{"id":651054,"date":"2026-03-29T19:37:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651054\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T19:37:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:37:32","slug":"quatraro-carlos-estevez-may-pitch-in-lower-leverage-situations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651054\/","title":{"rendered":"Quatraro: Carlos Est\u00e9vez may pitch in lower-leverage situations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The velocity problems that had plagued Royals closer Carlos Est\u00e9vez during spring training carried over into his first appearance of the regular season on Saturday, and may cost him his closer\u2019s role, according to manager Matt Quatraro. After Est\u00e9vez gave up six runs in the ninth inning in a 6-2 loss to the Braves, Quatraro indicated that the 2025 MLB saves leader may work in lower-leverage situations for a bit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Est\u00e9vez had trouble breaking 90 mph in spring training, raising alarm bells with many observers. On Saturday, he averaged 91.2 mph on his fastball, and had erratic command, particularly on his change up. He gave up a single, pop out, single, walk, and single, before Dominic Smith hit a walk-off grand slam. Est\u00e9vez threw just 13 of his 27 pitches for a strike, and got just one swing-and-miss. Last year he averaged 95.9 mph on his fastball.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Est\u00e9vez also took a line drive off the ankle last night, and is in a walking boot today, making him likely unavailable for the Sunday series finale. The Royals will continue to evaluate the ankle contusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The velocity problems that had plagued Royals closer Carlos Est\u00e9vez during spring training carried over into his first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[5,936,2123,55,83353,35554,2596,2595,4,252],"class_list":{"0":"post-651054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-royals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-kansas","10":"tag-kansas-city","11":"tag-kansas-city-royals","12":"tag-kansas-city-royals-injuries","13":"tag-kansas-city-royals-news","14":"tag-kansascity","15":"tag-kansascityroyals","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116314154323638562","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651054","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=651054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}