Royals’ Kris Bubic acknowledges changes to repertoire may have played part in injury

Royals left-hander Kris Bubic had arguably his finest start on April 9 at San Francisco, allowing two hits in six scoreless innings while tying a career-high with nine strikeouts.

In the days after the game, Bubic noticed his recovery was slower than usual but didn’t feel like it would keep him from making his regular start last Saturday against Atlanta.

“Throughout the week I was still able to play, catch and throw bullpen and kind of go through the normal routine in between starts,” Bubic said Friday. “I could kind of tell, like I said, early on in that game against Atlanta that the forearm was tightened up. Sure, cold weather and all that, but I think regardless, that was kind of the first sign for me.

“But I felt I was able to manage it enough that I could get through that outing and then kind of figure out what it was after the fact. Obviously not the news I necessarily expected to hear after the fact but ... pitching the other day didn’t change the outcome. And the elbow was what the elbow was prior to that.”

That elbow is now going to require an ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction procedure, which is commonly known as Tommy John surgery.

Royals head athletic trainer Kyle Turner said the surgery will take place next week in Los Angeles, and Bubic will be out between 12 and 14 months.

Turner said Friday the Royals training staff felt comfortable having Bubic skip the start against the Braves.

“Unfortunately, he sustained a strain to his flexor while he was out there, and subsequently through diagnostics we found that the ligament is probably insufficient to hold up to the stresses that he’s putting on it right now,” Turner said. “The discomfort was from a flexor strain not from his ligament.”

Bubic added a slider this season and upped the velocity on his fastball. He acknowledged those changes could have played a part in the injury.

But Bubic has no remorse about making changes to his pitching style, even as he faces surgery.

“I had known that I have a fairly unique kind of adaptation to throwing stress that I’ve kind of developed over the years, and we found that out kind of going through the draft process,” Bubic said. “But I didn’t necessarily know the state that it was at now. But sure, anytime you tweak a repertoire or add certain pitches or change your mindset or change your intent, all that kind of comes together.

“But sometimes your body adapts to the stress well, sometimes it doesn’t. And that’s just kind of how it goes. It’s the risk you kind of accept being a pitcher because being an overhead thrower obviously isn’t a natural motion. And it’s not that this is all that uncommon in the game anymore. But like I said before, no regrets in terms of tweaking stuff and changing stuff. Just trying to bring out the best version of myself.”

The injury derails what had been a promising start to the season for Bubic, 25.

After posting a 5.58 ERA a year ago, he allowed two runs in five innings in his first outing this year and had a 3.94 ERA in 16 innings pitched.

“There’s never really a good time I guess to get this done,” Bubic said. “I feel like we were really making some good strides. Kind of turning the corner in terms of kind of elevating stuff, a new approach and just being aggressive. And I thought it was getting pretty close to a really good version of myself out there.

“But unfortunately, I just have to put that on pause for now and hope that I can pick that back up when I get back.”