KC Royals’ Brady Singer strove for consistency during roller-coaster year

New Kansas City Royals manager Matt Quatraro understandably excused Brady Singer for not being readily available by cell phone or via Zoom the week Quatraro became the club’s new skipper.

Singer was busy getting married the same weekend Quatraro’s hiring became official, then Singer and his wife Tori went on their honeymoon to Hawaii.

Singer, a right-hander who grew into the ace of the pitching staff over the course of the past season, still hasn’t spoken to Quatraro. But the two have exchanged text messages.

“I’ve heard a lot of good things about Matt,” Singer said on Monday. “I know we hired a bench coach today. I know we’re talking about a pitching coach hopefully coming soon. I’ve heard a lot of good things. I think we’re all just really excited to get there, interact with everybody, meet everybody and just get going.”

Singer spoke with reporters on a video conference call after being named the Royals Bruce Rice Pitcher of the Year as voted on by the Kansas City Chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA).

Singer, who hasn’t played for a manager in the majors other than Mike Matheny or a pitching coach aside from Cal Eldred, said he was looking forward to working with the new coaches.

While there’s currently a period of some uncertainty without a pitching coach, Singer laughed about the notion of an atypical offseason.

After all, Singer debuted during the pandemic season of 2020, prepared for 2021 while much of the country was still in quarantine and then the MLB lockout prevented him from having contact with any coaches or staff members from the Royals last winter.

“Luckily, we’ve kind of been through this before, right,” Singer said with a laugh. “I don’t know if I’ve had a regular offseason since I’ve been in the big leagues.”

A coming-of-age season

The Royals’ first draft pick in the 2018 MLB Draft (18th overall), Singer began the season in the bullpen and then was sent down to the minors before he became the anchor of the rotation this summer.

He made 24 starts and went 10-5 with a 3.11 ERA once he joined the rotation. He became the first Royals pitcher with at least 10 wins since Jason Vargas in 2017.

For the season, Singer posted a 3.23 ERA in 153 1/3 innings over 27 appearances. That ERA was the fifth-best by a Royals pitcher with a minimum of 150 innings since 1995.

Singer, 26, said his aim this season was simply to be “consistent.” That’s something he felt he struggled with since coming to the majors.

In seven of his 24 starts this season, he went at least 7 innings and allowed one earned run or fewer.

Singer turned in two of his most dominant outings in back-to-back starts against playoff teams, including one coached by his new manager.

He struck out a career-high 12 batters against the Rays on July 23 and then struck out 10 in 7 scoreless innings against the New York Yankees on July 28 in New York City.

He became the seventh Royals pitcher with back-to-back 10-strikeout starts.

“I felt like the last two years you’d see good games, then you’d see a bad game,” Singer said. “Then you kind of get stuck where you keep going up and down. But (I was) just trying to ride that wave of good games. … I really enjoyed where I was physically and mentally, just being able to stay on that same track.”

As far as a throwing program, he won’t alter much from last year.

“It’s going to be relatively the same thing,” Singer said. “I think I’m going to start around the same time. I think I’m going to start throwing bullpen towards the beginning of the (new) year, maybe end of the year, something like that. I don’t really want to change too much. I liked where I was last year, liked how I felt body-wise, so I think I’ll keep it the same.”

Singer will again train in Florida in the Tampa area along with Royals pitcher Brad Keller. He’ll also throw with Royals pitcher and Singer’s former college teammate Jackson Kowar.

Singer said part of his winter focus will be to continue to get a better grasp on his changeup, which he threw more often last season than previous years.

He hopes to develop a better feel for the pitch and take some speed off of it. He also wants to develop a better overall understanding of that pitch, what he can do with it, when to use it and how often he needs to use it.