Brady Singer to start Saturday in Cleveland

Royals Manager Mike Matheny announced that Brady Singer has made the team and will start Saturday in Cleveland for his Major League debut. Singer was the Royals’ first-round selection in the 2018 draft and is considered one of their top prospects. He was named the #59 prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline and #64 by Baseball Prospectus this year.

The 23-year old right-hander was known as for his bulldog attitude at the University of Florida, where he helped lead the Gators to a College World Series. Last year he had a 1.87 ERA in ten starts for High-A Wilmington before being promoted to Double-A Northwest Arkansas where he had a 3.47 ERA in 16 starts. Overall he had a 2.85 ERA in 2019, his first full pro season, with 8.4 strikeouts-per-nine innings and d 2.4 walks-per-nine innings.

Singer throws a fastball that sits in the mid-90s with an above-average slider. His change up has been a work in progress, although reports on it recently have been positive. Singer had held his own in spring training before the hiatus, giving up three runs and four walks while striking out six in 5 ²⁄₃ innings facing top hitters like Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Javier Baez.

The Royals could have potentially manipulated Singer’s service time by keeping him off the big league roster for the first week, which would have pushed back his free agency by a full year, however the team has been known not to play with service time. Singer came into spring training as a candidate to make the rotation, and his chances increased when the Royals suffered some hits to their rotation. Both Brad Keller and Jakob Junis will begin the season on the Injured List to start the year as they ramp up their workload after missing time due to positive COVID-19 tests earlier this month.

Danny Duffy has already been tabbed to be the Opening Day starter in Cleveland on Friday. Mike Montgomery would likely be the starter for Sunday’s game.