Kennedy Family Values

A stadium full of Royals fans voiced displeasure as Ian Kennedy stepped off the mound during a start last season. He was angry with himself too, having just surrendered four runs. As he stepped over the foul line, the crowd noise faded and two small voices from near the home dugout caught his attention.

There he saw the smiling faces of his two oldest daughters, Nora, then seven, and Renee, then six.

“They had no idea I just gave up four runs,” he said. “They’re just so proud to watch their dad pitch.”

Baseball has always been important to Kennedy, who’s in his 13th Major League season and fourth with Kansas City. But regardless of what happens on the field, having his family around, including his wife, Allison, and five children, keeps him grounded.

Following the 2018 season, in which his two stints on the Injured List matched his total from his 11 prior seasons combined, the Royals suggested a move to the bullpen. Kennedy had made all but two of his 291 career appearances as a starter, so he was at first hesitant when the team approached him about a change.

But it didn’t take long for Kennedy to warm up to the idea. He made his first relief appearance with the Royals on Opening Day — his first outing in relief since 2009 — and earned his first career save two days later.

“When the phone rings and you hear your name, there’s this adrenaline rush,” he said. “You don’t really get that as a starter.”

Kennedy likens the bullpen to a firehouse, which is fitting because relief pitchers are often referred to as firemen.

“We’re guys in the firehouse and we’re watching the house,” he said. “Then the phone rings and it’s like a fireman in the firehouse. All of a sudden they have to be on call, to put out that fire.”

In contrast to starting pitchers, who have days to prepare for each opponent, a reliever’s focus has to be closely concentrated on the game in real time, extracting information from opposing hitters as they face the starter in each at bat. This allows a reliever to be ready to enter in any situation. For Kennedy, this adaptation has proved to be one of the most difficult.

“The biggest challenge is coming into the game, with the game being at full speed and me catching up to that speed,” Kennedy said. “When I come into the game now, I get the feel by watching what [hitters are] doing that day, rather than against me.”

Kennedy also had to figure out how to find his “strikeout pitch” immediately and have it ready every time he’s called upon to pitch, another major difference between starting and relieving.

“As a starter you’d be able to find it,” he said. “As a reliever, you have to find it the first time you throw it.”

In the Royals’ clubhouse, Kennedy has found support in coaches and teammates. Brad Boxberger and Jake Diekman entered the season with a combined 656 relief appearances, and Kennedy cited their influence when talking about camaraderie and leadership in the bullpen.

Pitching coach Cal Eldred moved to the bullpen for the final three seasons of his career, after spending the first 11 as a starter.

More recently, Wily Peralta spent his first five seasons as a starter before transitioning to relief full time in the middle of his 2017 campaign with Milwaukee. Since his Royals debut in 2018, Peralta has appeared exclusively out of the bullpen and is Kennedy’s pregame throwing partner.

“He’s been helpful, especially early on, because as a starter and reliever he can relate, [since] he did it not too long ago,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy’s first several appearances this season were a mixed bag, by his own admission. Three nights after recording his first career save on March 30, fortune flipped and he was charged with his first career blown save in the Royals’ 5–4 loss to the Minnesota Twins on April 2.

After that outing, Kennedy settled into a groove, retiring 24 of the next 30 batters he faced and putting together an 8.0-inning scoreless streak over his next seven outings, which was the longest scoreless streak by a Royals reliever at the time. He capped off April with his third Royals’ Pitcher of the Month award, earning the honor for March/April after posting a 1.32 ERA (2 ER in 13.2 IP) and fanning 19 batters in 12 appearances.

Parallel to Kennedy’s success in the middle of April, one of the most grueling stretches of the early season benefited the bullpen as they built chemistry and confidence. After two days off in the first eight days of the new campaign, the Royals played a stretch of 19 consecutive games without an off day. From April 12 to April 30, Kansas City’s relief corps posted a 3.72 ERA (24 ER in 248.0 IP), the third lowest mark in the American League in that span.

“I think we got in a rhythm and it helped,” Kennedy said. “As soon as you start predicting situations and guys start to know their roles, they’re feeling more comfortable. Regardless of how old or young they are, everybody starts to produce a little bit better.”

Moving to the bullpen also impacted Kennedy’s home life with his wife Allison and their five — soon to be six — children. When Ian was in the starting rotation, his workload was more conducive to family time. When he tried to stick to the same home routine in his role as a reliever, he found pitching out of the bullpen more mentally taxing. At Allison’s insistence, he adjusted his schedule at home.

“As a starter I’m not playing [four out of five games], so I just have to focus earlier in the day to do my workout and my bullpen or whatever it is that day and that is it,” Kennedy said. “My first homestand [as a reliever] I was getting up with the kids, but then I was feeling tired by the time I got [to the ballpark]. And it was her idea, [she said] you need to make sure you get your rest because you might have to pitch every night or prepare to pitch every night.

“Whereas it may not be as physically demanding as starting, mentally I’m locked into every game. I’m just extremely blessed to have her to understand that.”

When Kennedy signed with the Royals in January 2016, the opportunity to bring his family with him year-round attracted him to Kansas City. Allison is from St. Louis, where the couple wed in 2007, and had always aspired to raise her children here in the Midwest. The Kennedys lived in Arizona when Ian signed, but that changed quickly.

“We couldn’t justify staying in Arizona, where we lived, because I would miss my kids too much, I’d miss Allison too much,” he said.

Family time has always been a top priority to Kennedy.

“I get pretty grumpy if I don’t get a lot of time with my kids,” he admitted with a grin. “People give me a hard time about how late [I get to the field]. When I get here, I get all my work in, but I want to make sure I squeeze every last minute of family time with all of my kids or even if it’s just one of them at home at that time.”

Ian and Allison were both student athletes at the University of Southern California, where they met. Their children — Nora (8), Renee (6), Lydia (5), Evelyn (3) and Isaac (18 months) — have demonstrated some of their parents’ athletic energy.

“I see a lot of the competitiveness,” he said. “The skills, that’s yet to be determined. As a parent, we obviously think that our kids are better than they are.”

Last year, Kennedy tried to give his oldest daughter Nora pointers on her softball swing. However, the observant youngster found inspiration in another Royal.

“I saw a video of her two weeks later, hunched over. I was like ‘were you watching Salvy hit or something?’,” Kennedy said. “She’ll look at something and she wants to be really good at it.”

Given what his dad does for a living, perhaps it’s no surprise that Isaac, the youngest of the bunch, has a strong right arm.

“Before he could even walk, we’d prop him up and he’d just grab something and [throw it]. It was unbelievable,” Kennedy said. “If he’s looking at something, he’s going to throw the ball and hit it. He’s got pretty good accuracy. None of our other kids were like that, they slowly got into doing stuff.”

The epitome of a proud father, Kennedy glows when he talks about his kids.

“My priorities are to be a great dad and husband first,” he said. “That drives me to play here.”