Why Mears' arrival may be golden for Kansas City's bullpen

This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers’ Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The trade the Royals made with the Brewers this past offseason focused mostly on the offense Kansas City was getting back in outfielder Isaac Collins, targeted for his on-base skills and the way he could help the lineup score more runs. Over on the pitching side, though, the Royals were sad to lose reliever Angel Zerpa … but equally as excited to get reliever Nick Mears in that trade.

This spring has shown why.

Mears came to Kansas City with three pitches, including an elite slider that recorded a 38.4% whiff rate with Milwaukee last year. Along with his fastball and curveball, it’s a good arsenal for a reliever the Royals envision handling middle-leverage innings for them. But as soon as Mears’ name came up in trade discussions, the pitching department was thinking about more.

“That was a fun one,” pitching coach Brian Sweeney said. “It really was. You lose a pitcher that you really like in Zerpa. But you can get back a pretty darn good reliever, too. I had heard of him before, but I never really looked into it. And as a team, we began looking into it. What’s missing? What can he do to get better?”

Sweeney and his team, along with the Royals’ research and development department, began analyzing Mears’ stuff to see what he could add. They landed on a two-seamer to help him get something inside to righties, and a changeup for another offspeed pitch if the slider isn’t doing what it needs to in any given outing.

During Sweeney’s initial phone and Zoom calls with Mears, he spoke extensively about who the Royals are, what they try to do and how they go about doing so. “Earning the right to speak into players’ lives,” is how the 51-year-old coach often explains this, and it doesn’t take more than a few conversations with current and former players to realize how effective that philosophy can be.

Mears was excited to hear from Sweeney and even more excited about the Royals’ ideas for him.

“It gave me confidence in the way that they had done their homework,” Mears said. “It was a very productive first impression.”

Mears was already working on a two-seamer that offseason because he had the same thought as the Royals about finding a pitch for his zone weaknesses. He throws it around the same velocity as his four-seam, around mid-90 mph or a tick below.

“If we’re looking at my pitches, it’s four-seam up, slider away, curveball down,” Mears said. “It’s moving away from a righty. If it’s away, they’re committing to away. With the two-seam, it’s taking advantage of that commitment to the outside, and it just goes, ‘Whoosh,’ inside. It’s not like a metrically glorious pitch. It’s a different look from everything else that I’m throwing.”

Mears wasn’t as sure about a changeup because he had tried to throw one in 2019 and “it was bad, just being blunt,” he said. He also tried a splitter a few offseasons ago, and it looked too much like his gyro slider. But then the Royals brought up a kick-changeup. The R&D department had scoured through video and data to find pitchers similar to Mears -- who throw from the same slot and release point, along with a similar repertoire -- who also throw a changeup. There were a few different grips they brought to Mears, including a splitter, a three-finger change and a kick-change.

The splitter grip wasn’t going to work for Mears, so he went to the kick-change. The first one he threw in a bullpen where he works out in the offseason “went about 40 feet,” he said.

“The next one I threw, I just tried to throw it as hard as I can -- which, God help the catcher -- but it actually did exactly what we were looking for,” Mears said. “And I was like, ‘OK, well, that’s a very good starting point.’”

From there, it was just about getting more reps with the changeup. The movement got better, and he hasn’t been afraid to throw it in Cactus League games, getting some swing and miss with it and weak contact with the two-seam. He’s also learning how to best sequence the two pitches with the rest of his arsenal and the best locations to throw to right- and left-handers.

The Royals expect a lot out of their bullpen in 2026 following a season in which the unit ranked seventh in MLB with a 3.63 ERA. And they expect Mears to be a huge part of it -- new pitches and all.

“I just want to be another reliable guy down there,” Mears said. “That’s what I strive to be. When my name is called, be consistent and reliable.”