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Royals Place Cole Ragans On IL With Rotator Cuff Strain

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The Royals announced a series of roster moves today. Right-hander Lucas Erceg has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list and righty Jonathan Bowlan has been recalled from Triple-A Omaha. In corresponding moves, right-hander Trevor Richards has been designated for assignment while lefty Cole Ragans has been placed on the 15-day IL due to a left rotator cuff strain, retroactive to June 8th.

The Royals have not yet announced how long they expect Ragans to be out of action but it’s obviously a concern whenever a pitcher’s throwing shoulder is injured. It’s also the second IL stint for Ragans in as many months. A left groin strain sent him to the shelf in mid-May. He just came off the IL recently and started on Thursday. His velocity was down a bit and his results weren’t great but that wasn’t necessarily alarming since it was his first start in three weeks due to the groin injury.

Now it’s possible there’s a more serious issue at play, which could be awful news for the Royals. Ragans had a tremendous breakout last year, posting a 3.14 earned run average over 186 1/3 innings. His ERA has jumped to 5.18 this year, though all signs point to that being bad luck. His 36.4% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate are both improvements over last year’s 29.3% and 8.8% figures. This year’s .382 batting average on balls in play and 62.1% strand rate are both on the unfortunate side, which is why his 2.40 FIP and 2.46 SIERA suggest he’s actually been pitching better than last year.

For the Royals, they started strong but have been in a bit of a skid lately. From May 10th to the present, they have gone 10-17, dropping them out of playoff position. Pulling out of that skid will be a little more difficult without Ragans in the mix.

What will be working in the club’s favor is that they should still have a strong rotation even without Ragans. The club has a collective 3.32 ERA from their starters this year, one of the top five marks in the majors. Kris Bubic, Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo and Michael Lorenzen are a fine quartet. Rookie Noah Cameron was recently called up while Ragans and Lugo were both on the IL. He has decent numbers through six starts, although he was just torched by the Yankees in his most recent outing. Kyle Wright is also on a rehab assignment and could rejoin the club shortly. Veteran Rich Hill is also in the system on a minor league deal, though he could opt-out of that deal in a few days.

One thing that will also help the Royals is that their bullpen gets Erceg back. He was dealing with a lower back strain in late May and landed on the IL because of it. He has a 1.96 ERA on the year while working as the primary setup guy to closer Carlos Estévez and can continue building on that performance after a brief rest period.

Richards, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Royals last month and was only added to the roster a few days ago. He tossed three innings over three appearances but allowed four earned runs while recording just two strikeouts. He issued two walks and three wild pitches.

As a veteran with years of experience, Richards can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent, so he’s been bumped off the 40-man entirely. He’ll likely end up on waivers in the coming days and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him clear.

He has had some good results at times in his career but struggled late last year, which is why he had to settle for minor league deals this year. In Triple-A with the Cubs and Royals, he has a 4.19 ERA this year, giving out walks at a 13.3% clip with three wild pitches. After being traded from the Jays to the Twins at last year’s deadline, he walked 11 batters, an 18.6% clip. He also hit another couple of opponents and threw seven wild pitches. He was passed through waivers late in the year and hasn’t gotten on a better track here in 2025.

Photo courtesy of Peter Aiken, Imagn Images

Royals Outright Thomas Hatch

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TODAY: Hatch cleared waivers and was outrighted to the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate, as per the righty’s MLB.com profile page.

JUNE 5: Between games of today’s doubleheader, the Royals made a roster move. Left-hander Cole Ragans, the scheduled starter for the second game, has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list. Right-hander Thomas Hatch has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move. The club’s 40-man roster count drops from 40 to 39.

Hatch was only added to the 40-man roster earlier this morning. The Royals wound up using five relievers to cover three innings, but Hatch wasn’t among them. He was always going to be a relatively short-term addition, though it’s not clear whether a turnaround this quick was the plan or whether yet another sensational start from rookie Noah Cameron forced the team’s hand. Cameron today became the second pitcher in MLB history to pitch at least six innings and allow one or fewer runs in the first five starts of his big league career, joining the late Fernando Valenzuela in that regard (stat via Sarah Langs and the MLB Network research department).

The 30-year-old Hatch signed a minor league deal with Kansas City over the winter. He’s appeared in parts of four big league seasons (not including today) and pitched 69 innings with a 4.96 ERA, a 19.7% strikeout rate, a 10.7% walk rate and a 46.9% grounder rate. He’s also spent time in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and looked to be headed to the Korea Baseball Organization this past offseason, before concerns surrounding his physical exam caused the Doosan Bears to void their one-year deal.

Health hasn’t been an issue for Hatch in 2025, even with that offseason medical snag. He’s started 10 games for the Royals’ Triple-A squad in Omaha and pitched to a 4.59 ERA with slightly below average strikeout marks (20.8%) and solid command (8.6% walk rate). Hatch was torched for eight runs in one start back on April 15 but has since rattled off seven starts with a 3.68 ERA.

Now that he’s been designated for assignment, Hatch will be traded or placed on waivers within five days. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so his DFA will be resolved in a maximum of one week. If he clears waivers, he’ll stick with the Royals as a depth option, given that he lacks the requisite three years of MLB service or prior outright assignment to reject in favor of free agency. Hatch will collect big league service time and pay for his quick promotion today and for however long he’s in DFA limbo, so even he’s immediately placed on waivers and clears, he’ll still add three days of service and more than $12,500 in pay without throwing a pitch — not a bad few days.

Rich Hill Has June 15 Opt-Out In Royals Deal

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Veteran left-hander Rich Hill signed a minor league deal last month. It appears the club will soon have to make a decision on whether or not to call him up. Robert Murray of FanSided reports that there’s a June 15th opt-out in that deal.

Since signing that pact, Hill has made four minor league starts, two in the Complex League and then two more for Triple-A Omaha. He went four scoreless in the first outing but allowed four earned runs in four frames in the next one. In his first Triple-A start, he allowed three earned runs in five innings. Most recently, he went six innings without allowing an earned run.

Put it together and Hill has a 3.32 earned run average in 19 innings. He struck out 31.5% of batters faced and only walked 4.1%, though those numbers were far better in the two Complex League outings, striking out 41.9% of batters faced with no walks there compared to a 23.8% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate in the Triple-A starts.

However you cut it up, it’s a small sample of work. Hill is 45 years old and it’s hard to guess how effective he can be against major league hitters at this point. He had a decent stretch as recently as the first half of 2023, posting a 4.23 ERA through his first 13 starts with the Pirates. However, he faded from there, with a 6.57 ERA in the remainder of the season. The Bucs flipped him to the Padres but San Diego ended up bumping him to the bullpen and he finished the year with a 5.41 ERA overall.

He tried to get creative last year, with a plan of not signing until midway through the season. The idea was to spend more time with his family and also save his bullets for a second-half playoff push. It didn’t play out as he imagined, however. He signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox in the middle of August and got called up for four relief outings before being released.

Hill has a lot of big league success under his belt, including solid seasons with ERAs near 4.00 in both 2021 and 2022. But given his age and the less consistent results of late, he’s more of a gamble now.

The Royals also don’t have a strong starting pitching need. In fact, they have one of the best rotations in baseball. Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo were on the injured list not too long ago but both are now active again. Noah Cameron got some starts to cover for those injuries and has been great, with a 0.85 ERA through five appearances now. He won’t be able to keep that up forever, especially with a subpar 16% strikeout rate. Still, even if he’s the club’s #6 behind Lugo, Ragans, Kris Bubic, Michael Wacha and Michael Lorenzen, that’s a great setup for the club.

The club is off today and also has off-days on the next two Mondays. Cameron is listed as tomorrow’s probable starter but it’s possible he’ll get optioned after that, now that Lugo and Ragans are back. He could then be recalled towards the end of the month if the club wants a sixth starter when they start a stretch of 16 games in a row. Kyle Wright is also on a rehab assignment and building up his workload at the moment.

There’s not an amazing path for Hill, unless the Royals want to add some long relief to the bullpen. It’s possible the situation changes in the coming days. Perhaps Lugo or Ragans will re-aggravate their respective injuries, or someone else could get hurt. Though other clubs around the league are already dealing with plenty of injury absences, so perhaps there are better opportunities for Hill elsewhere.

Hill should have a chance to make one more Triple-A start before his opt-out decision but it’s possible he’ll be a free agent again soon. If he makes it to the majors, with the Royals or any other club, he’ll be easily the oldest player in the league. Justin Verlander is currently the oldest at 42 years old, born in February of 1983. Hill was born in March of 1980, almost three years earlier.

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images

Royals Select Trevor Richards

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The Royals announced that right-hander Trevor Richards’ minor league contract has been selected to the 26-man roster.  Right-hander Jonathan Bowlan was optioned to Triple-A Omaha in the corresponding move.

It was almost exactly a month ago K.C. signed Richards, shortly after the reliever had been released from a previous minors deal with the Cubs.  Since Richards wasn’t called up to the majors during his brief tenure in Wrigleyville, his first appearance with the Royals will mark his season debut, and an eighth straight season of MLB action for the 32-year-old.

It has been some time, however, since Richards has been particularly effective at the big league level.  Since Opening Day 2022, Richards has a 4.95 ERA and a 12% walk rate over 202 innings with the Blue Jays and Twins.  While Richards managed an impressive 31.4% strikeout rate during the 2022-23 seasons, that statistic plummeted to 22.4% over 65 1/3 frames with Toronto and Minnesota last year.

The struggles carried over into Richards’ minor league performance this season, though he has somewhat righted the ship since joining the Royals organization.  Richards had a 7.27 ERA in 8 2/3 innings with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate, but a far more impressive 1.69 ERA in 10 2/3 innings over 10 innings in Omaha.  With a 22.4K% and a 10.2BB% rate for the Royals’ top affiliate, Richards isn’t exactly in top form, yet it was enough to get him a look in the Show with Kansas City in need of a fresh arm.

Bowlan pitched 1 1/3 innings in yesterday’s 7-2 Royals loss to the White Sox, and he was charged with five runs (three earned) while allowing four walks and two hits.  Richards has often been a multi-inning reliever over his career, so he can eat some innings should circumstances arise this weekend.

Royals, Justin Dunn Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Royals are in agreement with righty Justin Dunn on a minor league contract, reports Jaylon Thompson of The Kansas City Star. The former first-round pick had been pitching in Triple-A with the White Sox but was released last week.

Dunn signed an offseason minor league deal with Chicago. He had a tough run in Triple-A, allowing a 7.64 ERA across 33 innings. He walked more than 15% of opponents while allowing hard contact on half the batted balls against him. He’d started his first seven appearances before moving to the bullpen. Dunn tossed a scoreless outing in his first relief appearance but gave up seven runs (five earned) over the next 2 1/3 frames and was released.

The 29-year-old last appeared in the majors with Cincinnati in 2022. He battled shoulder problems the following season and was limited to three minor league appearances. That culminated in surgery that cost him the entire ’24 campaign. Dunn has averaged 92.4 MPH in this year’s Triple-A work, which is in line with his velocity from his most recent MLB action. He has 32 big league starts to his name between the Mariners and Reds, posting a 4.44 ERA in 133 2/3 innings.

Royals Select Thomas Hatch

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The Royals announced Thursday morning that they’ve selected the contract of righty Thomas Hatch from Triple-A Omaha. Injured reliever Hunter Harvey moves from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Kansas City also technically optioned righty Andrew Hoffmann to Omaha but immediately re-added him to the roster as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader.

Hatch, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Royals back in February. He originally had signed a one-year deal with the Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization, but that arrangement fell through due to some concerns stemming from his physical. Hatch wound up signing with Kansas City instead, and he’s now back in the majors.

Hatch has pitched in parts of four big league seasons, all with the Blue Jays or Pirates, and spent time pitching with Japan’s Hiroshima Carp in Nippon Professional Baseball last year. The former third-round pick (Cubs, 2016) has totaled 69 big league innings and carries a 4.96 earned run average, a 19.7% strikeout rate, a 10.7% walk rate and a 46.9% ground-ball rate in that time.

Whatever concerns led to the voiding of his KBO deal haven’t manifested in an injury this year. Hatch has been healthy all season and working out of the Storm Chasers’ rotation down in Omaha. He’s posted decent overall results in 51 innings — 4.59 ERA, 20.8 K%, 8.6 BB% — but has been better and more consistent than that rudimentary ERA would indicate. Hatch allowed nearly one-third of his seasonlong run total in a single, disastrous outing on April 15, when the Orioles’ Norfolk affiliate trounced him for eight runs. Since that time, he’s started seven games and rattled off a far more presentable 3.68 ERA with below-average strikeout numbers but solid command and ground-ball tendencies.

The Royals were off yesterday due to a rainout in St. Louis, so the entire bullpen is fresh. However, they used six relievers on Tuesday and presumably want some extra length in the ’pen for today’s twin bill. Hatch won’t start either game, but he’s fully stretched out (seven shutout innings in his most recent Triple-A start) and can thus provide ample long relief if either Game 1 starter Noah Cameron or Game 2 starter Cole Ragans runs into a short start. Ragans is expected to start Game 2 today, so he’ll presumably be reinstated from the 15-day IL between games. Cameron, good as he’s been so far in his big league tenure, could wind up being optioned to make room for Ragans’ return — a testament to the strength of Kansas City’s rotation.

The move to the 60-day IL isn’t a reflection of any sort of new setback for Harvey. He’s already missed 57 days, and the move from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL does not reset his minimum stay on the injured list. He’s technically eligible to return as soon as this weekend, but there’s no indication he’s close to returning. Harvey landed on the IL after experiencing shoulder discomfort in his most recent appearance back on April 7.

Harvey was subsequently diagnosed with a Grade 1 strain of his teres major. Harvey resumed throwing in early May but felt lingering discomfort and was shut back down. He hasn’t yet gone out on a minor league rehab assignment, and the team hasn’t provided an update on his status since May 23, when MLB.com’s Anne Rogers relayed that Harvey is playing catch but has still not progressed to the point where he’s able to more seriously ramp up his rehab.

MLBTR Podcast: Jarren Duran Rumors, Caglianone And Young Promoted, And Pitching Injuries

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • If the Diamondbacks can’t climb in the standings, what does their deadline look like? (48:45)
  • As a thought experiment, if the Orioles were willing to listen on Gunnar Henderson, what teams would even have the pieces to pull off a trade? (54:10)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images

Royals Promote Jac Caglianone

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June 2: The Royals formally announced that Caglianone’s contract has been selected from Triple-A Omaha. Their 40-man roster is now full. Outfielder Dairon Blanco was optioned to Omaha to clear a space on the active roster. Kansas City is off today, so Caglianone’s debut will come tomorrow in St. Louis against Cardinals righty Andre Pallante.

June 1: One of baseball’s top hitting prospects is headed to the majors, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that the Royals are calling up Jac Caglianone.  The Royals have an off-day on Monday, which lines Caglianone up for his big league debut on Tuesday when the Royals start a series in St. Louis against the Cardinals.  There are only 39 players on Kansas City’s 40-man roster, so the club can select Caglianone’s contract on Tuesday and then make just one corresponding transaction to create space on the active roster.

It was less than a year ago that Caglianone was still awaiting his draft call, as the University of Florida product was selected just in the 2024 draft when Kansas City took him sixth overall.  Caglianone joins Cam Smith and Nick Kurtz as 2024 first-rounders that have already made their way to the Show, and Caglianone has (as you might expect) forced the issue by obliterating minor league pitching.  While he had only a .690 OPS in 126 plate appearances at high-A ball in 2024, Caglianone has a combined .323/.391/.600 slash line in 225 combined PA at the Double-A and Triple-A levels this year.

Caglianone just played in his 12th Triple-A game today, so as dominant as the 22-year-old slugger has been, a case can be made that the Royals are being hasty in bringing him up to the majors this early in his pro career.  That said, as MLBTR’s Steve Adams noted just a few days ago, K.C. might’ve felt a bit of added motivation due to how little the team has gotten from its lineup, particularly in the outfield.

Today’s 1-0 loss to the Tigers marked the Royals’ sixth shutout loss of the season.  Kansas City is tied with the Pirates for the second-lowest run total (194) in baseball, ahead of only the woeful Rockies.  With the Royals ranking at or near the bottom of the league in several other major offensive categories, something had to give, especially since the team’s strong rotation was almost single-handedly keeping K.C. in the AL Central race.

The seeds for Caglianone’s quick promotion were planted when he made his first appearance as an outfielder with Double-A NW Arkansas back in late April.  Both a star first baseman and pitcher during his college days, Caglianone gave up on pitching to solely focus on hitting as a professional, and he has received a regular dose (though not an exclusive position change) of right field work over the last five weeks of minor league action.

With Vinnie Pasquantino playing first base in K.C. and several players getting cycled through the DH spot, putting Caglianone into right field is a logical way on paper for the Royals to both get a star prospect to the majors, and to help solve their longstanding need for outfield help.  Even as the Royals reached the playoffs in 2024, their entire outfield was a major weak link, and Kansas City’s attempts to upgrade the position over the offseason just didn’t really pan out.  Caglianone’s promotion is the latest step in a shake-up that has already seen MJ Melendez optioned to Triple-A in April, and Hunter Renfroe released earlier this week.

The left-handed hitting Caglianone figures to split time between right field, first base, and probably DH on occasion.  Drew Waters and Kyle Isbel will continue to platoon in center field, while Mark Canha, Michael Massey, and Jonathan India will likely share left field duties, with Massey/India also playing at second base and Canha likely getting some time in right field spelling Caglianone against some southpaws.  Broadly speaking, manager Matt Quatraro could be creative with his lineup given how Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia are the only regulars with above-average production, and even Witt’s 121 wRC+ is a sizeable step back from his MVP runner-up season in 2024.

It makes for a pressurized situation for Caglianone in his first taste of MLB action, as K.C. fans have, if anything, felt Caglianone was overdue for a promotion.  Royals GM J.J. Picollo spoke of the situation to Passan earlier this week, saying “The hardest part about this for us is we’re trying to do what’s best for the player.  That’s ultimately what this is.  You want the player to be as prepared as he can when he comes in the major leagues.  It’s not fair to any player, whether it’s Jac Caglianone or whoever, when a team may be scuffling offensively, to try to put it on him and hope he’s going to come save the day.”

Caglianone’s minor league numbers indicate that he is ready for a step up in competition.  MLB Pipeline ranked him as the 22nd-best prospect in baseball prior to the season, ESPN had him 29th, and The Athletic’s Keith Law (60th) and Baseball America (63rd) also had the slugger deeper in their rankings.  The pundits agree that Caglianone is a gifted hitter with huge power and exit-velocity numbers, but the only question is whether or not there’s too much swing-and-miss in his game to handle big league pitching.  Caglianone has done well in posting respectable strikeout rates in the minors this year though his chase rate is still ungainly.

Due to his inclusion in the top-100 lists, Caglianone qualifies as a Prospect Promotion Incentive player.  This means that if he finishes in the top two in AL Rookie of the Year voting, he’d earn a full year of service time despite not being called up until June.  The timing of Caglianone’s call-up means that if he stays in the majors for the remainder of 2025, he’d be on pace to earn Super Two status and an extra year of arbitration eligibility down the road.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea — Imagn Images

Royals Activate Seth Lugo, Place Lucas Erceg On 15-Day IL

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Seth Lugo made his return to the Royals’ rotation yesterday, and the right-hander showed some rust in allowing four runs over 3 1/3 innings in Kansas City’s 7-5 loss to Detroit.  A sprained middle finger sent Lugo to the 15-day injured list on May 14, and in the corresponding roster move for Lugo’s activation, the Royals placed Lucas Erceg on the 15-day IL due to a lower back strain.

Erceg’s placement is retroactive to May 27, and the reliever hasn’t pitched since May 24.  As Erceg explained to MLB.com’s Anne Rogers and other reporters, he was first sidelined by an illness, and then “tweaked” his back while lifting weights this past Tuesday.

“It’s nothing too crazy, but the plan is to give it time to heal,” Erceg said.  “Obviously, don’t want to mess with back issues because they linger more than others, I would say.  We’re just going to make sure I get back to feeling healthy before I get back out there….We’re just going to take it day by day and get stronger, get better.”

Erceg believes he’ll miss just the minimum 15 days, though the K.C. bullpen won’t be helped by the loss of a key set-up arm.  Erceg has a 1.96 ERA over 23 innings this season, with an elite 3.6% walk rate and a career-best 53.3% grounder rate.  A .207 BABIP has nicely aided that increase in ground balls, though Erceg’s strikeout rate has dropped to 21.4% — considerably down from the 27.8K% he posted over his first two Major League seasons.

While these advanced metrics are some cause for concern, the bottom line is that Erceg has been a reliable set-up man in front of closer Carlos Estevez.  Erceg’s 13 holds are tied for fourth in the majors, while Estevez’s 15 saves also rank fourth in the league.  Daniel Lynch IV has also posted strong bottom-line numbers (2.00 ERA over 27 innings) against some shakier peripherals, and Steven Cruz and John Schreiber have contributed quality innings out of the Kansas City pen.  Manager Matt Quatraro indicated that the Royals aren’t planning to have an assigned set-up man in Erceg’s absence, as numerous pitchers could be used on a situational basis.

Royals Release Hunter Renfroe

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The Royals officially released Hunter Renfroe yesterday, according to the MLB.com transaction log. This was the expected outcome after Kansas City designated the veteran outfielder for assignment last week.

K.C.’s surprising two-year free agent investment in Renfroe did not work. The Royals guaranteed him $13.5MM on a deal that also included an opt-out clause after the first season. Renfroe was coming off a replacement-level .233/.297/.416 showing between the Angels and Reds in 2023. The Royals hoped for a rebound, but his production further tanked in Kansas City.

Renfroe hit .229/.297/.392 with 15 homers over 120 games last year. He made the easy decision not to opt out. The Royals gave him another shot as the Opening Day right fielder. Renfroe batted .182/.241/.242 without a single homer across 108 trips to the plate. His organizational tenure concludes with a .219/.286/.362 slash line over 532 plate appearances.

The Royals will pay Renfroe the remainder of his $7.5MM salary. There’s a decent chance he’ll need to accept a minor league deal if he wants to find another landing spot. If Renfroe logs major league action anywhere else this year, his new team will only pay the prorated portion of the $760K league minimum. That would come off the Royals’ obligations.

Kansas City has swapped out both their season-opening corner outfielders. Left fielder MJ Melendez remains on the 40-man roster but was optioned last month. He’s hitting .215 while striking out nearly 28% of the time in Triple-A. Renfroe is now out of the organization entirely. Drew Waters is starting in left field, while they brought up 27-year-old rookie John Rave to get an opportunity in right field. Top prospect Jac Caglianone looms in Triple-A and could be up within a few weeks, but the outfield figures to remain the front office’s top priority as the trade deadline approaches.

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