I wish the Royals could acquire a player that another team developed for free. While they reap the benefits of what that player has in store…wait. It IS possible through the Rule-5 draft!
Matt Sauer was picked by the Royals second overall in the 2023 MLB Rule-5 draft via the Yankees. Drafted out of high school, the former second-rounder hails from Santa Maria, CA. While with the Yankees organization, the right-hander was a starter for them. He’s spent all his time in minor league baseball, with a couple of underwhelming years before the infamous canceled 2020 minor league season. Turning it on in the 2021 and 2022 seasons, he was able to be a decent starter, throwing 100+ innings and having an ERA in the fours in both seasons.
In 2023 at AA, he started 13 of 14 games, and in that one game he didn’t start, he pitched five innings and only allowed one run. He finished the year with a 3.42 ERA and pitched 68.1 innings. With help from his 10.9 K/9 and a 30% strikeout rate, it’s easy to see why the Royals targeted him in the Rule-5 draft. Although he has never made it to the AAA level, he has gotten better every year of his progression. I seriously believe he could be a victim of losing a critical developmental season in 2020. That might have been the turning point for him in his career, but we’re hopeful that the Royals can potentially capitalize on the opportunity they have in store.
If you’re unfamiliar, the MLB Rule-5 draft allows teams without a full 40-man roster the opportunity to select certain non-40-man roster players from other clubs. Additionally, when drafted, the player has to be on the active MLB roster for the whole season. If he doesn’t, he has to be returned to his original team.
Now. What can he do for the Royals?
The Royals needed pitching following the 2023 season—any and all the pitching. So, no matter what Matt Sauer does for the Royals, he can help the pitching staff somehow. He is 25 years old, so he’s not young for a starting pitcher, but the Royals still have all the years of control left since he’s never made it to a big-league club. With the additions of Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha in the offseason, the rotation seems pretty set with the likes of Cole Ragans and Brady Singer, with Jordan Lyles and a couple of guys vying for the last rotation spot. So, Sauer will likely find himself in the bullpen for most of the year, although he shouldn’t give up on being a starter just yet.
The Royals bullpen was a mess last season, and the front office stepped it up with the additions of Will Smith, Chris Stratton, Nick Anderson, and John Schreiber. This takes a lot of pressure off the rest of the bullpen and the young guys in there. But after learning the news of Carlos Hernandez’s season getting shut down early due to shoulder soreness, it opens the door for Sauer to almost certainly make the opening-day roster.
Sauer is a strikeout pitcher through and through. His 10.9 K/9 speaks for itself, and why the Royals potentially targeted him. He doesn’t blow you away with anything, but his slider is a devastator. It dives away from righties, and lefties are forced to submit to its power or be okay with taking strike three on the corner. He has proven to be a dominant force on the mound when right. He has had a bit of walk trouble, but nothing to scoff at as a young player.
Sauer could benefit from a move to the bullpen. He could focus more on velocity, making the speed change from the slider even nastier. And those two other pitches won’t hurt him either. If you have a max of 97 in the tank with three other pitches, it creates a significant issue as a batter. Who wants to face a guy for one inning that can hurl anything? No one, that’s who. He even threw an immaculate inning in his last start of 2023.
At the end of his season, he also opened up about what was helping him and his development for the year:
As he stated, it seems like he really refined his pitches and made each one a threatening option this year. Which is, of course, enticing to the Royals. If they think he made a massive change with his curve and splitter, it could highlight a diamond in the rough that they snagged in the Rule-5 draft. Intriguingly, he had his best statistical season this past year at age 24. I think it’s lunacy to give up on him as a starter just yet.
I’m sure at some point, we’ll see Matt Sauer make a spot start during the 2024 season, but they should give him a solid chance to make the rotation this year or next. He’s under club control for the next six seasons if for nothing else. If you look at his numbers from last season, he went 5+ innings in 10 of his 13 starts, albeit in AA, but even with the things he is communicating about his own game, he is drastically improving. That’s what we’re looking at for starters nowadays, anyway. They no longer complete games; starting pitchers only need to do enough to get to the best bullpen guys. If you can make an above-average starting pitcher out of him, you do it, especially when you virtually got someone for free.
https://www.mlb.com/video/matt-sauer-strikes-out-the-side-in-the-5th-inning
So far in the spring, Matt Sauer has been fantastic out of the bullpen. At the same time, striking out the side on one occasion. We’ll see how the Royals develop him, and hopefully, he can be a piece of the next winning Royals club whether that be a starter or reliever.