Marsh's reset might be just what KC ordered

This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers' Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CLEVELAND -- A day after the July 30 Trade Deadline, the Royals decided the course of action was to slot the newly acquired Michael Lorenzen into the rotation and option Alec Marsh to Triple-A Omaha, giving the 26-year-old right-hander a chance to work on some things after he had posted a 6.14 ERA in his previous 11 appearances -- bringing his season ERA up to 4.71 through 20 games at that point in the year.

Marsh didn’t take the demotion as a punishment, he said, rather looking at it as a chance to “take a breath and hit the reset button.” The Royals were impressed with how professional Marsh was when he got the news.

From his very first day back in Triple-A, Marsh was ready to get to work.

“It was like, ‘Let’s figure this out and have fun again,’” Marsh said.

Manager Matt Quatraro and pitching coach Brian Sweeney stressed at the time he was optioned that Marsh was going to be needed down the stretch. Now, the stretch is here. September is on the horizon, and the Royals will be relying on Marsh to play a vital role on their pitching staff for the next month-plus.

After Monday’s doubleheader in Cleveland, it looked like Marsh was going to be utilized out of the bullpen. But with Lorenzen out for the next two to three weeks with a left hamstring strain, the Royals could be using Marsh as their fifth starter.

“However I fit, wherever I fit, I’m ready,” Marsh said. “I just like pitching. … And pitching in big games, big situations, it doesn’t matter what role I’m in as long as they trust me enough to give me the ball out there.”

Marsh went down to Triple-A with a clear plan to iron out mechanical inefficiencies that were getting him out of whack over the previous months before he was sent down. Getting more behind the ball and having a consistent arm slot helps Marsh obtain the four-seam fastball profile he’s looking for, get the sinker to the right location and help his sweeper, which is a pitch he’s been working on all season.

The Royals also had Marsh back off his workload to help any fatigue that he might have been experiencing.

“He needed to find a consistent delivery to put him in a good spot,” Sweeney said. “He needed to work on the sweeper. Let him go down, give him a [breather] so he can work on things. Not that he couldn’t do that up here, but I think it was really good for him to have another voice, take a breath and find some things that might have been missing.”

Marsh was happy with how he implemented the changes in Triple-A and brought them into his start on Monday with 4 2/3 innings against the Guardians.

“For me, being mechanically in tune and having my pitches move the way they should gives me all the confidence in the world to go out there and pitch,” Marsh said.

The Royals will be counting on that.