Can teams win without an ace pitcher? (Plus a take on Wieters)

Here are two pitching stats for a team in the 2015 regular season. This team had a starting rotation ERA of 4.34 to rank 12th in the American League. The same team got 912 2/3 innings from its starting pitchers this year to rank last in the AL.

Was the team the Orioles? No, the team is the Kansas City Royals and they won the World Series.

In ranking 12th in starting pitcher ERA in 2015, Kansas City was ahead of only Boston, Baltimore and Detroit in the AL.

The Royals blew the doors off two narratives this year. First, that you can't win without a huge payroll. Second, that you need an ace to win in the postseason. Well, maybe there should be an asterisk on that second note. They acquired an ace in Johnny Cueto, but he failed to pitch like one with a 4.76 ERA in the regular season for the Royals. The regular season ERAs of their other three postseason starters were 3.55 for Edinson Volquez, 4.08 for Yordano Ventura and 3.06 for Chris Young.

In the postseason, Kansas City starters went 3-5 with a 4.97 ERA. Only Texas had a higher playoff ERA for its starting pitchers. Cueto's playoff ERA was 5.40 and Ventura's was 6.43.

By the way those four Kansas City starting pitchers made a combined $18.925 million this year. Only Ventura is homegrown. Volquez was signed to a two-year deal for $20 million last Dec. 29. Young was signed for one year in March. Cueto was acquired at the trade deadline. So three of the Royals' World Series starters were not even on their team last Christmas.

Kansas City made up for a not-so-great rotation in other ways, of course. It had an excellent defense and bullpen. It had a balanced offense that could put the ball in play, get clutch hits and take the extra base. The Royals scored big in the playoffs. They were a team motivated to win by losing in the final game the year before.

But when I first noticed the Royals were 12th this year in rotation ERA, I was quite surprised. I didn't think a team with a rotation that shaky could win. But they did.

Can the Orioles win without an ace? They did win 96 games and the division title in 2014 without one. Ironically, the 2015 Royals had such a good bullpen that they finished third in the AL in team ERA this year. The 2014 Orioles were also third in team ERA. If your rotation is not great, your bullpen better be pretty darn good.

In looking at the 2015 postseason, the Blue Jays had an ace, but David Price didn't pitch like it. The Mets had a few young guns and they didn't win. The 2014 San Francisco Giants did have an ace and it was a big reason why they won.

Let's not act like having an ace pitcher isn't huge. It is. But the Royals proved it can be done without one.

Revisiting Wieters and the qualifying offer: Matt Wieters must decide today whether or not to accept the Orioles' one-year qualifying offer of $15.8 million for 2016. If he declines and leaves the Orioles, they will get a compensatory draft pick in June. Chris Davis and Wei-Yin Chen seem certain to turn down their qualifying offers.

In the last few days, the Braves re-signed catcher A.J. Pierzynski to a one-year deal and last night traded shortstop Andrelton Simmons. It now seems that talk of Wieters heading to Atlanta - rumored as a very strong possibility for years - no longer makes sense. With Atlanta apparently off Wieters' list of suitors, will he now be more apt to take the O's qualifying offer?

Also last night, Colby Rasmus accepted the qualifying offer from Houston, becoming the first player to take the offer. Wieters no longer has to be the first.

He could take the offer, get a raise from $8.3 million to $15.8 million, come back, prove himself healthy, play well and then set himself up for a big contract as a free agent 12 months from now. A big contract delayed, but not denied, as Buck Showalter might say. He'd rejoin the only major league team he's ever known, play for a manager he loves in front of fans that he feels the same about.

In the end, Wieters will probably turn down the qualifying offer, but I think the events of the last few days have made this a tougher call for him heading into today.