Royals Place Cole Ragans On IL With Elbow Impingement
The Royals announced that left-hander Cole Ragans has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to May 7th, due to a left elbow impingement. They also optioned righty Eric Cerantola. In corresponding moves, they have recalled right-handers Stephen Kolek and Steven Cruz.
Ragans started for Kansas City on Wednesday and departed after throwing 58 pitches over three innings. After the game, he said that he felt soreness and tightness in the bottom of his triceps and elbow. He has twice undergone Tommy John surgery but said this felt different. Manager Matt Quatraro said that removing Ragans from the game was precautionary and that he could even make his next start.
Last night, Quatraro provided more info, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. The skipper said that Ragans had been diagnosed with valgus extension overload and that the next steps would be determined by how Ragans felt in the coming days. Less than 24 hours later, it seems the Royals have decided to put Ragans on the shelf for at least a couple of weeks.
Ragans is capable of ace-type results, as he showed in 2024 when he posted a 3.14 earned run average over 32 starts. He hasn’t been quite at that level since then, with injuries seemingly playing a notable role. He only made 13 starts last year, with a 4.67 ERA, missing time due to a groin strain and a rotator cuff strain. He has a 4.84 ERA this year. Perhaps a reset can help him get back on track.
There’s never a good time for a pitcher as talented as Ragans to hit a setback but the timing in this instance works out relatively well. The Royals recently lost Ryan Bergert and Ben Kudrna to season-ending surgeries, subtracting a couple of depth options. Kolek has also been on the IL for most of this year due to an oblique strain but was able to begin a rehab assignment a few weeks ago.
He came off the IL this week and made one start, filling in while Noah Cameron was experiencing some back tightness. Kolek tossed six solid innings and got the W but was promptly optioned to the minors, as the Royals only needed him for a spot start. This injury to Ragans has forced them to quickly reverse course. Normally, a pitcher optioned to the minors has to stay down for 15 days, but an exception is made when someone else goes on the IL.
Presumably, Kolek will step into the rotation spot vacated by Ragans, alongside Cameron, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Kris Bubic. Kolek, acquired from the Padres last year, has a 4.03 ERA in 165 1/3 career innings. He worked as a reliever in 2024 but was stretched out last year to good results, putting up a 3.51 ERA. His 16.7% strikeout rate was subpar but his 6.7% walk rate and 51.4% ground ball rate were both good figures.
He has a six-pitch mix featuring a four-seamer, sinker, slider, cutter, changeup and sweeper. He had a fairly balanced attack last year, using all of those pitches between 26% and 6% of the time. Statcast also classified one pitch as a curveball. He made four starts on his rehab assignment just now, with a 2.76 ERA in those.
While Ragans is out and Kolek is up, the depth is a bit thinner than it was not too long ago. As mentioned, Bergert and Kudrna are both out for the year. Luinder Avila is currently in a long relief role in the bullpen. Mason Black and Mitch Spence are on the 40-man roster but currently on optional assignment in Triple-A.
Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, Imagn Images
Carlos Estévez Diagnosed With Rotator Cuff Strain
A nightmare season continues for Carlos Estévez. Anne Rogers of MLB.com reports that the Royals’ closer suffered a rotator cuff strain and will be shut down from throwing for three weeks. He’ll be reevaluated at the end of May.
Estévez has been out of action since Opening Day. He took a Michael Harris II comebacker off his left foot in his first outing. That resulted in a contusion that sidelined him for more than a month. The Royals sent him to Triple-A Omaha last night to begin a minor league rehab assignment. Estévez threw 14 pitches and recorded two outs before reporting the shoulder discomfort.
He’ll obviously be pulled off the rehab assignment and is essentially starting the recovery process from scratch. Even if he’s cleared to resume throwing in three weeks, he’ll need to progress through a series of bullpen and live batting practice sessions before he’s ready to embark on a new rehab assignment. That points toward a mid-late June target as the likely earliest return date. He’ll be a candidate for a move to the 60-day IL if they need to clear a 40-man roster spot, though the Royals will probably move Jonathan India (season-ending labrum surgery) there first.
Estévez hasn’t looked right at any point in 2026. Even when he was ostensibly healthy during Spring Training and in the World Baseball Classic, his velocity was nowhere near usual levels. Estévez averaged 89.4 mph on his four-seam fastball over five spring appearances, nearly seven ticks below last year’s level. Pitchers usually build some velocity as they get into game shape and play in higher-pressure settings during the regular season, but that kind of drop in one offseason is very rare. Estévez was around 91 mph in his regular season debut before the foot injury.
The back of the bullpen looked like a potential strength for the Royals entering the spring. Estévez led the Majors with 42 saves last year. He turned in a 2.45 earned run average for a second straight season. Although last year’s career-low 20.1% strikeout rate and 8.2% swinging strike marks were red flags, he would have been locked in as Matt Quatraro’s closer.
Estévez’s absence has pushed Lucas Erceg to the ninth. He has held his own, going 10-12 in save chances while allowing six earned runs through 15 1/3 innings. However, Erceg is missing bats at the lowest rate of his career while struggling to get hitters to expand the strike zone. He’s falling behind early in counts and has walked 11 of 62 opponents (17.7%). Erceg has mostly worked around the free passes, but he’s not leaving himself much margin for error.
The Kansas City bullpen as a whole carries a 4.80 earned run average that ranks 24th in MLB. Only Cincinnati relievers have issued walks at a higher rate, while they’re in the bottom third of the league in strikeouts and whiffs. They’ve been better of late following a league-worst start to the season, but only Daniel Lynch IV and Matt Strahm have strong underlying numbers.
Estévez is the team’s highest-paid reliever, making a $10MM salary in the second season of his $22MM free agent contract. The Royals hold a $13MM option for next year that comes with a $2MM buyout. It’s increasingly difficult to see them exercising that, meaning the two-time All-Star will likely return to free agency at year’s end.
Royals Notes: Ragans, Rotation, Estévez
The Royals got a bit of injury scare yesterday with Cole Ragans departing his start. He’ll continue to be evaluated but the Royals appear to be hopeful that the move was precautionary and that Ragans won’t need to go on the injured list.
Ragans threw 58 pitches over three innings before departing last night. After the game, he told Anne Rogers of MLB.com that he felt soreness and tightness in the bottom of his triceps and elbow. That sounds a bit ominous, especially for a guy with two prior Tommy John surgeries, but Ragans feels this is different. “I’ve been through the elbow stuff,” he said. “I know it’s not what I’ve been through before.” Manager Matt Quatraro told broadcaster Joel Goldberg that he was being cautious with the removal and that he’s hopeful Ragans can make his next start.
The southpaw isn’t out to his best start, with a 4.84 earned run average and 15.2% walk rate so far this year. Regardless, the Royals don’t want to lose him, knowing what he’s capable of. In 2024, he finished fourth in American League Cy Young voting after posting a 3.14 ERA over 32 starts.
If Ragans does ultimately end up on the IL, the Royals are in a decent spot to cover for him, with Stephen Kolek currently on the outside of the rotation looking in. Kolek started the year on the IL himself due to an oblique strain. He came off the IL a couple of days ago and made a spot start when Noah Cameron was experiencing some back tightness. Kolek had a strong start, getting the win against the Guardians after throwing six innings of three-run ball. But since Cameron is expected to make his next start, Kolek was optioned to Triple-A.
A pitcher who is optioned normally has to wait 15 days before being recalled but an exception is made when someone is placed on the IL. If Ragans or Cameron were put on the shelf, Kolek could be promptly recalled.
Kolek has a 4.03 career ERA and just posted a 2.76 ERA on his rehab assignment before that spot start. He would be in the rotation for a lot of teams but is currently blocked by Ragans, Cameron, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Kris Bubic. Other depth options on the roster including Mason Black and Mitch Spence but the Royals recently lost Ryan Bergert and Ben Kudrna to season-ending surgeries.
There’s also a notable injury situation to watch relating to the Kansas City bullpen. Reliever Carlos Estévez exited a rehab game yesterday due to shoulder discomfort. That’s a bit of a worrisome development since that’s a new injury. He landed on the IL a little over a month ago due to a left foot contusion suffered when he was hit by a comebacker.
Even before getting hit by that comebacker, his velocity was down and his early-season results were poor. His fastball averaged around 97 miles per hour for most of his career. He was closer to 96 last year. He was below 90 mph in spring training and posted a 7.20 ERA. In his lone regular season outing, he was at 91 mph and allowed six earned runs in a third of an inning.
Perhaps this shoulder discomfort provides an explanation for the diminished stuff but time will tell what sort of remedy will be required. With Estévez out, Lucas Erceg has been the closer. He has racked up ten saves but not in smooth fashion, having walked 17.7% of batters faced. Among pitchers with at least 15 innings pitched this year, only Connor Phillips of the Reds has a higher walk rate than that. Ideally, Estévez would come back and bump Erceg back to a setup role but it doesn’t seem like that will happen anytime soon.
Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, Imagn Images
Royals Recall Eric Cerantola For MLB Debut
The Royals announced Wednesday that righty Eric Cerantola has been recalled from Triple-A Omaha. Right-hander Stephen Kolek was optioned back to Omaha to make space on the active roster. Cerantola will be making his major league debut when he first takes the mound.
Kansas City drafted the now-26-year-old Cerantola in the fifth round of the 2021 draft. The former Mississippi State righty worked as a starter in the Royals system in 2021-22 before moving to the bullpen in 2023. The Royals selected Cerantola to the 40-man roster in Nov. 2024 in order to shield him from the Rule 5 Draft after a ’24 campaign in which he pitched 72 2/3 innings with a 2.97 ERA, a big 31.4% strikeout rate and a bloated 15.5% walk rate.
Cerantola didn’t make his debut last year, instead spending the season in Triple-A, where he pitched 49 innings with a 4.04 ERA, a 29.6% strikeout rate and an improved (but still too high) 11.3% walk rate. It’s not an overly compelling season from a statistical standpoint, but Cerantola averaged 95 mph on his heater and has garnered plus-plus (70 on the 20-80 scale) grades for his slider over at FanGraphs, where he ranked 28th among K.C. farmhands to begin the season.
Cerantola has gotten out to a terrific start in 2026. He’s pitched 12 2/3 innings of relief and held opposing hitters to just two runs (1.42 ERA) on 10 hits and six walks. He’s fanned exactly one third of the batters he’s faced (18 of 54) and logged a colossal 21.1% swinging-strike thanks largely to that double-plus breaking ball. Command has always been an issue for him and probably will continue to be against major league hitters, but Cerantola adds a nice bat-missing, power arm to a Royals bullpen that currently ranks 21st in strikeout rate and 24th in ERA.
This is the second of three minor league option years for Cerantola. He can be freely sent back to Omaha both this year and next. Given the shaky performance from the Royals’ bullpen overall, there’s plenty of opportunity to earn a long-term spot in the bullpen before Cerantola exhausts his final two option years. He’ll be controllable for at least six seasons beyond the current campaign.
Royals’ Ryan Bergert, Ben Kudrna Undergo Elbow Surgeries
The Royals lost a pair of depth starters to elbow surgeries. The team announced that right-hander Ryan Bergert underwent UCL reconstruction (Tommy John surgery). Prospect Ben Kudrna had an operation to repair an olecranon stress fracture.
Kansas City didn’t provide return timelines, though both pitchers are surely done for the season. Bergert will miss at least a calendar year and probably won’t be back until the second half of 2027 given the usual 14-16 month timeline for Tommy John procedures. It’s unclear if Kudrna will be ready for the start of the ’27 campaign.
The Royals acquired Bergert and another back-end starter, Stephen Kolek, from San Diego at last year’s deadline for catcher Freddy Fermin. Bergert took the ball eight times after the trade, allowing a 4.43 ERA through 40 2/3 innings. He combined for 19 appearances between the two teams, pitching to a 3.66 mark while striking out 22.6% of opponents over 76 1/3 frames.
Bergert began this season on optional assignment to Triple-A Omaha. He made an early exit from his third start of the year and went on the minor league injured list on April 10.
Kudrna was a second-round pick out of a Kansas high school in 2021. He has been inconsistent in his minor league career but made it to Triple-A at the end of last season. Baseball America ranked him the #13 prospect in a below-average K.C. farm system over the winter. Brendan Gawlowski of FanGraphs placed him 12th in the organization last week. Both outlets praise his changeup and slider, though BA raised questions about fluctuations in his fastball velocity. Some evaluators projected him for a bullpen move before the injury.
The Royals added Kudrna to their 40-man roster over the offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He and Bergert are each on the minor league injured list for the time being. The Royals could carry either player on the MLB 60-day IL once they need space on the 40-man. Doing so would require paying them the prorated $780K league minimum salary through the end of the season. Kudrna could be an offseason non-tender candidate if the Royals want extra roster flexibility over the winter.
2026-27 Club Options: AL Central
Last week, MLBTR began a division by division series looking at the club/mutual option decisions facing every team in the American League East. We’ll continue with a move to the AL Central. There aren’t a ton of notable decisions in this division, but the Tigers will have a couple — one involving their likely Hall of Fame closer.
Chicago White Sox
- Austin Hays, OF: $8MM mutual option ($1MM buyout)
Hays signed a $6MM free agent guarantee with the White Sox over the offseason. He’s making a $5MM salary and will collect a $1MM buyout on an $8MM mutual option for 2027. That’s an accounting measure designed to delay paying the final million until the end of the season. This is essentially a one-year deal.
The righty-swinging Hays has worked mostly in a platoon capacity over the past few seasons. He signed with Chicago largely because he felt they offered the best path to everyday playing time. Hays started slowly, striking out 12 times in his first nine games. He landed on the injured list with a strained right hamstring and missed three weeks.
The Sox activated him on Monday but have turned left field over to rookie Sam Antonacci in the interim. With Everson Pereira out to a nice start in the opposite corner, Hays is probably back in a fourth outfield role.
Cleveland Guardians
- Shawn Armstrong, RHP: $8MM mutual option ($1.5MM buyout)
Cleveland reunited with Armstrong on a one-year, $5.5MM contract in free agency. The veteran reliever is making $4MM this year and guaranteed a $1.5MM buyout on an $8MM mutual option.
The Guardians are likely to decline their end even if Armstrong pitches up to expectations. He’ll be entering his age-36 season and doesn’t have the power arsenal that usually pays in free agency. Armstrong’s fastball sits around 93 mph and he has never had huge swinging strike rates. He’s more of a command-oriented reliever, though he has walked seven batters over his first 10 2/3 frames this season.
Armstrong has had a tougher time getting hitters to expand the strike zone, leading to the uptick in free passes. He has given up five runs but has fanned 13 of 47 batters faced. He has three holds while working in mostly medium leverage situations. Armstrong landed on the injured list on Monday with a right groin strain.
- Emmanuel Clase, RHP: $10MM club option ($2MM buyout)
Clase is on unpaid non-administrative leave pending the investigation into an alleged game-fixing scheme. He’s not making his $6MM salary this year, nor does it seem likely he’ll collect the $2MM option buyout.
- Trevor Stephan, RHP: $7.25MM club option ($1.25MM buyout)
Stephan’s career has unfortunately gone off the rails since he underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2024. His velocity was down three miles per hour when he returned, and Triple-A hitters teed off for 22 runs in 17 innings last year. Cleveland dropped Stephan from their 40-man roster in August. He made four appearances this spring but was working with even lesser velocity than he had last summer, sitting at just 90.7 mph after throwing 95-96 early during his early-career days as a setup arm. The Guardians haven’t assigned him to a minor league affiliate. This is an easy buyout.
Detroit Tigers
- Drew Anderson: $10MM club option (no buyout)
Detroit brought Anderson back to the organization after a season and a half in Korea. The right-hander was second among KBO pitchers with 245 strikeouts a year ago, partially because he added a “kick-changeup” he hadn’t fully trusted during his last stint in affiliated ball. The Tigers guaranteed him $7MM with a $10MM club option.
The righty was initially expected to compete for a rotation spot. That changed after the Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander signings. Anderson began the season in long relief. It has been an erratic start, as he has allowed 11 runs through his first 15 innings. Anderson has recorded 17 strikeouts but has walked eight batters and surrendered three home runs. Detroit opted to give Keider Montero a rotation spot when Verlander went down with a hip injury.
There’s still a chance for Anderson to make some starts throughout the season. He’ll at least provide some swing-and-miss upside to a bullpen that lacks that element. It’s too early to have a definitive call on the option, but the early showing points toward it being declined.
- Kenley Jansen: $12MM club option ($2MM buyout)
Coming off a quietly excellent season with the Angels, Jansen signed for $11MM with Detroit. He’s making $9MM this season and has a $2MM buyout on a $12MM team option, making it a $10MM call for the front office. That’s a reasonable enough sum that the Tigers would probably exercise it with a typical Jansen year.
The four-time All-Star is 6-8 in save opportunities so far. Seven of his nine appearances have been scoreless. Detroit has taken the loss in the other two — both of which came on go-ahead home runs (to Jose Fernandez and Nathaniel Lowe, respectively). Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris pointed to the still strong swing-and-miss numbers on Jansen’s cutter at the time of the signing. He’s missing bats at the same rate as he did last year and has the second-highest strikeout rate (28.1%) in the Detroit bullpen. If the home runs turn out to a blip, this should get picked up.
Kansas City Royals
- Carlos Estévez, RHP: $13MM club option ($2MM buyout)
The first season of Estévez’s two-year, $22MM free agent deal with Kansas City was a success. He led MLB with 42 saves while matching his career low with a 2.45 ERA across 66 innings. Estévez’s personal-low 20.1% strikeout rate and 8.2% swinging strike mark were red flags, but he entered this spring with a clear hold on the closer role.
Estévez hasn’t looked the same in 2026. His velocity was way down both during Spring Training and in the World Baseball Classic. The Royals expressed some optimism that’d come with more adrenaline during regular season play. It didn’t happen during his debut, as the two-time All-Star’s fastball averaged just 91.2 mph after sitting around 96 a year ago. His slider and changeup also had precipitous drops. Estévez retired just one of seven batters in a meltdown loss to the Braves that culminated in a Dominic Smith walk-off grand slam.
After the game, the Royals placed Estévez on the injured list with a left foot contusion. He sustained that injury during the March 28 appearance against Atlanta, as he took a Michael Harris II comebacker off his foot. That doesn’t explain why the stuff was so poor during camp, though it has given the Royals a month and counting to hopefully get him right.
Coming into the year, the Royals probably anticipated exercising this option. That’s much tougher to see unless they find some kind of mechanical tweak that gets him back into the mid-90s.
Minnesota Twins
- Josh Bell, 1B: $10MM mutual option ($1.25MM buyout)
Minnesota signed Bell to a $7MM free agent guarantee over the winter. That includes a $1.25MM buyout on a $10MM mutual option. Bell’s first month in the Twin Cities has been a microcosm of his last few years. He came out on fire, hitting .317 with three home runs through his first 13 games. He’s hitting .180 with just one extra-base hit (a double) over his past 16 outings. The end result is a league average .235/.331/.373 line through his first 118 plate appearances. Each Bell season has big highs and very tough lows, though they all tend to conclude with slightly above-average offensive production overall.
Bell is a low-end regular at this stage of his career. The Twins — or a potential taker at the trade deadline — are likely to pass on their end of the option. If he does get traded, Minnesota might need to cover a portion of the buyout, as he’d otherwise cost an accruing team nearly $3MM for the final two months of the season.
- Justin Topa, RHP: $5MM mutual option ($250K buyout)
Topa and the Twins built a $5MM mutual option into his agreement to avoid arbitration last November. He has played on salaries just above $1MM throughout his arbitration window. Topa gets ground-balls but has the American League’s lowest swinging strike rate (3.8%) and has battled injuries throughout his career. The Twins are likely to pass on their end.
Joe Ryan’s arbitration deal includes a $13MM mutual option ($100K buyout) for 2027. He’d remain under club control if the option is declined and won’t hit free agency until the 2027-28 offseason.
Jonathan India Undergoes Season-Ending Labrum Surgery
The Royals announced that second baseman Jonathan India underwent a labrum repair on his left shoulder today. He’ll miss the rest of the season.
India’s second season in Kansas City ends after 17 games. He batted .167 with a pair of home runs while reaching base at a .310 clip. There’s a decent chance this will make an unfortunate end to India’s tenure with the Royals. Acquired from the Reds over the 2024-25 offseason for Brady Singer, he had a disappointing .233/.323/.346 line a season ago.
It’s the continuation of a downward trend for the 2021 NL Rookie of the Year. The former fifth overall pick broke into the majors with a .269/.376/.459 line and 21 home runs. His offensive numbers dropped to league average over the next three seasons as he began battling injuries. India missed time in 2022 with a hamstring strain and dealt with plantar fasciitis in ’23. He played a career-high 151 games during his final season as a Red, hitting .248/.357/.392 with 15 longballs.
Kansas City acquired India in the hope that he’d be a high-OBP presence in front of Bobby Witt Jr. atop the lineup. They also tried to move the career-long second baseman to a utility role. Neither goal worked as intended, as India struggled to get comfortable in left field or at third base. The Royals moved him back to second base full time last May. He also didn’t hit much and dropped to the bottom third of the order in August.
India hasn’t been playing at full strength for much of that time. He first injured his left shoulder diving for a ground-ball last June. He played through the injury in the second half and for the first few weeks of this season before going on the injured list on April 20. It evidently reached a point where he could no longer avoid surgery.
The Royals tendered India an $8MM arbitration contract over the offseason. It was an odd move even at the time, especially if they had any indication the shoulder might remain a problem going into 2026. Their hope for a rebound didn’t pan out and they’re left with an underwhelming second base outlook.
Michael Massey will be the primary second baseman for the time being. He has some power and was a league average hitter back in 2024. Massey battled injury and didn’t hit last season (.244/.268/.313 through 277 PAs). The lefty hitter has a homer and five doubles in 47 plate appearances this year, but he has only walked twice while striking out 11 times.
Righty-hitting Nick Loftin, a career .223/.301/.328 hitter, is K.C.’s primary alternative to Massey. Kevin Newman, Josh Rojas and Abraham Toro are all in the organization on minor league contracts. None of them has topped a .716 OPS against Triple-A pitching.
It’d be an obvious area for the Royals to address if they’re in position to add at the trade deadline. Their 11-17 start isn’t encouraging in that regard, but they’ve rebounded from an eight-game losing skid to win four of their last five. The entire AL Central has played average or worse ball to this point, so it’s much too soon to write the Royals off. Luis Arraez and Brandon Lowe are impending free agents whose potential trade candidacies in July hinge on the respective performances of the Giants and Pirates. Gleyber Torres is also in his walk year, though it’d take an unexpected Tigers collapse for them to trade him to a division opponent.
India will be a first-time free agent next winter. He’s either looking at a minor league contract or an incentive-laden, one-year MLB deal. The Royals will move him to the 60-day injured list whenever they need to open a 40-man roster spot.
Royals Sign Anthony Gose To Minor League Deal
The Royals signed left-handed reliever Anthony Gose to a minor league deal, per a club announcement. The CAA client has been assigned to Triple-A Omaha for the time being.
Gose, 35, was a two-way star as an amateur but drafted by the Phillies as an outfielder in the second round back in 2008. He spent years as a top-100 prospect in that role, eventually debuting with the 2012 Blue Jays after being traded to Toronto. He played parts of five season as an outfielder between Toronto and Detroit but managed only a .240/.309/.348 slash in 1252 big league plate appearances.
In 2017, Gose returned to the mound, beginning a transition back to a pitcher after his outfield career had begun to sputter. He’s pitched in the minors with Detroit, Texas, Cleveland, Arizona and New York (Mets), but the Guardians are the lone club to have brought him to the majors as a pitcher — which they’ve done in three seasons (2021, 2022, 2024).
Gose has pitched a total of 32 major league frames, showing huge velocity and bat-missing ability but shaky command. In his limited MLB work on the mound, he’s posted a 4.78 ERA, fanned 29.7% of his opponents and issued walks at a 12.3% clip. Gose reached the majors as a reliever in 2021, brandishing a fastball that averaged a blistering 99.3 mph. He was down to a 97 mph average the following season and wound up requiring Tommy John surgery in Sept. 2022. He returned to the majors with the Guards in 2024 but was tagged for five runs in 4 1/3 innings with a heater that sat 95.7 mph.
Gose split the 2025 season between the Triple-A affiliates for the Mets and D-backs. His average fastball dipped below 95 mph with New York’s Syracuse affiliate, but he added velo as the season went on and finished out the year sitting 95.9 mph with Arizona’s Reno club. Results-wise, he pitched 37 innings with a 4.62 ERA, a 24.3% strikeout rate and a 13.6% walk rate.
This past offseason, Gose signed with los Leones de Yucatán in the Mexican League. He opened the ’26 season with 5 2/3 innings of shutout relief, allowing only one hit and no walks. He punched out a ridiculous 12 of the 17 batters he faced. That understandably caught the attention of a Royals club that currently ranks 29th in bullpen ERA, with a collective 5.75 mark that leads only the Astros. Gose won’t jump right into the big league ranks, but with a nice showing in Triple-A and/or persistent struggles among Kansas City’s major league relief corps, it’s feasible he could get a look before long.
Can Any Expected Contenders Escape The Early Holes They’ve Dug?
It's commonplace for at least one postseason hopeful to run into unexpected struggles early in the season. In the past, we've seen World Series aspirants and Wild Card hopefuls alike shoot themselves in the foot with sloppy April sequences that jeopardize their visions of October baseball. In some instances -- the 2022 Phillies, the 2024 Mets and, most notably, the 2019 Nationals -- teams are able to rally and make good on those playoff goals. For those 2019 Nats, they went so far as to win the whole thing. Nary a baseball fan in D.C. will ever forget the significance of the 19-31 record they faced roughly one-third of the way through the season.
More commonly, however, a disappointing April can prove to be a backbreaker. Fans need only look as far back as the 2025 Orioles to see a would-be contender whose awful early performance sunk their season before it ever had a chance to get going in earnest. The Orioles wrapped up April with a 12-18 record. By the midway mark of May, they were 15-27 -- buried by nine and a half games in the American League East and with their postseason hopes all but dashed.
There have been plenty of oddities so far in the 2026 season. Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery are the first pair of teammates in MLB history with active streaks of homers in four or more consecutive games. (Oh, and Miguel Vargas has gone deep in three straight.) We're about one-sixth of the way through the season and Mason Miller has fanned a superhuman 71% of his opponents through 11 1/3 innings. Tigers phenom Kevin McGonigle, who skipped Triple-A entirely and broke camp as a 21-year-old, ranks fourth in the majors in Baseball-Reference WAR or fifth in FanGraphs WAR, if you prefer.
But the strangest development of the 2026 doesn't focus on any one player's individual efforts. To see the most bizarre facet of the season's first month requires a step back and a more macro look at the league as a whole.
Entering play Thursday, the four worst teams in baseball weren't the Rockies, Nationals, Twins or any other widely expected cellar dweller. Instead, the bottom-four records belong to the Royals, Phillies, Mets and Red Sox -- four clubs that entered the season with clear designs on contending. Fifth-worst are the White Sox -- not terribly surprising -- followed by the sixth-worst Astros. One game up in the standings are the Blue Jays and Mariners, last year's ALCS opponents.
In any given year, seeing one or two of these clubs faceplant out of the gate wouldn't be all that remarkable. Teams fall short of expectations all the time -- often well short. But to see seven clubs who entered 2026 as win-now teams populate bottom-10 spots in the leaguewide standings with more than four weeks of the season in the books is fairly incredible.
Is the season lost for any of these clubs? Not quite yet, but the margin for error has all but eroded. For most of these clubs -- especially the bottom four -- it's going to take something close to .600 ball the rest of the way to end up in contention. Let's take a look at this year's most disappointing clubs at the season's one-month mark to see if there's a chance of a rebound and, if not, who they might have to begrudgingly listen on at this year's Aug. 3 trade deadline.
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Royals Release Plans For New Stadium
The Royals announced plans for a new ballpark in downtown Kansas City, specifically in the Crown Center neighborhood. A joint venture with Hallmark Cards, the project will also featured mixed-use elements, including new headquarters for both the club and the company. It is expected to cost about $3 billion in total with the stadium itself accounting for about two thirds of that. It will be funded with a mix of private and public sources. Kacen Bayless and Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star and Dave Skretta of the Associated Press were among those to provide further details.
John Sherman purchased the Royals in 2019 and has been focused on getting funding for a new stadium for much of the interim. Kauffman Stadium opened in 1973 and is one of the five oldest ballparks in the league, with only Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium being older.
The path to a new stadium hit a setback a few years ago. The Royals and the NFL’s Chiefs were hoping to get public funding for new stadiums from Jackson County, where Kansas City, Missouri is located. However, voters rejected a sales tax measure in April of 2024. That seemingly played a part in the Chiefs leaving the state, as they plan to play in Kansas City, Kansas starting in 2031.
Unlike the Chiefs, the Royals are going to stay in Missouri. It’s still not clear if Jackson County will provide any of the funding but the project has money coming from other sources. The Royals announced that they would be the primary funders, with over $2 billion in private funding in total. The state of Missouri and the city of Kansas City are also providing some. Missouri passed a law last year which allows the state to fund up to 50% of major stadium construction projects. Last week, the city passed an ordinance authorizing the city manager to negotiate a deal with the Royals worth up to $600MM.
Some details are still not clear. The specific timing of the planned moved hasn’t been announced. The team’s lease at Kauffman runs through 2031, so they have time in that regard. As mentioned, it’s unclear if Jackson County will provide any funds. The exact amount contributed by the state of Missouri hasn’t been reported. Kansas City council still has to give final approval and it’s possible the council could push for a public vote.
“We are so far away from a done deal,” councilman Johnathan Duncan said to the Star this week. “We still need a development agreement. We need a TIF (tax increment financing) plan. We need a CID. And we need some type of actual plan from the Royals that says this is what we’re going to be using the $600 million of bonds for.”
A formal club announcement doesn’t necessarily mean everything will proceed as planned. For instance, the Rays previously announced plans for a new stadium in St. Petersburg on the same site as Tropicana Field. But hurricane damage to the Trop led to fighting about repairs and ultimately squashed the deal. That’s a rare example and it’s unlikely something like that will happen in Kansas City but it illustrates that they still have to dot some i’s and cross some t’s.
Photo courtesy of William Purnell, Imagn Images