The following article appeared in the Topeka Capital-Journal on April 13 – you can read it here.
As the Kansas City Royals head to Chicago on Monday still in search of anyone who can pitch effectively in relief, they probably will glance wistfully over at the White Sox bullpen and long to have Kelvin Herrera back in the fold.
Now a linchpin in the Chicago relief corp, Herrera was just one year ago the anchor of the Royals’ late-game plan.
Herrera, remember, was the seventh-inning specialist in arguably the greatest bullpen in history. He was one third of the famed “HDH” triumvirate of Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland. After Holland succumbed to injury, Herrera’s workload increased. He eventually became the team’s closer in 2017.
There was never a question that Herrera would be traded at some point in 2018. He was much too valuable to waste away in the bullpen of a losing club. So, sentimentality be damned, the Royals dealt away one of the last remaining pieces of the 2015 championship club mid season. To the Royals’ largely depleted farm system, he brought three highly touted prospects in return.
But as their current relief corp seems to dump gasoline on a fire nightly, the Royals now are in search of someone – anyone – who can replicate what Herrera used to provide.
Herrera’s allegiance is now with the White Sox, who host the Royals for a three-game set April 15-17. But he will never forget the accomplishments, and relationships, from his time in Kansas City. After spending the second half of 2018 in the National League, Herrera returned to Kauffman Stadium for the first time opening weekend.
“It’s great to be back,” Herrera said during the opening weekend in Kansas City. “I have a lot of great memories here. This is where everything began for me.
“I felt it when I was driving from the hotel to the stadium and I saw the lights, and I just had that emotion that this was such a special place for me, where we did such special things.”
As a Central Division opponent, he will face the Royals 19 times this season. During the opening weekend against his former teammates, he pitched a scoreless seventh inning in a Royals’ victory March 30. He gave up three hits and a run the next day, but the White Sox held on for the win.
The nine-year veteran admitted it was strange to pitch to players with whom he’d so recently shared a clubhouse.
“I’ve never been in that situation before,” Herrera said about facing the Royals. “It’s a little bit strange. But once you’re on the field, you aren’t thinking about that. You put that aside, because I know I have a job to do.”
For their part, the Royals will take the same attitude toward their old friend.
“It’s not awkward. It’s actually kind of cool,” Terrence Gore said about facing Herrera. “We like doing it. It’s competitive. We know each other so well. It’s like your big brother pitching to your younger brother.
“We’ll always see him as part of what we accomplished (in 2015) We all came from the same team. We will look at him as a brother, no matter what. So we wish him the best, as I’m sure he wishes us the best.”
Much as the players feel like brothers, baseball is, above all, a business. That reality sent Herrera to the Washington Nationals for a few months, then brought him to Chicago as a free agent in the offseason. He said the transition of moving his wife and two children to Chicago happened quickly: “But that’s part of baseball. We know that is just part of it.”
Recognizing that trading players nearing the end of their contracts for prospects is the quickest way to build for the future, the Royals acquired three minor leaguers for Herrera last June.
Rated #14 in the list of Royals’ prospects, Kelvin Gutierrez is the closest of the three to the majors. Gutierrez is playing third base in Omaha and should get at least a taste of the big leagues this season. Eighteen-year-old pitcher Yohanse Morel is years away from the majors, but he ranks #20 in the farm system based on his raw potential. Blake Perkins, rated #23, has moved slowly through the minor leagues, but is an advanced centerfielder and a switch hitter.
So while the Royals are mired in a long-term rebuild of their bullpen, Herrera serves as a key building block for the White Sox relief corp.
“I feel pretty good about being in that role,” Herrera said. “I saw that happen in KC, where I was one of a lot of young players, and we developed that into a winning team. I see that opportunity here, to provide leadership to this team. Anything the other pitchers need, I will do it to help them develop.”
“He’s been awesome, especially to me, a younger guy who hasn’t had a lot of time to get his feet under him at this level,” said Ryan Burr, a 24-year-old rookie reliever for Chicago. “He’s made it very apparent to us younger guys that he’s someone we can go talk to.
“I really look up to him. I remember watching him pitch during those years that the Royals went to the World Series. So obviously he has incredible amounts of talent, but also knowledge that he can share. He’s really taken that leadership role in the bullpen. He’s taking me and some of the other younger guys under his wing and really showing us the ropes.”