I have seen several inexplicable comebacks over the 17 years I've been writing this blog. I saw Bartolo Colon bottom out and then become a backbone of multiple rotations in his 40s. I saw Jon Singleton come up, crumble and then return to help the Astros win a ring. I saw Eric Thames come back from Korea with a power-hitting vendetta. I saw Matt Bush finally make the bigs and become a relief specialist in recovery. I saw Rich Hill emerge from minor league hell and become a Dodgers and Red Sox hero. This year alone I saw Peter Lambert return from obscurity to lead the Astros' rotation. I thought I had seen it all.
And never in my wildest dreams did I ever think Randy Dobnak would not only return to the bigs, but be a reliable piece of a team again.
The thing about Randy Dobnak in his 2019 and 2020 heyday with the Twins is that he was a novelty, and everyone knew it. 24-year-old guy with more in common physique-wise with a mechanic than a major league pitcher, never threw especially hard, moonlit as an Uber driver. This was not going to be a sustainable model for MLB success because the age of guys like this finding careers was over, even in 2019. If anything, they could be relief specialists or knuckleballers, but not starters for contending teams. Dobnak was a secret weapon of the bomba Twins team, sporting a 1.95 ERA in 9 appearances, lighting up September and propelling to the playoffs...where he would later be annihilated by both Yankee hitting and Yankee fans. 2020 was a relatively strong sophomore effort for Dobnak, he was reliable and went 6-4 in 10 starts. But after that, the material was never especially great, and even though the Twins kept him around, I'm assuming, for the benefits, the return never exactly happened. I saw him signing for people when I was at Twins camp in 2023, and that's how you know Twins fans take care of their own. Dobnak was basically a triple-A guy by that point and he still had guys lining up for an autograph.
So...the prospect of a Randy Dobnak return was always gonna be a stretch for me. I figured he'd sung his song. He was in camp with the Mariners, looked good....yeah, good for you, but you're not breaking that rotation. If Kade Anderson can't break that rotation til August, you can't either. And then midway through July I noticed that the Royals had a new face in the WAR leaderboards, and then...it dawned on me. The Royals, without Cole Ragans or Stephen Kolek or Luinder Avila, needed rotation help, Dobnak was succeeding in Omaha, it was all they had. And Dobnak was...doing well?
In 9 appearances for the 2026 Royals, Randy Dobnak, who is 31 and still not throwing especially hard, has a 1.58 ERA, a 2.1 WAR, and 29 strikeouts, which is a career high for him. He's also giving up a lot of walks, which has boosted his WHIP, but the dominance says enough honestly. Nobody has figured out how to hit this guy, and he's continuing to stifle genuinely good lineups with craftsmanship. Somehow, since his return last month, Dobnak has been the Royals' best pitcher.
Granted, this is happening during a lost season. Maikel Garcia's hurt again, and probably missing the rest of the season. Pasquatch, Witt, Caglianone and Isbel have all missed a substantial amount of time, and last place in the AL Central is basically theirs. This is a season that will likely result in Matt Quatraro's firing, a few months of Pujols speculation, and the crushing reality that this team still isn't all the way there. Dobnak is a temporary solution to a larger problem, the lack of roster stability and repeated injury beatdowns. The Royals fans are excited about Randy Dobnak because there's not a hell of a lot else to be excited about right now, and they know that Dobnak likely won't be a recurring thing. It'd be great if he continued this into next year like Rich Hill did, but...we all know what's the more probable outcome here.
For now, it's great that he's back, and it's great that he's winning games. Very positive MLB success story. I just wish there was more to say about the Royals this year.
Coming Tomorrow- He came up before Skenes, missed a year, and returned to honestly pick up a lot of Skenes' slack.
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