Jonathan Sanchez has earned a spot in the Royals’ bullpen

• Wikipedia
• Sanchez is getting harder and harder to watch.

It can never be said that the Kansas City Royals refuse to be steadfast in their support of mediocre pitching. And the latest statistical atrocity is Jonathan Sanchez. Brought over from San Francisco in an offseason trade for Melky Cabrera, Sanchez won his first game. Since then, the team has gone 2-9 in his starts, and his ERA has ballooned to 7.76. In five of those starts, he has given up at least five runs, including last night’s contest against the Seattle Mariners when he gave up five runs before recording a single out. And that was a team hitting .230 before stepping in against Sanchez.

The Royals’ mantra has long been that there’s nobody else to plug in the rotation, and Sanchez’s salary ($5.6 million this year) makes it difficult to take away his spot. But only lasting an average of a little under four and a half innings, Sanchez has already made it clear where he belongs. Instead of forcing manager Ned Yost to run through his bullpen, it’s time that Sanchez was on the other end of that call, coming in for mop-up duty in a game that’s already out of hand.