Jorge Lopez

Lopez was placed on the bereavement list by the Royals on July 31 and the team designated him for assignment upon reinstatement. Claimed by the Orioles, Lopez went on to make six starts and three additional appearances out of the bullpen for Baltimore, pitching to a 5.28 FIP and 9.5 K-BB% over 38.1 innings. He totaled 123.2 innings for the Royals in 2019, and even as a groundballer pitching half his games at Kauffman Stadium, Lopez had major homer problems (1.96 HR/9). He is mostly a fastball-curveball pitcher, mixing in a changeup roughly 10% of the time, with none of the offerings providing much swing-and-miss. Lopez's strikeout rate is under 20% for his career and he has not cracked 20% since his first year in the majors in 2015. He can eat innings for a bad team and that's about it.

Lopez has worked nearly 190 innings at the big-league level between Milwaukee and Kansas City with a 7-15 record, 5.89 ERA and 1.51 WHIP to show for it. He is a groundball pitcher who walks the narrowest of tight ropes in order to avoid disaster, but he struggles to stay on that fine line. Four of his 18 starts last season were of the quality variety, and he failed to make it through five innings in six of his other outings. He also allowed multiple homers in seven of his starts while allowing three homers in three of those seven outings. The surface numbers did not improve all that much in relief, though he did have a 4.15 FIP and 3.98 xFIP in his 37.1 innings out of the bullpen, providing some hope that he could have a future there. As long as he's a starter, Lopez is not rosterable unless he is is facing Detroit in a split-squad game.

Lopez bounced between the Brewers' bullpen and Triple-A Colorado Springs for the first half of the season with good results, recording a 2.75 ERA in 19.2 innings. After being sent to Kansas City as part of the Mike Moustakas trade in late July, he went on to make six starts, posting a 7.14 ERA despite flirting with a no-hitter in one of those outings. His strikeout rate fell from 17.7% in relief to 15.4% as a starter, but that came with a dramatic cut in his walk rate from an untenable 15.3% to 6.0%. Lopez once projected as a No. 3 starter as a prospect (consensus top-75 overall prospect prior to 2016), with decent fastball velocity (averaging 94.5 mph last year) and a deep arsenal. However, after struggling as a starter he was quickly shifted to the bullpen once Milwaukee's window for contention opened. The Royals wouldn't have much to lose by letting Lopez start again in 2019, but fantasy managers can afford to take a wait-and-see approach in most formats.

Lopez was unable to capitalize on an excellent 2015 that included his major league debut at just 22 years old. He was eaten alive at Triple-A Colorado Springs -- a fate many a minor league arm has suffered -- as he served up 101 hits in 79.1 innings and a brutal 6.81 ERA in 16 starts. In July, the Brewers mercifully demoted Lopez back to Double-A, where he found more success but continued to struggle with control and posted a 3.97 ERA, nearly a half run higher than his 2015 mark. Lopez has shown mid-rotation upside, but last year, the inconsistency in his command that had many doubting him in the past defined his campaign. Lopez is just 24, but he needs to turn things around sooner rather than later.

Lopez earned a couple of spot starts and was hit around a bit (14 hits in 10 innings) but struck out 10 batters and managed to hang around for five innings in each start. He was just 22, and he dominated the Double-A Southern League in 24 starts, posting a 2.26 ERA and 1.10 WHIP in 143.1 innings despite being two years younger than his average opponent. Lopez may not make Milwaukee's rotation out of spring training, but he will be on the short list of replacements should the Brewers need another starter due to injury or ineffectiveness. That's a pretty good bet, considering that the team used 11 different starting pitchers in 2015. Lopez struck out 137 batters (8.7 K/9) in Double-A last year, and he has the stuff to compete. The next step will be tightening the control, as he posted a 3.3 BB/9 with Biloxi in 2015.