Royals' Singer to make MLB debut Saturday

Brady will have something over his fellow singer Lorde. He'll actually get to be a Royal.

Brady Singer, MLB.com's No. 59 overall prospect, will make his Major League debut for Kansas City on Saturday at Cleveland, manager Mike Matheny announced Wednesday. He is scheduled to face Mike Clevinger in the Royals' second game of the abbreviated 2020 season.

Singer, who made 16 starts at Double-A Northwest Arkansas in 2019, is essentially skipping over the Triple-A level entirely, though the lack of a 2020 Minor League season left him without that option. The Royals' No. 2 prospect made his case for a Major League spot with a standout Summer Camp, punctuated by four scoreless innings in an intrasquad game on Saturday.

Brady brought it.#AlwaysRoyal pic.twitter.com/hGaIkcThp3

— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) July 18, 2020

Kansas City had openings in its rotation that allowed Singer to move into the Major League staff this quickly. Brad Keller missed a good chunk of Summer Camp after testing positive for COVID-19 and Jakob Junis remains on the injured list after his own late start.

Taken in the first round of the 2018 Draft out of the University of Florida, the 23-year-old Singer enjoyed a solid first full season last year. The right-hander finished with a 2.85 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 138 strikeouts over 148 1/3 innings between Northwest Arkansas and Class A Advanced Wilmington and earned a spot in the All-Star Futures Game in July. That outing also came at Cleveland's Progressive Field, where he allowed one hit and one walk before striking out Nolan Gorman and Alek Thomas to conclude his one scoreless inning.

Singer's fastball reaches the low-to-mid-90s with plenty of sinking movement. His slider is also a plus pitch, and his changeup is serviceable, especially against right-handed hitters. Above-average control, as evidenced by a solid 6.4 percent walk rate last season, makes his arsenal even more potent.