In 2022, Zack Greinke decided to return to the Kansas City Royals. He made 26 starts, posting a 3.68 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP over 137 innings. In February 2023, the Royals and Greinke agreed to a 1-year deal and the 2009 AL Cy Young award winner will stay in Kansas City for one more year.
It will be Greinke’s 9th season with the Royals and this year, there’s something worth watching.
Firstly, Zack Greinke earned 4 wins last season. As a Royal, he already recorded 64 wins, which ranks 12th in the Royals history. If he can earn 6 wins or more in the 2023 season, he will be in the top 10 in wins in Royals history. Paul Splittorff is the franchise leader in wins with 166 wins. He spent 15 seasons with the Royals.
In addition, Zack Greinke already threw 1004 strikeouts in the Royals uniform. Last season, he punched out 73 batters. It’s highly possible that Greinke will be in the top 5 in strikeouts in Royals history. However, a very important thing is that he has to stay healthy. He missed some playing time due to injury last season. Moreover, Greinke now has 2882 career strikeouts. Well, it’s possible to see him record his 3000th strikeout this year. But, he has to stay healthy. Back in 2021, he threw 120 strikeouts in 171 innings while playing for the Astros.
Thirdly, Zack Greinke’s K/BB rate is 3.27 by far in his career with the Royals. His K/BB rate of 3.27 now ranks 2nd in franchise history. Greinke owned a 2.70 K/BB rate last season. Let’s see whether he will perform even better in 2023.
Zack Greinke is now 39 years old. The Royals and he agreed to a 1-year deal. It’s hard to tell what will happen after this season. However, he will turn 40 in October. At this moment, Justin Verlander, Rich Hill and Adam Wainwright are the only 3 pitchers whose age is over 40. We are not going to predict the future. But, it’s possible that this season might be Zack Greinke’s last season in the majors. It’s indeed a great decision to stay with the Royals, a team that chose him in the 2002 MLB draft. Furthermore, he has several great seasons with the Royals. In particular, he won the 2009 AL Cy Young award. In that season, he made 33 starts for the Royals, posting a great 2.16 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP over 229.1 innings.
It will surely be great to see Zack Greinke reach some career milestones with the Royals in the 2023 season. But, the most important thing is to stay healthy. Nonetheless, when it comes to Zack Greinke, you can’t ignore that he was actually able to hit. Well, with the universal DH rule, it has been very rare to see a pitcher hit during the regular season. Last season, two-way player Shohei Ohtani crushed 34 home runs, but no other pitcher collected a hit during the regular season. Zack Greinke collected 2 hits in the 2021 World Series. Is it possible to see the Royals let Greinke hit sometime during the regular season?
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