Noah

Cameron

After allowing five earned runs in back-to-back outings against the White Sox and Yankees, Cameron needed this outing to right the ship. The lefty was strong for most of the night, retiring 12 of the first 15 batters he faced while not allowing a run until the seventh inning. Unlike his last outing, when he couldn’t keep the ball in the yard, Cameron did not allow a homer in Friday’s win and held the Angels to just two extra-base hits on the evening. He still allowed season highs in hits (8) and walks (3), but his ability to limit damage in high leverage spots kept things from getting out of hand. Cameron’s next start is scheduled for Thursday on the road against the Athletics.

Not great. Cameron was cruising early before a calamitous third inning where he served up home runs to Amed Rosario, Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice as part of a five-run frame. He didn’t get a ton of help from Kansas City’s defense, which committed a costly fielding error, but it didn’t make much of a difference in the one-sided affair. There was always going to be some regression coming from a run-prevention standpoint based on last year’s underlying numbers, but Cameron appears to have swung completely to the other side of the pendulum where he’s underperforming his advanced metrics this season. He’ll bring a pedestrian 5.40 ERA, 1.45 WHIP and 17/6 K/BB ratio over 20 innings into a home outing against the Angels on Friday.

Cameron opened the sixth with a 5-4 lead and retired Chase Meidroth to start the inning, but he went walk, single, walk afterwards. Nick Mears replaced him with the bases loaded and got Colson Montgomery to pop out, but he then walked Andrew Benintendi to force in the tying run. Prior to the sixth, Cameron hadn’t walked anyone, but he had given up a pair of two-run homers. He averaged just 90.5 mph with his fastball today, down from 91.3 mph in his first two starts this season and 92.3 mph as a rookie last year. He excelled at generating soft contract last season, but since it’s not happening this year, he might not be a mixed-league guy.

Cameron scattered six hits, and he walked one while striking out five. The southpaw threw 61-of-97 pitches for strikes, and he was able to generate a solid 11 swings and misses among those offerings. Cameron has pitched well in both starts, allowing a total of two runs to put his ERA at 1.69. He gets the honor of facing the White Sox on Sunday.

Cameron got plenty of help from Kansas City’s offense, which lit up Twins ace Joe Ryan for five runs over four innings to open the contest, enabling the young southpaw to cruise to a victory in his season debut. The soft-tosser generated only seven swinging strikes and gave up nine hard-hit balls, but managed to avoid any major damage. He’ll square off against the Guardians on Monday in a road tilt.

It had already been announced that Cole Ragans would pitch against the Braves in Atlanta on Opening Day. He’ll be followed by Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo, with Noah Cameron rounding out the rotation and pitching on Wednesday against the Twins. It’s possible that Cameron could actually get pushed back to Thursday with Ragans working Wednesday on regular rest, but they may not want to push their ace so early in the season.

Cameron allowed five hits, walked two and struck out four. His spring ERA stands at 6.19, but there’s nothing to suggest he has anything to worry about when it comes to his rotation spot. In fact, the Royals’ best healthy alternative, Ryan Bergert, has already been sent down.

Bergert’s departure from camp is a notable development since it virtually guarantees that Noah Cameron will have a rotation spot to open the year. The 26-year-old righty posted a respectable 3.66 ERA (4.32 xERA), 1.26 WHIP and 73/35 K/BB ratio across 76 1/3 innings between the Royals and Padres as a rookie last year. Misner and Rave were candidates for a spot on Kansas City’s bench but will head back to the minors to open the year. They profile as platoon options at the highest level.

The results don’t matter but Cameron surrendered three run-scoring hits and failed to record a strikeout in this outing. The 26-year-old lefty was an unexpected revelation last year for fantasy managers but the lack of strikeouts significantly diminished velocity this spring are serious red flags.

Cameron is a challenging pitcher to forecast from a fantasy standpoint since his pristine surface stats don’t match up with his underwhelming expected statistics in addition to the fact that his 12.8 percent strikeout minus walk percentage ranked 71st out of 127 pitchers with at least 100 innings of work. The soft-tossing 26-year-old’s fastball velocity was down nearly two miles per-hour, averaging just 90.5 mph in his spring debut. It’s too early in the ramp-up process to overreact, but Cameron’s profile contains enough warning signs that last year might’ve been an aberration.