Singer (arm fatigue) likely to miss start

KANSAS CITY -- The Royals are planning on skipping Brady Singer’s next turn in the rotation as the starter deals with arm fatigue.

Singer has seen a slight velocity drop in some of his recent starts and has experienced fatigue, which led to having imaging done on his arm Sunday. But everything came back clear, according to the Royals’ medical staff before Monday’s 5-0 loss to the Pirates at Kauffman Stadium. Kansas City has now lost four consecutive games and 11 of its past 13. On Monday, the Royals were shut out for the 14th time this season as Pirates starter Johan Oviedo threw a two-hitter.

Officials believe the fatigue is a result of it being late in the year and the 27-year-old nearing a career high in innings -- he’s thrown 143 1/3 innings after his start Friday, just 10 shy of his career high of 153 1/3, set last year.

“[The scans] all came back very positive, so a little bit of a collective sigh of relief,” general manager J.J. Picollo said Monday at Kauffman Stadium. “The plan right now is, we’re going to skip this start, he won’t go on the [injured list], and hopefully we can line him up on the backend of the rotation next time around. We’re breathing a little bit easier on that MRI.”

Originally, Singer was only going to be pushed back a few days from his start that lined up Wednesday against the Pirates, but with Thursday’s off-day, the Royals thought it would be best to rest him through a full turn of the rotation before starting. If all goes as planned, Singer will line up for Aug. 5 against the White Sox.

Singer has been worked hard in his past few starts, needing 91 pitches in 3 2/3 innings against the Cubs on Aug. 19 and 87 pitches in four innings against the Mariners this past Friday. His fastball velocity registered 1.1 mph below what he has averaged all year, although some of those are actually changeups that Singer is now throwing with a grip similar to his sinker. In his previous six starts, he had a 2.85 ERA across 41 innings and pitched into the seventh inning in four of those starts.

Speaking to MLB.com on Monday, Singer said he feels good beyond the fatigue and does not expect to miss more than one start. If all goes as planned, Singer will line up Sept. 4 or 5 against the White Sox.

“It’s obviously not what you want to see,” Singer said of the velocity decrease. “But you’re getting later in the year, you may start to see that. That was one of the factors. Just fatigue, mainly. Just that feeling at the end of August. ... We thought this was smart to skip one and get back to it the next time.”

The Royals were thinking about backing off some of Singer’s pitch counts anyway as the year came to a close; manager Matt Quatraro and the coaching staff are cognizant of the schedule and watching how taxing each inning is for Singer, who is 8-10 with a 5.15 ERA this year.

“I think that’s something in-game that Q’s going to have to decide is how taxing are those innings,” Picollo said. “If it’s a heavy workload through four or five, that’s not the game you want to run him up to 105 pitches. But we’re aware of where we are in the standings, and we’re going to do what’s right for Brady. We’re not going to put him in situations that could adversely affect his career.

“I think there is something to be said to push through this as well because when you’re in playoff races and you’re playing in October. They’re all beat up in October. This will be a good experience for him to go through, and the medical staff is obviously on board.”

Given the Royals are now 51 games under .500, setting their young pitchers and hitters up for success in 2024 is the priority over these last 29 games. If that means making sure Singer is healthy heading into the offseason, the Royals will do just that.

Kansas City is struggling toward the end of a season that is on pace to set a franchise record for losses. Monday’s game lacked energy, with starter Zack Greinke allowing two runs in 4 2/3 innings and the offense unable to challenge Oviedo.

No Royals batter reached second base. No one was surprised when Oviedo came out for the ninth inning after 97 pitches and finished his outing with a career high 112.

“We didn’t threaten him at all,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “It was an easy, relatively speaking, nine innings.”

“We just kind of came out flat today as a team,” outfielder MJ Melendez added. “I think we could have hit him. I guess props to him for going all nine. But it was a battle with ourselves today, and we didn’t really play how we wanted to.”