Biography
Kristofer Bubic (born August 19, 1997) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2020.
Early and personal life
Bubic was born on August 19, 1997, in Cupertino, California. Born in the United States, Bubic is of Croatian Descent from both of his parents
Amateur career
Bubic attended Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, California, where he played football and baseball, and he graduated in 2015. As a junior, he was 8–2 with a 0.89 ERA, and as a senior, he compiled a 1.20 ERA and struck out 82 batters in 70 innings pitched. He was not drafted out of high school in the 2015 Major League Baseball draft and he enrolled at Stanford University where he played college baseball for the Stanford Cardinal.
As a freshman at Stanford in 2016, Bubic was 0–3 with a 3.26 ERA in 21 games (six starts). In 2017, as a sophomore, he started 15 games and posted a 7–6 record and 2.79 ERA with 96 strikeouts in 90 innings. After the season, he played in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Yarmouth–Dennis Red Sox, earning Pitcher of the Year honors after going 4–1 with a 1.65 ERA in 32+2⁄3 innings. As a junior in 2018, he went 8–1 with a 2.62 ERA and was named to the Pac-12 All-Conference Team.
Professional career
Bubic was drafted 40th overall by the Kansas City Royals in the 2018 Major League Baseball draft and he signed with the Royals on June 18 for $1,597,500. He made his professional debut with the Idaho Falls Chukars where he was named a Pioneer League All-Star. In ten starts for Idaho Falls, Bubic posted a 2–3 record with a 4.03 ERA. Bubic began 2019 with the Lexington Legends. After pitching to a 4–1 record with a 2.08 ERA in nine starts, he was promoted to the Wilmington Blue Rocks. Over 17 starts with Wilmington, he went 7–4 with a 2.30 ERA. Bubic was named to the 2019 All-Star Futures Game.
Bubic made his major league debut on July 31, 2020, against the Chicago White Sox, pitching four innings while allowing three earned runs and striking out three. With the 2020 Kansas City Royals, Bubic made ten starts, compiling a 1–6 record with 4.32 ERA and 49 strikeouts over fifty innings pitched. In 2021 he was 6–7 with an ERA of 4.43.
In 2022 he was 3–13 with an ERA of 5.58 in 129 innings, as he had the worst OBP-against among major league pitchers, at .381, the highest WHIP (1.70), gave up the highest percentage of line drives (25.8%), and gave up the most walks per nine innings among major league pitchers (4.4).
Bubic began the 2023 pitching out of the Royals' rotation. In 3 starts for the team, Bubic logged an 0-2 record and 3.94 ERA with 16 strikeouts in 16.0 innings pitched. On April 21, 2023, it was announced that Bubic would undergo Tommy John surgery, prematurely ending his season.
Bubic was activated from the injured list and reinstated to the active roster on July 6, 2024.