With the signing of Jeff Francoeur and selection of Nathan Adcock in the Rule 5 Draft, the Royals had 41 players for 40 roster spots. As a result, someone had to go and earlier today, Philip Humber, former first round pick, was that player. Humber signed a minor league deal with the Royals last winter.
Humber started the year in Omaha pitching mostly out of the rotation, making 20 starts in 21 games and putting up a 4.47 ERA over 118.2 innings. His ratios of 6.1 K/9 and 1.5 BB/9 weren’t all that bad, but he gave up a lot of hits and a lot of homeruns. In August, he was promoted to Kansas City, making his first appearance on August 10th and finished the season with 21.2 innings pitched in eight appearances.
Other than two poor outings with the Royals, Humber was an average relief pitcher. On August 21, he pitched the first game of a double-header against the White Sox and got through 5.2 innings, giving up five runs (that was the infamous Saturday twin billing that lasted into the wee hours of the morning with a noon first pitch on Sunday). Then on September 12, he gave up four runs in 2.1 innings. Otherwise, he only gave up one earned run in the other 13 innings pitched. As a Royal, he had a respectable 16/7 K/BB ratio and his 4.15 ERA was around league average. The Royals have ten days to decide what to do with him, and he’ll probably end up in another organization and could see time as a back-end bullpen option.
Another move is yet to come with the addition of Melky Cabrera, who still needs to pass a physical after agreeing to terms last week.
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