The Royals have listed right-hander Daniel Mengden as the probable starter for tomorrow’s game against the White Sox (h/t to Anne Rogers of MLB.com). They’ll have to formally select his contract to add him to the roster, but they won’t need to make any corresponding moves to do so. Active rosters expand from 26 to 28 players with the calendar flipping to September, and Kansas City already has an opening on the 40-man roster.
Mengden will be up for the second time this season, although he’ll be making his first start of the campaign. Signed to a minor league deal over the winter, he was promoted to the majors in the middle of June. He worked out of manager Mike Matheny’s bullpen during his first stint, making four appearances and tossing 4 1/3 innings of two-run ball, striking out six without walking a batter. Despite that quality showing, the Royals nevertheless ran Mengden through waivers and outrighted him back to Triple-A Omaha.
While Mengden hasn’t started an MLB game in two seasons, he does have a fair bit of rotation experience. He worked primarily as a starter during his early-career run with the A’s, opening 48 of his 60 appearances with Oakland between 2016-20. Mengden’s pitch-to-contact approach led to some decent results in a spacious Oakland ballpark early in his tenure, but he ran into more trouble from 2019 onward as his walk tallies escalated.
Mengden has worked primarily from the rotation with the Storm Chasers. He’s started 17 of 21 outings, working to a 4.55 ERA across 91 innings. The Texas A&M product has struck out 19.5% of opponents against a heightened 12.8% walk percentage in the minors this season.
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