6:27pm: Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star reports (via Twitter) that the Royals have insurance on Vargas’ contract. If he misses all of the 2016 season, roughly $6MM of the $8.5MM he’s owed is covered by the policy.
1:39pm: Royals starter Jason Vargas has hit the DL with a torn UCL in his left arm, the club announced. He will require Tommy John surgery, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports tweets.
Needless to say, that diagnosis does not bode well for Vargas’s status this year or next. The surgery almost always requires more than a full year before a pitcher can return to action. That rough timeline would suggest that Vargas will not be available until late in 2016 at the earliest.
Vargas is playing on a four-year, $32MM deal that he signed as a free agent before the 2014 campaign. He is owed $8.5MM next year and $8MM for 2017.
The loss of Vargas represents a significant hit to Kansas City’s rotation depth. The club was already sporting the league’s 7th-highest composite starter ERA, and ERA estimators were even less optimistic of the quality of the current staff. Righty Yordano Ventura will take the open roster spot, but he had just been demoted after falling shy of expectations in the season’s first half.
In spite of the rotation difficulties, of course, the Royals entered today’s action with the American League’s best record. Adding a starter of some kind seemed an inevitability, with the question being whether GM Dayton Moore would aim for big impact or sturdy innings. It isn’t clear that the Vargas injury changes the equation in that regard, though it certainly adds impetus to the team’s need to add an arm (or two).
And Ventura wins the award for shortest demotion of the year.
Ruh-roh…that is a blow to KC.
Not sure how this is a blow to KC. This was the first time he had pitched in 7 weeks and the Royals did a pretty good job during that span.
What it will do is push them to trade for a top of the rotation guy, even more so than they were probably likely would do.
I’m wondering whether we don’t see them double down Cueto and Leake.
Royals go after both of them !
Medlen is better than either of them.
I think the Royals should package Ventura, Colon, and Starling for Hamels if the Phillies would eat a portion of his remaining contract. We then can promote Lamb and you have a Hamels, Volquez, Duffy, Guts, Lamb rotation with Young and Medlen in the wings if the wheels come off. Guts is gone next year and Medlen takes his place full time next year. And you still have Finnegan in the minors.