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Royals Place Cole Ragans On IL With Rotator Cuff Strain

By Darragh McDonald | June 11, 2025 at 3:10pm CDT

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

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Kansas City Royals Newsstand Transactions Cole Ragans Jonathan Bowlan Lucas Erceg Trevor Richards

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21 Comments

  1. El Chupacabra

    4 months ago

    Yikes! Starting to look like a lost year for Ragans.

    2
    Reply
    • Soto should bat first.

      4 months ago

      Yeah. No kidding. Wow.

      1
      Reply
  2. Acoss1331

    4 months ago

    That’s terrible, this will not help the Royals get a wild card spot this season if he’s not 100%…

    Reply
    • mlbnyyfan

      4 months ago

      That doesn’t sound like good news. Feel free to trade Witt Jr to Yankees and start over. Haha.

      Reply
      • CarverAndrews

        4 months ago

        Kansas City is no longer an unofficial Yankees farm team.

        9
        Reply
      • Jobu's Rum

        4 months ago

        mlbnyyfan – You really don’t have a clue how stupid you sound in injury articles.

        4
        Reply
  3. Bart Harley Jarvis

    4 months ago

    I don’t have any data whatsoever backing this up; but it seems like rotator cuff injuries have declined significantly, in sharp contrast with the increase in elbow ligament injuries. Just an observation.

    4
    Reply
    • CarverAndrews

      4 months ago

      So you are basically stating that yours was an off-the-cuff remark?

      6
      Reply
      • Bart Harley Jarvis

        4 months ago

        @CarverAndrews,
        Nicely done, sir. But I’ve come to expect nothing less.

        1
        Reply
        • CarverAndrews

          4 months ago

          You are too kind sir, but please expect less and perhaps I can deliver at times…

          1
          Reply
        • Bart Harley Jarvis

          4 months ago

          To a fellow Philadelphia baseball fan, I can highly recommend ‘To Every Thing a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia’ by (Penn history professor) Bruce Kuklick.
          goodreads.com/book/show/935770.To_Every_Thing_a_Se…

          1
          Reply
        • CarverAndrews

          4 months ago

          Thanks! A friend of mine in Philly knows him and made the recommendation as well. I need to get it on my reading list, however in these incredibly troubled times the energies first turn towards understanding and contending with the idiocracy that is running the government. Hopefully something as joyful as a Shibe Park retrospective can find its way into the mix sooner than later.

          And yes, as a kid I went to Shibe Park…which makes me at least 39 years old. ; )

          1
          Reply
    • Poolhalljunkies

      4 months ago

      Thats because shoulder injuries just inflammation and dont always require surgery and when they do they dont have a name attached to it like “Tommy john”..still plenty of high profile should problems..like Woodruff, sasaki, lopez..Glasnow, Snell, ohtani, kershaw.yamamoto..interesting theme on Dodgers..Verlander ,rodon..can keep going ..but they might be more common than elbow since they impact position players as well

      Reply
    • Jarred Kelenic's Beer Can

      4 months ago

      TJ seems more common because more pitchers frequently come back from it and still have successful careers. Shoulder surgeries are just as common, but few pitchers who do go under for that ever make it back let alone remain effective. There’s more moving parts in the shoulder than there are in the elbow/forearm region.

      3
      Reply
      • stubby66

        4 months ago

        This type injury ruined Pete Vuchovich and Nelson career with the Brewers

        Reply
    • Tigers3232

      4 months ago

      Shoulders are not as fragile as elbows and can withstand a much heavier burden. I’d also assume many pitch through rotator cuff injuries as surgery can limit range of motion and end a career quicker than the initial injury.

      1
      Reply
  4. Birdie man

    4 months ago

    Man, these pitchers can’t get to the injured list fast enough.

    Reply
    • Jarred Kelenic's Beer Can

      4 months ago

      Almost like consistently throwing 90+ MPH repeatedly for years and years is actually kinda bad for your arm health.

      1
      Reply
      • mlbnyyfan

        4 months ago

        Jobu. live a little life is short, learn to smile

        Reply
  5. hiflew

    4 months ago

    Back before Tommy John became ubiquitous for pitchers, the two words you didn’t want to see anywhere near the name of your pitcher were “rotator cuff.” That was the absolute death knell for a pitcher’s career when I was growing up.

    2
    Reply
  6. beyou02215

    4 months ago

    A lost season indeed. He hasn’t been right since April.

    Reply

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