{"id":584969,"date":"2026-02-21T15:27:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T15:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/584969\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T15:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T15:27:23","slug":"kansas-city-royals-news-is-luinder-avila-a-starting-pitcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/584969\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas City Royals news: Is Luinder Avila a starting pitcher?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jaylon Thompson writes that Michael Massey is looking to put last season behind him.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of guys have tough years,\u201d he said, \u201cand you just keep fighting and you learn something from it. You learn from it, you move on and you kind of leave the result in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Massey is excited for a fresh start at spring training in Arizona, where the Royals played the Texas Rangers in their Cactus League opener on Friday. The Royals will utilize him in more of a hybrid role this season because of how their roster is constructed. It\u2019s expected he will see time at second base and keep working in the outfield, as well.<\/p>\n

Bailey Falter also has a lot to prove<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looks great physically,\u201d Quatraro said. \u201cHis demeanor has been tremendous. He\u2019s healthy and he\u2019s throwing the ball with great extension and great carry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in fairness to Bailey, he came over and he was in a tough spot. He was banged up a little bit and we probably saw him at his worst. I think to his credit, the way he\u2019s put that behind him and moved forward throughout the offseason has been tremendous.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Lesky considers if the Royals could use a six-man rotation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Theoretically, going with a five-man rotation for a full year gives two guys 34 starts and three guys 33. Going with a six-man rotation all year gives everyone 27 starts. Six or seven starts coming off the arm could be the difference between freshness for the playoffs or not. But one thing that I think you have to keep in mind with that six-man rotation is that you do have a deficiency now in the bullpen, so I think the extra rest will have to be used to give starting pitchers a bit of a longer leash. Again, I don\u2019t have the biometrics or anything so I\u2019m just talking here, but if you\u2019re counting on 15-18 outs every night, I think that needs to be bumped up to 18-21.<\/p>\n

Matt Quatraro thinks Luinder Avila could be an ace someday.<\/p>\n

Craig Brown wonders if Avila could be a potential starter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, Quatraro\u2019s assessment has me reconsidering. Having Avila in the rotation was always a possibility, but \u201cfront of the rotation?\u201d Whoa. In order to make that happen, he\u2019s going to have to refine and rely on that changeup a little more. That would give him another weapon against left-handed hitters. If Avila starts attacking hitters with three pitches\u2014curve, four-seam, sinker against righties and curve, four-seam, change versus lefties\u2014that changes the calculus in determining his future role on the big league club. If I were to tell you something to watch this spring, it would be Avila\u2019s pitch mix. Let\u2019s see if he throws the change with more frequency. Could he even add another pitch to the mix? He\u2019s talented enough to pull something new out of the bag.<\/p>\n

Kevin O\u2019Brien at Royals Keep considers catching metrics for the Royals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Twins ace Pablo L\u00f3pez will have season-ending Tommy John surgery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Orioles infielder Jordan Westburg has a UCL tear.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Blue Jays are in talks with Max Scherzer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How can the Braves build rotation depth<\/a> with their pitcher injuries?<\/p>\n

Freddie Freeman wants to play til he\u2019s 40 years old.<\/a><\/p>\n

NBC plans to use local analysts<\/a> for Sunday Night Baseball telecasts.<\/p>\n

MJ Melendez is bringing defensive versatility to the Mets<\/a>?<\/p>\n

The biggest storylines in spring training this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Buster Olney omits Jonathan India in his ranking of top second basemen in MLB<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The big questions for Team USA<\/a> in the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n

MLB owners are stocking up about $2 billion<\/a> in anticipation of a work stoppage.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

USA\u2019s win over Canada in the Olympics was the most-watched women\u2019s hockey game ever.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sporting Kansas City trades longtime winger Daniel Salloi<\/a> to Toronto FC.<\/p>\n

Can social media age verification really protect kids<\/a>?<\/p>\n

AMC Theaters won\u2019t show an AI-generated short film<\/a> that is running before some movies.<\/p>\n

A judge rules Buffalo Wild Wings can keep \u201cboneless wings\u201d on the menu.<\/a><\/p>\n

Your song of the day is Joe Walsh with Ordinary Average Guy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jaylon Thompson writes that Michael Massey is looking to put last season behind him. \u201cA lot of guys…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2387],"tags":[980,5,2178,815,59700,2161,581,936,2123,55,2596,2595,40028,2602,381,2128,8532,4,125,1997,252,5217,27990,75572,8980,69,1949,812,2122,11447],"class_list":{"0":"post-584969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-royals","8":"tag-bailey-falter","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-freddie-freeman","12":"tag-jaylon-thompson","13":"tag-jonathan-india","14":"tag-jordan-westburg","15":"tag-kansas","16":"tag-kansas-city","17":"tag-kansas-city-royals","18":"tag-kansascity","19":"tag-kansascityroyals","20":"tag-luinder-avila","21":"tag-matt-quatraro","22":"tag-max-scherzer","23":"tag-michael-massey","24":"tag-mj-melendez","25":"tag-mlb","26":"tag-orioles","27":"tag-pablo-lopez","28":"tag-royals","29":"tag-sacramento","30":"tag-sporting-kansas-city","31":"tag-spring-training-in-arizona","32":"tag-sutter-health-park","33":"tag-texas-rangers","34":"tag-the-athletics","35":"tag-the-mets","36":"tag-the-royals","37":"tag-toronto-fc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116109327964977361","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}