What Role Will Kris Bubic Have On The Royals In 2026?

Kris Bubic’s tenure in Kansas City has been complicated. Bubic made his debut in the pandemic-shortened season in 2020, where he started 10 games and posted a 4.32 ERA. His performance was respectable for a rookie, but not necessarily indicative of becoming the centerpiece of a rotation. 

In his 2021 season, Bubic posted similar stats with a 4.43 ERA in 130 innings. In that season, he showed signs of being effective in a hybrid role. In the nine appearances where he did not start, Bubic was used following an opener as a starter/long reliever hybrid pitcher. Out of the bullpen, he gave up nine earned runs in 26 1/3 innings, good for a 3.08 ERA, which was noticeably better than his 4.77 ERA as a starter. A bigger indicator of his performance as a starter versus a reliever would be his OPS against. As a starter, batters hit for an .823 OPS against him, but batters only hit for an OPS of .598 when he came out of the bullpen.

In 2022, Bubic struggled as a full-time starter, posting a 5.58 ERA in 129 innings. He averaged fewer than five innings per start and struggled once he got through the lineup a third time. Batters hit for an OPS of .989 in their third plate appearance against Bubic in 2022.

In 2023, had a decent start to the season with a 3.94 ERA in three starts and was showing signs of improvement, but he missed the rest of the 2023 season to undergo Tommy John surgery.

After his rehab, Bubic joined the team in July of 2024 and made 27 relief appearances, never pitching more than two innings in an outing. He graded at above the 90th percentile in his key statcast metrics, reflected in his TJStats summary below.

In 2025, Bubic won a spot on the starting rotation with some small regression in his metrics (TJStats summary below for his 2025 season), which is to be expected when moving from the bullpen to the rotation. In his 20 starts last season, he had a career-best 2.55 ERA over 116 1/3 innings. He also earned a career-best 3.1 fWAR and earned his first All-Star Game appearance. However, at the end of July, he suffered a rotator cuff strain that shut him down for the season despite not needing surgery.

After suffering his second major injury, what does 2026 look like for Bubic?

The Royals may have an opportunity to use Bubic in a creative way in 2026, and maybe 2021 could serve as the blueprint. This approach could be a way to preserve Bubic’s health and take advantage of the Royals’ strength in rotation depth, particularly if Bubic is still not fully recovered at the start of the season.

While last season Bubic improved in his ability to go deeper into games, averaging 5.8 innings per start, scaling back his workload could be beneficial. One option would be to pair Bubic with Ryan Bergert, who averaged fewer than five innings per start, or Stephen Kolek as another hybrid starter. Pairing either of them with Bubic would also mean that the Royals would be pairing a right-handed pitcher with Bubic as a lefty. This could prove useful if the Royals face a team that is platoon-heavy.

This plan would also allow the Royals to keep one of Bergert or Kolek on the major league roster following their strong performances in Kansas City after being acquired from San Diego at the 2025 trade deadline. Bergert, in particular, saw much less success against batters once the opposing lineup got to their third plate appearance. Batters jumped from having a .587 OPS in their first plate appearance to a .841 OPS by their third plate appearance. Pairing him with another starter and limiting his exposure could help mitigate that weakness.

In addition to the benefit of Bubic not needing to overextend and hopefully allowing him the opportunity to pitch for a full season, pairing two starters would allow the bullpen a planned day of rest. There is a chance both pitchers could struggle and not last a combined nine innings, but that risk may be worth taking if it helps the Royals keep their rotation healthy. The tradeoff, however, would be carrying one less reliever in the bullpen, making bullpen management critical.

There is precedent for this approach. The Milwaukee Brewers experimented with a version of this idea in 2025, with DL Hall and Quinn Priester piggybacking for a single start on three occasions, all of which resulted in a Brewers victory. In each of those games, Hall, who is normally a long reliever, would start and pitch three innings, then Priester, normally a starter, would pitch five or six innings of relief. Despite its success when used, this strategy was used sparingly by the Brewers.

While this concept may sound good in theory, would it work in practice? Bubic is coming off a career year despite it being shortened by injury. He is also entering his last season of arbitration before free agency. It is also important to mention that Bubic and the Royals still have not agreed to a salary for the 2026 season and are headed to an arbitration hearing.

It has been well reported that players often leave arbitration hearings feeling hurt. It is tough to hear your employer tell the arbitrator how bad they are, then go and play that season as if that never happened. For Bubic, being asked to transition to a hybrid role after an arbitration hearing, during his walk year, could be difficult... Being constrained to a hybrid role would hurt his value in the free-agent market and potentially limit his ability to earn a larger contract. There is certainly a scenario where Bubic does not accept a limited role.

This offseason, the only free agent relievers who signed for more than $10 million per year are closers, and the only starting pitchers who are earning below that mark are pitchers who have recently struggled or are at the end of their careers. In order to maximize his earnings, Bubic would ideally want to remain a starter.

All of this could be moot because the Royals could choose to trade Bubic before the season starts. The Royals have been open about their willingness to trade from their pitching depth to acquire an impact bat for their lineup. As free agents slowly come off the market, teams may be more willing to trade for a pitcher like Bubic. Given that Bubic is soon to be a free agent, the Royals might want to trade him now before losing him for nothing.

If the Royals end up keeping Kris Bubic for the 2026 season, it would be wise for them to prioritize his health so that he can pitch for the entire season. His experience in the bullpen could make him a logical candidate to come in for long relief and work in tandem with someone like Bergert or Kolek. However, both the Royals and Bubic should be careful not to drop Bubic’s value in the case of him looking for a payday in the offseason or the Royals needing to find a trade partner at the deadline.