Coming into the 2026 season, a lot of excitement surrounded the Royals and their starting pitching depth. That quickly evaporated in a little over a month after a slew of injuries. One of those depth pieces, a guy who didn’t make the Opening Day roster, despite a lot of hype around him was Luinder Avila.
The 24-year-old right hander from Caracas, Venezuela is a success story for the Royals organization. The Royals signed him when he was just 16 years old. He slowly worked his way through the Dominican
Summer League teams, to the Arizona Complex League and finally through the Royals minor league systems.
He debuted last August, about a week before his 24th birthday. At the 2026 All-Star Break, Avila has made 31 career appearances in the Majors, 9 times being the starting pitcher. His overall numbers are this: 5-4, 4.33 ERA, 70.2 innings, 66 strikeouts, 40 walks.
In his rookie season, he made 13 appearances out of the bullpen, recording a 1.29 ERA over 14 innings, striking out 16.
This year, he has made 18 appearances, 9 as a reliever, 9 as a starter. And the splits and stats are startling.
Here is Avila’s stats as a starter: 9 starts, 38.1 innings, 39 hits, 25 runs, 6 homers, 25 walks, 34 strikeouts, 1.67 WHIP, 5.87 ERA.
His reliever stats: 9 appearances, 18.1 innings, 19 hits, 7 runs, 9 walks, 16 strikeouts, 1.53 WHIP, 3.44 ERA.
I understand some of his starting stats are inflated because of the disastrous start against the Astros, however Avila has looked more comfortable out of the bullpen in my opinion.
His power fastball plays up to upper 90s instead of the mid-90s, which makes his off-speed stuff, especially that deadly curveball all that tougher to handle.
Making Avila to be a starter, makes his stuff worse, it’s an overexposure per se. In short bursts, Avila looks like he has the potential to be a premier closer in the majors. Take his outing on May 2nd in Seattle. The Royals were trailing late in a close game, Avila steps in and threw 2 scoreless innings, his fastball/sinker was averaging 98 mph, his curveball was dropping out of the sky. Allowing his stuff to play up is critical.
To be fair in argument, I’ll choose one of Avila’s better starts. In Cincinnati, he went 5 innings, allowing 2 hits, 1 run, 4 walks and 5 strikeouts. His fastball/sinker combo only averaged 96 mph.
I understand that he’s going to hold back on his velocity as a starter and not overthrow, but his stuff becomes not as good, compared to his relief outings. Also, realistically who else should be the Royals closer next year? Who has as good of stuff and velocity as Avila?
Alex Lange, Carlos Estevez, Matt Strahm are all more than likely not coming back. Daniel Lynch IV will apparently never be trusted in that type of role by the Royals, Lucas Erceg has regressed and showed he’s not a closer. Beck Way seems more middle relief to setup guy.
Could the Royals sign a new closer in the off season? Sure, it’s possible, but this season is already a lost one, after the All-Star Break, let’s start preparing Luinder Avila to be the closer of the future for the Kansas City Royals.
