Royals prospect getting back to what works with back-to-back gems

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.

The Royals’ Minor League system is full of young upside, especially at the lower levels, and there’s no better example than their top two pitching prospects.

Kendry Chourio, the club’s No. 2 prospect and MLB Pipeline’s No. 74 overall, is just 18 years old and made his debut with High-A Quad Cities last week. His promotion reunited him with David Shields, who is 19 years old and the Royals’ No. 4 prospect.

Together, Chourio and Shields are two of just nine pitchers in their age-19 season or younger to reach High-A or better this year.

Shields has spent the entire season with Quad Cities, making 13 starts and pitching to a 4.03 ERA, which ranked fifth in the Midwest League entering Tuesday’s series opener. After posting a 2.38 ERA with Single-A Columbia last year and being named the Royals’ Paul Splittorff Pitcher of the Year, the lefty was eager to take the next step in High-A and face the challenges that have come with it.

“The season’s gone pretty well so far,” Shields said. “There’s been some ups and downs performance-wise, but for me, I’ve been trying to figure some stuff out about me as a pitcher, how I move. The way I’ve been thinking about it is that this is the Minor Leagues, so if I have to have a couple of bad ones to have an even better one next, now’s the time to do that."

Shields has had a couple of starts this year that have inflated his ERA, but he’s allowed two earned runs or fewer in nine of his 13 starts. His 67 strikeouts were tied for third among qualified pitchers in the Midwest League entering Tuesday, and that includes back-to-back 10-strikeout performances in his past two starts. Shields’ 1.12 WHIP ranks first in the league.

His main focus, he said, has been with his delivery and ironing out some bad habits that he feels have shown up throughout the past year.

“Slowing down, rotating weird -- it just wasn’t me,” Shields said. “I was throwing a lot slower than what I had in the past. … At the start of the year, my slot dropped, and I was coming across my body a lot, so that in and of itself was making my offspeed stuff a lot worse and fastball a lot worse. So the delivery played hand in hand with my pitches.”

Shields has been chasing the feeling he felt when he was in high school at Mt. Lebanon in Pittsburgh. A multi-sport athlete there -- he was also the star quarterback -- Shields didn’t have a ton of pitching instruction, certainly not to the level he has now in pro ball.

When it was his time to pitch, he’d run in from the outfield or wherever he was playing and just start throwing hard.

“I felt really smooth, like a whip, and there wasn’t a ton of thinking about there,” Shields said. “The past year, I’ve been thinking a lot more than I’d like, trying to figure stuff out when I’m out there. I’m trying to get the feeling of that big, loose whip again. It’s been mentally hard, trying to find that feeling again, and I’ve been chasing it.”

To find it again, Shields has done a lot of studying and a lot of trial and error -- trying different things and deciding whether it’s worth keeping. Lately, he says, he’s found a groove and hopes to keep the momentum.

A smooth and efficient delivery ties directly into what Shields can do with his arsenal, which consists of four pitches: fastball, changeup, curveball and slider. He’s averaging 90.5 mph with his fastball, so he doesn’t blow stuff by hitters and will face velocity questions as he rises through the system. But Shields’ changeup and slider have come the farthest in the past year, with the slider beginning to differentiate itself from the curveball to give him two distinct breakers. The changeup was a focus for him last year, and the work has paid off because it’s a pitch that shows good deception and can be plus.

“My dad, for some reason, has always said my changeup is going to be my best pitch,” Shields said. “I was like, ‘All right, whatever.’ But as I got into pro ball and have started to throw it more, he might be right. I’ve been really liking where that’s at. He thinks changeups are the best pitch in baseball. I don’t know why he thought mine was going to be good, but he might be right. I’ll take it.”

The Royals will take it, too, and that includes Shields’ entire arsenal, along with the way he evaluates himself, his starts and the way he competes on the mound. He’s mature beyond his age, which will help him in High-A and beyond.