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.

KANSAS CITY -- If you would have told Kris Bubic at the beginning of this year, when he was just stepping onto the mound for the first time since Tommy John surgery in April 2023, that he would be closing out the season pitching in high leverage as a valuable reliever for the Royals in the postseason, well, it’s fair to say he might not have believed you.

“I don’t think anybody would have expected that,” Bubic said this week in a phone interview.

But Bubic embraced it, and both he and the Royals benefited from it. Fifteen months after his elbow surgery, Bubic returned to the Majors in July and slotted into Kansas City’s bullpen, where he began to pitch his way into high-leverage innings by the end of the season, typically setting up for closer Lucas Erceg. Those two settling into their new roles helped transform the bullpen down the stretch, becoming a unit that manager Matt Quatraro could rely on, and Bubic ended the regular season with a 2.67 ERA. He allowed one run over 4 2/3 innings in the postseason.

“Doing all that for the first time and getting a taste was a lot of fun,” Bubic said. “The adrenaline is something else. When you come into a close game, your heart rate elevates, your awareness and sense of the environment around you kind of sharpens. It’s a lot of fun.”

In 2025, Bubic hopes to use all he learned as a reliever and apply it as a starter again. The 27-year-old lefty will compete for a rotation spot in Spring Training, with the Royals looking for two starters to slot in behind Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha. Bubic and Alec Marsh seem to be front-runners, but the club will let the competition play out in the spring -- and Daniel Lynch IV, Kyle Wright and Noah Cameron all figure to be in the mix.

The competition, Bubic says, is a good thing.

“It brings out the best in you and everybody around you,” Bubic said. “You want to be in an environment like that because it challenges you individually to be your best. And for the team, everybody kind of rises to a certain level when they’re around other competitive people who want to win, who want to succeed.

“It’s such a long season, you can’t predict injuries or how guys will perform, so there’s always going to be a need for depth. There’s always going to be a need for guys to step in, maybe where they’re not expecting to step in.”

There will be debate about keeping Bubic in the bullpen based on his performance there this past season. His velocity increased as a reliever, and he was much more aggressive in the strike zone than he had shown before. In 30 1/3 innings, Bubic walked just five batters for a 4.1% walk rate. His 1.95 FIP stood out, as did the swing and miss on pitches that hadn’t worked well for him in the past (mainly the fastball).

A product of the Royals’ college pitching-heavy 2018 Draft, Bubic posted a 4.85 ERA in parts of four seasons (2020-23) primarily as a starter. He acknowledged the inconsistency he’s had, and if it continues, he won’t stick as a starter in ‘25.

But Bubic believes he’s a different pitcher now than he was at the end of 2022, when he had a 5.58 ERA across 28 games (27 starts). And all that has happened since the end of ‘22 has made him better. With help from the Royals’ new pitching coaches and voices at the start of ‘23, Bubic made sweeping changes to his repertoire and saw a small sample size of success in the two starts before his injury.

“Having 2023, I know it was only a couple of starts, but it was like, ‘OK, this is something different that works,’” Bubic said. “And then having the injury to sit on for over a year -- there’s never a good time for an injury, but it was a way to reset mentally and physically. Having the season I just did, the mindset can stay the same. I can still be in a reliever mindset in a starter’s capacity. Because I like aspects of both. And now, how can I combine them to optimize the situation I’m going to be in?”

Always tinkering, Bubic brought changes to the mound as a reliever and is working on more this offseason. The velocity helped, jumping up almost 2 mph from 2023 to ‘24, but he’s also added some cut to his fastball that helps it play better. That also allowed him to add a sinker while he was on his rehab assignment, and while he only threw the pitch 13 times, according to Statcast, as a reliever, he wants to balance it with his four-seamer as a starter.

Then there’s Bubic’s changeup, which is 5 mph faster than it was in ‘22 thanks to a grip change that helped the movement profile. He also relied on his slider -- what he likes to call a “baby sweeper” -- more this past season. He’s planning on adding another breaking ball this offseason, too, one that will complement his slider. He’s not sure yet what he’ll call it, but he wants it to be a tighter, harder pitch that is platoon neutral.

All of that gives him a good repertoire to be a starter -- and is much different than the fastball-changeup-curveball pitcher he was just a few years ago.

“When I went into the bullpen, my stuff was different,” Bubic said. “My mentality was different. And just because you go back to being a starter doesn’t mean that stuff necessarily changes. For me, it’s going to be the same mindset. That’s what I can take from a bullpen experience like that: The aggressiveness. I’m excited to get to camp and build up and see what’s to come.”