Suppan ever make another Major League start with the Royals, which seems likely, he will reach the odd distinction of having played for three teams on two separate occasions. Suppan pitched for Boston from 1995-7, then returned to Boston in 2003. He was a Cardinal from 2004-06, then randomly pitched for St. Louis last season. And, as you will likely know, he was a Royal from 1999-2002.
Suppan has a career ERA+ of 97, in 411 career starts (wow). He's working on that first lecture, titled, "A Path to Wealth- Being League Average" as we speak.