The Kansas City Royals have added their second minor league free agent of the week. First, it was Taylor Clarke, followed by RHP Junior Fernandez on Friday. Fernandez, 27, started his professional career in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He was signed as an international free agent before the 2014 season and went on to spend nine seasons with the Red Birds. St. Louis added Fernandez to their MLB roster before the 2019 season. He pitched sparingly in the four following seasons, compiling a 5.17 ERA across 54.0 IP before he was designated for assignment in September 2022.
The Pirates claimed Fernandez and he’s bounced around ever since. He appeared in minor league action for Toronto and Washington in 2023 before heading abroad for the 2024 season. In 2024, Fernandez spent time on the Chiba Lotte roster in the Japanese Eastern League but made just two appearances. Most recently, Fernandez has pitched in this winter’s Dominican Winter League with Aguilas Cibaenas. It’s been his largest sample of work since 2023, and he’s pitched to a 6.43 ERA across 12.0 IP.
Fernandez commands a four-pitch mix, featuring a sinker, slider, four-seam fastball, and a changeup. None of his offerings have shown very high spin rates in most recent looks, but the sinker sits 96-98mph which gives some potential for strikeouts. The slider for Fernandez is in the upper 80s with more vertical break than horizontal. More often, it’s a two-pitch mix featuring the sinker and changeup. The changeup for Fernandez offers plenty of movement — up to 18 inches of horizontal break.
It’s a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. Sometimes that becomes nothing of note, but just last season we saw Sam Long join the Royals on similar pretenses and become an important piece of the team’s bullpen. If that’s to be the case for Fernandez, he will have to find ways to improve his command. For much of his career, his pure stuff has been rather solid and Fernandez does a nice job of missing bats at times. Hitting the strike zone has been too much of a challenge. In his Major League career, Fernandez has a zone rate of just 45.0%. The walk rate has been north of 10% for his entire professional career and doesn’t look improved at all in this year’s Dominican Winter League. Fernandez is a solid addition for the Royals and there’s some value to be found if they can help him limit the walks and find the strike zone.