Kansas City’s Noah Cameron Is Having a Stellar Rookie Season

Noah Cameron has been one of the best rookie pitchers in the American League this season. When the 26-year-old Kansas City Royals southpaw takes the mound tonight against the Chicago White Sox, he’ll do so with a 2.52 ERA and a 3.67 FIP over 16 starts comprising 93 innings. Moreover, his 6-5 won-loss record isn’t representative of his overall effectiveness. In his five no-decisions, Cameron has tossed 29 innings and surrendered just one run.

Ranked third on our Royals Top Prospects list when it went up in late May as a 50 FV prospect, Cameron was described by Eric Longenhagen and James Fegan as “a very stable rotation piece… though he lacks star-level stuff.” That assessment rings true. Not only does Cameron’s 92.2 mph fastball rank in just the 19th percentile in terms of velocity, none of his pitches stand out in a vacuum. By and large, the 6-foot-3, 220-pound lefty dominates lineups by mixing and matching with aplomb. This season, he has thrown 27.2% four-seamers, 19.5% cutters, 18.96% changeups, 18.0% curveballs, and 16.6% sliders. Any pitch at any time is his modus operandi.

“I’m more of an old-school pitcher,” Cameron told me recently. “I’m not a flamethrower — I don’t throw upper 90s or anything like that — so I more lean on reading swings, looking at scouting reports, finding the hitters’ weaknesses. My mentality is to keep guys off balance and try to get quick outs by attacking the zone early. I’m OK with a strikeout, but I’m also OK with a fly out or a ground out. Getting guys outs as efficiently as I can is what I’m trying to do.”

At a time when missing bats is all the rage, that is clearly not his game. Cameron has a relatively meager 20.4% strikeout rate, although that does come with a stingier-than-most 7.0% walk rate. Consistently inducing soft contact, he has adroitly registered a .236 BABIP-against and an 18.3% line drive rate.

He’s not the same pitcher he was when the Royals took him in the seventh round of the 2021 draft out of the University of Central Arkansas. Fastball/changeup heavy with “a little curveball” when he entered pro ball, Cameron now has a variety of weapons that he uses to toy with hitters’ timing. Augmenting the expanded arsenal is another weapon: a bulldog attitude.

“I’ve grown with my mindset over the years,” Cameron told me. “My aggressiveness in the zone has grown. I’m always on the attack. Confidence is a big thing in this game. When you let up is when you get hurt. That goes for any hitter you’re facing, whether it’s a big money-maker guy or a rookie.”

The rookie hurler added his slider this past offseason, his cutter the previous winter. He described the latter as “more of an up-shoot,” a pitch that comes in above the positive line, whereas his slider is “a little bit slower and below the vertical line; it has some depth to it.”

Statistically, the slider has been his best pitch. Hitters have a .155 batting average and a .172 slugging percentage against the offering, slightly worse than their numbers against his curveball. Thrown harder and with more conviction than in previous seasons, Cameron’s hook has elicited a .167 batting average and a .181 slugging percentage.

“A lot of it is the mentality behind it,” Cameron said of his 80.9-mph bender. “I’m throwing it as hard as I can. I just try to rear back and let it loose. It’s gotten shorter and sharper, as opposed to loopier and bigger. The grip strength has gotten a lot better on it. I grip it tighter to allow myself to throw more of a power curve, more of an increased velocity curveball.”

When Longenhagen and Fegan put together their report a few months ago, they called Cameron’s changeup his best pitch. In the left-hander’s opinion, that distinction now belongs to his curveball.

“It had always been my changeup, but this year that has changed a little bit,” opined Cameron. “The changeup was really good at the beginning of the season, but it’s kind of fallen behind a little bit since I’ve added the cutter and slider and am throwing more of them. The feel for my changeup maybe isn’t quite what it used to be. I still love the changeup, though. I’m comfortable with all of my pitches. I enjoy spinning the ball, and the curveball has kind of become my strikeout pitch, so I’d say that one is kind of my favorite right now.”

But again, what Cameron throws, and when he throws it, is mostly about what the data dictates — that, and his old-school pitchability acumen.

“Some games I’ll throw a pitch a lot — say my fastball — but in other games, I’ll throw it just a little,” said Cameron. “It really depends on the lineup against me, and what the situation is telling me.”