Royals left-hander Kris Bubic will be out for the remainder of the 2025 season after suffering a rotator cuff strain in his most recent outing, reports Anne Rogers of MLB.com. The 27-year-old exited his start on Saturday in the third inning, later telling Rogers that “something’s not right.” He noted that he had been pitching through a stiff shoulder for “a good portion of the season,” but what he felt on Saturday was worse than stiffness. The team placed him on the 15-day IL on Sunday, and further testing evidently found the injury to be quite serious. Thankfully for the young hurler, he is not expected to need surgery (per Sam McDowell of The Kansas City Star) and hopes to have a normal offseason. The Royals have not yet transferred Bubic to the 60-day IL, but they will presumably do so as soon as they need to open up a spot on their 40-man roster.
Most evaluators saw Bubic as a back-end starter in his prospect days, and that’s pretty much who he was over his first three seasons, pitching to a 4.89 ERA in 67 games (57 starts) from 2020-22. He then missed most of 2023 and a good part of ’24 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. When he returned in the latter half of 2024, he looked like a brand-new pitcher. Working out of the bullpen, he produced a 2.67 ERA in 27 games, striking out 32.2% of the batters he faced while walking only 4.1%. His four-seam fastball and changeup, always the bread and butter of his arsenal, looked better than ever, while he turned his slider into a sweeper and enjoyed tremendous success with the new breaking pitch.
The Royals moved Bubic back into the rotation in 2025, and he didn’t miss a beat. While he wasn’t as overpowering as he had been out of the bullpen, he was every bit as successful. Through 20 starts, Bubic pitched to a 2.55 ERA in 116 1/3 innings of work. He was named to the AL All-Star team earlier this summer. While his underlying metrics (3.06 xERA, 3.74 SIERA) suggested he wasn’t likely to maintain a sub-3.00 ERA all season, there was no denying that Bubic was a breakout star. With Bubic, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, and Noah Cameron atop their rotation, the Royals looked like dark horse postseason contenders, even with Cole Ragans on the IL and arguably the least productive offense in the American League.
By trading for Adam Frazier and Randal Grichuk earlier this month, and by extending a potential trade chip in Lugo, the Royals signalled that they would be buying rather than selling ahead of this Thursday’s trade deadline. However, their chances of leapfrogging the four teams ahead of them for a Wild Card berth are significantly lower without Bubic. Kansas City is down to four healthy starting pitchers now, and one of them is 45-year-old Rich Hill. In addition to Ragans and Bubic, Michael Lorenzen and Alec Marsh are also on the IL. The Royals have averaged fewer runs per game than any other team in the AL, and it’s starting to look like they just won’t have enough healthy pitching to compensate for their pitiful offense.
Kansas City will definitely make another rotation addition, it might not be a major one but there will some sort of deal made.
probably somebody that is a free agent after this season or maybe after next season ( a trade that is.)
Tigers beat them to Paddack.
Bs kansas city not even in race
I don’t understand why K.C. thinks they have the ability to contend this year. Offense has been terrible. Signed Grichuk, and extended Lugo when he should have been traded away. Now Bibic is hurt, which should be the nail in the coffin.
Shows how little you know. And learn how to spell.
You K.C. fans are delusional. 4GB with 3 teams ahead of you in the Wild Card. Tied for 2nd least runs in the MLB. Acquired negative WAR Grichuk in a futile attempt to produce more offense. Now your Ace is out for the season. Good luck to you if you think you’ll be watching your team in October.
Rich Hill is having another good start. Acuna took him deep, three walks but he has pitched well otherwise. I cant see them trading for pitching, its going to be Rich Hill and Kyle Wright until the end of the season.
The Royals front office knows what their odds are with securing a wild card position. The front office is trying to impress members of the Missouri House and Senate with authorizing taxpayer funds to be used to finance a new stadium in Jackson County by making it appear that they are out to win now..
Negative WAR is an upgrade from Renfroe, Melendez, etc. Grichuk had a 140 OPS+ last year, and the cost of doing business was a reliever without a spot. There was no downside to making the move.
Lugo and Wacha are locked up until 2027. Anything that happens this year is a bonus. Next year is when the window opens.
PS – I know signing players under $50M is a foreign concept to you Mets fans, but getting Wacha and Lugo for ~40M a year is an absolute coup.
@abcmets
The fans are not the ones making the moves. Trading Lugo only made sense if they couldn’t extend him, and they did. Grichuk is a 20-30 WAR improvement over what they had. Not everyone in the lineup has to be an all star.
Wow, 20-30 WAR!!
Royals fan here and they aren’t in it. Quit drinking the blue juice.
Sounds like a very late 80’s/early 90’s kind of pitching injury. Blast from the past. Good thing he doesn’t have to go under the knife.
Signed lugo to have a very underrated rotation for next year. It makes sense to sign quality pitching who want to stay (trust me im an orioles fan). They got grichuk on the cheap without losing anything. I doubt they will do much now that bubic is out.
They will go trade for an average starting pitcher like Detroit just did and get another OF bat and they will be fine. Lorenzen will be back in about a week….thats another starting pitcher and Ragans will be back by end of August.
Trade *what*, chief? There aren’t any major league assets to deal, and dealing prospects to chase a 13% playoff chance is how you destroy a franchise.
Does anyone know how players do after rotator cuff issues? Like is it a normal bounce back or do they struggle to ever be that guy anymore?
Royals are 4 games out of the W/C, they are still in the race, do they make enough moves to keep in it, doubtful…..but I wouldn’t throw in the towel yet
by the way, Lugo WANTED to remain in Kansas City.
His career is over. Shoulder injuries for pitchers are a death sentence like elbow injuries were before Tommy John got his fixed right. Watching him walk in a run I knew he was hurt bad but a shoulder injury is worse than him needing Tommy John.
Boob itch. Lol
They misspelled Bryant
big bummer. still think the royals should be buyers