Kansas City Royals: Bubba Starling non-tender cements bust status

When the Kansas City Royals non-tendered Bubba Starling, they attached the label of draft bust to the former first round pick.

I like Bubba Starling. I’d have liked him even more had he honored his commitment to the University of Nebraska when they gave him a football scholarship to play quarterback for the Big Red.

After being drafted fifth overall in the first round of the 2011 draft, and being offered a $7.5M signing bonus, Starling signed with the Kansas City Royals. Who can blame the guy for shirking on his agreement with the Huskers to play football at the college level? He was headed to the minors with hopes of debuting in the majors shortly after.

Seven years later he was still toiling in the minors and headed towards minor league free agency. The Royals re-signed him to a contract and eventually, he was called up to the majors. His first taste of baseball at the highest level resulted in an OPS of .572 and a strikeout every third at bat.

As if baseball life couldn’t get any worse for Starling, it did. In 2020, his OPS was .456 and he struck out in half of his at-bats.

With the Royals getting serious about building a competitive team, Starling was taking up a valuable spot on the 40-man roster. As the non-tender deadline approached, the writing was on the wall.

Nine years and fifty big league hits later, this former first round draft pick is back on the open market, an official draft bust for the Kansas City Royals.

Since 1969 there have only been two Royals drafted in the first round who have a worse WAR than the -1.6 Starling put up, and only one player who signed for a bigger bonus.

As far as Starling is concerned, I hope he signs a minor league contract and works his way back to the majors, and sticks. He may still have a chance to turn his baseball career into something respectable. His tenure with the Royals, too late to salvage however, and he’ll go down as one of the biggest busts in team history.