The Kansas City Royals are on cloud nine (within reason) right now on the backs of winning three straight, their rotation looking largely impressive and their offense finally breaking out for more than four runs.<\/p>\n
Now, to address the “within reason” section of my earlier statement, there are surely areas the Royals wish were better. Cole Ragans will have to rebound from surrendering three homers on Opening Day<\/a>, Carter Jensen hasn’t looked anywhere near the Rookie of the Year hopeful many thought he could be, and bullpen pieces such as Carlos Est\u00e9vez have been incredibly underwhelming<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, one of those issues have seen the Royals forced to make a move after Est\u00e9vez had to be placed on the 15-day injured list with a left foot contusion. In a corresponding move, Kansas City somewhat righted a wrong from their Opening Day roster announcement<\/a> and recalled Steven Cruz from Triple-A Omaha<\/a>.<\/p>\n And Cruz wasted no time showing the Royals why he’s worthy of being a major leaguer when appearing in his first regular season action of the year on Wednesday against the Twins.<\/p>\n In a game filled with bullpen blunders<\/a>, as the trio of Daniel Lynch IV, Alex Lange and Bailey Falter accounted for eight of the Twins nine runs (six of which were earned), Cruz was one of the bright spots out of the ‘pen that day.<\/p>\n Entering the game in the eighth with the bases loaded after Lange had already surrendered two earned runs with just one out recorded, Cruz promptly struck out James Outman before getting Luke Keaschall to hit into a force out to end the frame and avoid any further damage.<\/p>\n Outings like these are reminiscent of the display he put together as an early season injury call-up last year, warranting a full-time role in Matt Quatraro’s bullpen for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n Is Steven Cruz repeating history and establishing himself as a go-to Royals bullpen piece?<\/p>\n Now, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Cruz last season, as his 2.68 ERA in 37.0 first-half innings was much better than his 8.31 ERA in 8.2 second-half frames before hitting the IL.<\/p>\n However, given the fact he appeared to be simply Triple-A fodder from the get-go, his 3.74 ERA performance was a welcome sight to say the least.<\/p>\n And suddenly, with bullpen shifting required following Est\u00e9vez’s underperformance and now injury-stint, as well as names like Falter looking disastrous already<\/a>, that type of impact is needed now more than ever.<\/p>\n Is Cruz going to immediately step in an occupy high leverage innings in Est\u00e9vez’s place? No. After all, he only threw in 4.0 high-leverage innings last season.<\/p>\n