Eric Cerantola Called Up to the Royals, Replacing Stephen Kolek. What Does He Bring to the Table?

The 26-year-old has dominated so far in AAA Omaha for the Storm Chasers

Feb 20, 2026; Surprise, Arizona, USA; Kansas City Royals pitcher Eric Cerantola (61) delivers to the plate in the fifth inning against the Texas Rangers at Surprise Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

The Royals have made a roster move, sending down Stephen Kolek after a quality spot start, in place of Noah Cameron, against the Guardians on Tuesday. Coming up to replace him is intriguing bullpen arm Eric Cerantola. The Royals drafted him in the fifth round of the 2021 draft, and the 6'5" 26-year-old reliever will look to make an impact in the bullpen. Let's look at his season so far at Omaha that garnered the call-up.

At AAA Omaha, Cerantola has been dynamite out of the Storm Chaser pen. In 12 games, he has a 1.42 ERA, five saves, 18 strikeouts, and a win in 12.2 innings pitched. The underlying numbers on him are also good with a 33.3% K-rate, 2.94 FIP, and an opponents batting average of .217 so far.

A big proponent of his ascension is his slider, which has given batters fits as they have whiffed on 59.2% of the time on that pitch. That whiff rate is an 8% uptick from his 2025 season. He also features a mid-90s fastball and low-90s cutter, both of which have not had a lot of success this season. Cerantola throws his slider nearly 57% of the time, his fastball 33% of the time, and his cutter 10.1% of the time.

In short, he has a wicked slider and strikes out a ton of batters. His main issue, which has persisted throughout his minor league career, is his walk rate. This season, he is walking 11.1% of batters and has given out six free passes in 12.2 innings, which isn't a terrible rate, but it is concerning with his zone%

His zone% lies at 42.1% this year at Omaha, which is the rate of pitches within the strike zone. This is both a good and bad thing as his stuff is good enough to bail him out of situations, i.e. batters whiffing at sliders out of the zone. The bad lies when batters aren't swinging at those pitches leading to more walks.

To counter this, Cerantola has just missed the barrel when he is in the strike zone. He has only allowed a barrel rate of 3.5% and a hard-hit rate of 31.0%. He also doesn't allow a ton of contact in general at 77.5%, which is above average.

Courtesy of TJStats.

Cerantola gets his first shot at the Major League level and he has some good things to offer. His wipeout slider, ability to miss bats, barrels, and hard hits, as well as having an absurd swinging strike rate at 21.5% will be a good foundation for him. It is also good to be a 6'5" reliever with good extension to go with said slider.

Whenever Cerantola gets on the mound for the Royals, fans should be expecting to see a couple of things: a lot of sliders and a lot of batters swinging at his stuff.