Now that the dust has settled from the news that Zack Greinke would be returning to Kansas City, Royals fans are eager to see what kind of pitcher the 38-year old can be for a staff that's otherwise pretty young. Greinke's thrown at least 170 innings in four of his last five seasons, the lone exception being 2020's abbreviated schedule. His ERA has been up and down over that time, but most of his the numbers point to a pitcher who's been able to remain fairly consistent even in the latter years of his career. So what can Royals fans expect from Greinke on the mound this season? Team Insider Josh Vernier joined 610's Fescoe In The Morning to try and answer that.
"I'm expecting him to make 30 starts, I'm expecting him to give this team 150 innings," he said. "Now, are we going to see the Zack Greinke we saw in 2019, which was the All-Star, the sub-3 ERA, 200 innings, the future Hall of Famer? This team needs that, but I'm not expecting that. I'm expecting a good Zack Greinke, around a 4 ERA, 150+ innings. But, you look at the rest of the starting pitchers in this rotation -- all of them have question marks. Greinke's the only one that's done it consistently. Brad Keller is a close second. But the questions we have about the rotation going into the season are very similar to the questions we had about this rotation last season. And that is, who's going to be that number one in July, August, and September? Who's going to be that losing streak stopper. We expect it to be Zack Greinke, we hope it's Zack Greinke. But to be quite honest with you guys, my true hope is that Daniel Lynch, Carlos Hernandez, Brad Keller, one of the young arms passes up Zack Greinke and becomes that number one at the end of the season."
You can listen to Vernier's entire interview in the embedded player below: