2:50pm: MLB.com’s Anne Rogers reports that the 2028 option will automatically vest at $20MM if Lugo pitches a combined 335 innings in 2026-27 or totals 190 innings in 2027. If he falls shy of those totals, the Royals can still pick up a $17MM club option (or a $3MM buyout). All told, the deal can max out at $63MM from 2026-28.
12:05pm: Seth Lugo has gone from a potential trade candidate to rotation cornerstone, as the Royals announced Monday that he’s signed a two-year extension covering the 2026-27 seasons with a club/vesting option for the 2028 campaign. The new deal reportedly guarantees him a total of $46MM from 2026-27. The money breaks down as a $3MM signing bonus for Lugo, $20MM salaries in both 2026 and 2027, and then a $17MM club option for 2028 with a $3MM buyout. Should Lugo hit the vesting thresholds, that 2028 option will lock in another $20MM salary. Lugo is represented by the Ballengee Group.
Lugo had the ability to opt out of the final season of his previous three-year, $45MM contract, but instead of facing an opt-out decision this winter, the right-hander will be staying put in Kansas City. There wasn’t much doubt that Lugo (who turns 36 in November) was going to decline his player option and leave his final $15MM on the table in search of a larger and lengthier guarantee in free agency.
With the Royals also struggling to stay in the playoff race, there was some speculation that K.C. could look to move the veteran prior to Thursday’s deadline. However, the most recent reporting suggested that not only did the Royals want to keep Lugo beyond July 31, but the club wanted to work out a new contract to convince Lugo to forego his opt-out clause.
Assuming the extension talks indeed cross the finish line, Lugo will join Cole Ragans and Michael Wacha as Royals starters under contract through at least the 2027 season, depending on the specifics of Lugo’s new deal. Wacha’s three-year, $51MM deal signed last November also came under the specter of a player option, as Wacha had the ability to opt out of his $16MM salary for the 2025 season and test the market. Ragans inked a three-year, $13.25MM extension last February that was more about cost certainty than team control, as the deal only covers the southpaw through his second arbitration-eligible year — Kansas City still has arb control on Ragan through the 2028 campaign.
Between this trio, breakout rookie Noah Cameron, and the Royals’ remaining year of arbitration control on Kris Bubic, Kansas City’s 2026 rotation may already be set. This doesn’t include such injured pitchers as Kyle Wright and Alec Marsh, so K.C. has a good deal of pitching depth in place as the club tries to figure out the greater issue of its lack of offense.
Lugo’s career-opening seven-year stint with the Mets saw the righty begin as a starter, before moving into more of a part-time starter/swingman role and then finally as a full-time reliever in 2021-22. Heading into free agency following the 2022 campaign, Lugo was looking to make a return to the rotation, and landed a two-year, $15MM free agent deal with the Padres that included a player option on the 2024 season. After a solid year in San Diego, Lugo declined that option and returned to free agency to find his three-year commitment with Kansas City.
Over two-plus seasons since his return to starting pitching, Lugo’s ERA has dropped from 3.57 in 2023 to 3.00 in 2024 and to 2.95 this year. His SIERAs have remained almost identical in that span, averaging out to a 3.98 number that is probably a fairer reflection of his production than his 3.17 ERA over 466 innings since Opening Day 2023. Despite allowing a lot of hard contact and posting subpar strikeout rates, Lugo has consistently outperformed his peripherals by limiting walks (6.2BB% in the last three seasons) and an elite curveball spin rate, not to mention a fastball that also has plenty of spin despite its modest 91.6mph velocity.
Lugo has gotten a fair amount of batted-ball luck to support his numbers, yet as he is now in his third productive year as a starter, the veteran is clearly doing more than just relying on good fortune to retire batters. He has also answered all questions about whether he was durable enough to hold up in a rotation by pitching 206 2/3 innings in 2024, which was a key reason why Lugo finished second in AL Cy Young Award voting.
It was enough for the Royals to commit an additional $31MM to Lugo on top of the $15MM they had already agreed to pay him through 2026. It’s a significant chunk of change for pitcher’s age 36-37 seasons, yet obviously the Royals have loved what they’ve gotten from Lugo to date and believe he can keep it up deeper into his 30’s. The $23MM in average annual value is a little eye-opening, though as MLBTR’s Contract Tracker tells us, 11 pitchers of age 30 or higher have topped that AAV in free agency over the last three offseasons.
It is also noteworthy than the idea of Kansas City signing a player to such a contract is no longer as surprising as it would’ve been even a few years ago. Now that the Royals have moved out of a rebuild period, owner John Sherman has greenlit higher spending, most notably Bobby Witt Jr.’s long-term mega-contract. The Royals’ playoff appearance in 2024 was evidence that the team’s roster-building is paying dividends, and while their 2025 record has disappointed, there is enough of a pitching core in place to suggest that even league-average hitting could get K.C. back to the postseason. The club’s recent additions of Adam Frazier and Randal Grichuk suggest that the Royals haven’t given up on making a late run this year, even if bigger lineup upgrades will probably be saved for the winter.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan was the first to report that the two sides were closing in on an extension. MLB.com’s Anne Rogers (multiple links) had the details about the two-year length of the deal and the financial breakdown, while the New York Post’s Jon Heyman was the first to report that Lugo would be receiving a guarantee in the ballpark of $46MM.
Photo courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff, Imagn Images
I wouldn’t have complained if he came back to Queens. Good for him.
Damn, I was hoping the Giants could net him in a deal.
Good for the the Royals and Lugo. Really enjoyed him in SD and it’s neat to see the 2nd act of his career play out as it has.
Smart move by the royals. Playoffs chances are great and they don’t want to sell. So you extend the good ones.
Some other teams should learn from this.
Two outcomes to that though: the White Sox and the Braves… White Sox signed a bunch of extensions and crashed, Braves won the WS, had two seasons of 100+ wins, and then this year (which includes injuries to all 5 of their starting pitchers from opening day rotation). So jury is still out on them.
What on earth are you talking about? They are 4 games back in the wildcard race. The Cardinals were 2.5 games back earlier today and you were telling me they were dumb for not selling.
What kind of fake nonsense garbage is this?
King- I meant not great (are was suppose to say aren’t)…so sell or extend.
Not stand pat which is what you want the cards to do.
I dont want the Cardinals to stand pat i said EARLIER TODAY I think they will IF they play well the next few games and specifically today which they obviously did not.
After today I am ready to sell. I think at this point its time to sell but if they played better over rhe last 10 days and also over the last month or so they would be in playoff contention. All the talk about them selling prior to that was nonsense brought on by rival fans like yourself and the Cubs fans that run this site.
First time I brought it up was today. That was after many rumors starting coming out about them selling. Writing was on the wall, you just were holding out hope.
Mean all the rumors are of them selling and not a single rumor of them buying is out there…writing on the wall.
If Kansas City even had an average outfield they’d be a solid playoff team. How have they not added a .275 25-30hr outfielder by now.
The writing has NOT been on the wall. The Cardinals were 2 freaking wins away from being ahead of the Padres in the standings. They have been in the wildcard hunt most of the year. The writing on the wall was from this nonsense site run by Cubs fans trying to will the Cardinals to trade away everyone in the offseason and competing fans like you eating it up.
The rumors come from this site RUN BY CUBS FANS!!!
You want to talk about all the nonsense Padres rumors over the last few years? We could. Its a long list.
King- there have been 10m rumors about the padres on here. Some of them have come true. The biggest misses on this site about the padres has been payroll.
Was told here they wouldn’t go over the tax and now are over the second tier.
As a KCian, 1) In the acquisitions of Frazier & Grichuk they’ gave up guys who weren’t coming to the big leagues permanently for some time; 2) They either don’t have minors players they are willing to sell, or that other teams are interested in; 3) Lugo was the one guy they had to sell & he wasn’t controllable after this year so the SELLERS wouldn’t want him for any reason.
(I’ve over analyzed who they could have gone after and at this point someone like Ryan O’Hearn may be attainable, but not much better than that. IF they do better than that I’ll happily take the L for their W.)
I think part of the reason there are so many rumors about the Madres is because Preller is in on everything. The trade or signing he is working on in the present is just a precursor to the next one.
he had a player option and people were saying he would decline the player option and test the free agency and ask for more.. well looks like he negotiated to just get about 8 million more than the player option would’ve been (player option would’ve been 15 milliion)
King- I never said there were dumb for not selling. I said they will sell and they will.
Who will sell the Royals? It doesnt appear that way dude.
King- the royals never wanted to sell but are now not in a great spot either standings wise.
So instead of trading Lugo they decided to extend him which is a good choice vs not selling and standing pat.
Perhaps they make another minor move or two and try to make a run still but they are keeping their best trade chip.
There’s also the fact that we have several rotation pitchers on the injury list and very little starting depth available in AAA. No, I do not consider The bearded wonder a.k.a. Dallas Keucuel, to be depth.
Royals have a lot of playoff hopeful teams ahead of them, are they better than the Yankees, Red Sox, rays, mariners, rangers?
From a Royals fan here. The answer is no.
id argue with their rotation, even with the terrible OF, they can play a series with any of the teams you mentioned. Pitching wins games. And the Royals rotation, when healthy, is better than all of these, with the exception of MAYBE Seattle.
Home Runs win playoff games. Check the numbers. Mets and Phillies have deeper rotations. Again, check the numbers.
Thankfully they don’t need to jump the Phillies or Mets to make the playoffs
Playoff chances are great? You should bet them to make the playoffs bet 100 and pay for playoff tickets for 2 years.
That’s- yeah it was typo…meant aren’t
Remember Simm, the player has to go along – it isn’t just a team decision and with a lot of guys represented by Boras, the teams never get the chance.
Long- good point
Great for both sides. Love Lugo from his time with the Mets and it’s great to see him come into his own as a starter.
Lugo is off the market officially. Good on the Royals for keeping such a great starter. Come on Hoyer get some bullpen help for the Cubbies!
Surprise! It’s an NBA style sign and trade!
Are teams even allowed to do sign and trades? There’s probably no point though because they could just do trade and extension
The only reason why sign-and-trades happen in the NBA and NHL is because of rules limiting the values and lengths of max contracts a player can sign with a new team. Often, the team losing the player will agree to sign them to the max contract and then trade them so they don’t lose them for nothing, and it’s kind of a win for everyone.
Woosh! It was a joke! So over your head you didn’t even have to duck!
Loogs!
Wow that’s cool for him looks like KC wants to go for it. Good for their fans.
I asked KC fans id they want to try or sell and it’s been all sell so actually not good for their fans. At least the ones on the internet.
As a KC fan I would agree except for this situation. Extending means the pitching will remain good this year and for several more years. We have a window of about 5 years before we have to make decisions on when to sell Witt Jr. We have to make the most of these years.
bobby has a Royal for life contract and he will not be traded because he has a no trade clause. He will NEVER be traded. he is the new face of the Royals..
Bobby has a opt out and as he deeply cares about $ and doesn’t give a it about the Royals he will hold them hostage for a record breaking extension or will be playing in NY LA.
he has a long contract with 4 different years of opt outs if he wishes. starting after 2030. We have a 5 year window to make sure we are winning. If we play 500 ball for all 5 years he will opt out to find a winning situation. We might make the decision to not trade. He can make the decision to find another spot and get huge money.
I don’t think he’s going to opt out and go to the Yankees or Dodgers. he doesn’t seem the type that would demand even more money.
Does seem the type? Is he not a human from earth? Comes from a type of species that will lose hundreds of millions just to help KC out? Heck of a guy if true. Saint Bobby.
Good for KC and Lugo! He recently pitched a quality start against the Cubs, only gave up 2 runs. Take him off of Jed’s wish list!
8 years $160 million
AJ Preller
What the
hell are you talking about?
11 years $217 million
Brian Cashman
Chief: Take your sad head out of your…
(Making fun of Padres extensions.)
Nice.
The Pride of Centenary College of Louisiana, which is itself the pride of the underrated city of Shreveport, on the left coast of the Red River, fabled in story and song. Do you know the name of another rather famous athlete who came out of Centenary?
Robert Parish.
Shreveport, home of the Louisiana Hayride radio and television shows.
I’m a Royals fan and so many fans have been begging to trade Lugo and get some “future” in return. Such stupid fans! I have been predicting that they wouldn’t trade him and then would re-sign him in the off season. Only thing I was wrong about was how quickly they gave him a new deal.
Nobody is as smart as you! The internet, a place where fools assert their keyboard warrior selves.
You ever wonder if these people behave this way in RL? Kind of reminds me what Mike Tyson said: “Social media’s made ya’ll way to comfortable disrespecting people without getting punched in the face for it.”
Might be one of the best rotations in the league next year:
-Seth Lugo
-Cole Ragens
-Michael Wacha
-Kris Bubic
-Noah Cameron
-Kyle Wright
Just need some outfielders who are better than little league.
we don’t even know what’s going to happen with Bubic or Reagan’s in terms of health. and we don’t know what Kyle Wright will be like.
You think Bubic or Ragens could be out next year?!?! I don’t. It sounds like a simple strain for Bubic and there seems to be no sign of surgery for Ragens. Wright is just an additional arm. that could be great if one of the others is hurt. Every team in baseball would want this rotation for their team. They just have done nothing about the OF.
They could do what Seattle refused to do, trade one of those pitchers for a legit bat
Rockies do something like this – Man they are just a horrible organization that has no clue.
Royals do something like this – Brilliant move by them. Extending a guy like this is exactly what they need.
Life just isn’t fair.
Except the Rockies have a homegrown arm like Anthony Senzatela who starts his career throwing 579 innings of nothing special innings: 15.7 k%, 4.84 era, 4.42 FIP, 1.41 WHIP and a batting line against of .278/.336/.444 and the Rockies decide, yup, let’s give him 5/50.5m.
OK, so tell me ANY team in the major leagues that has not given out a contract to a player that underperformed.
Good teams earn the benefit of the doubt bad teams don’t have. The Royals have had enough success in the recent past, including a championship. The Rockies would be 20+ games under .500 and hand out 10 extensions. Not quite apples to apples.
I think Lugo getting traded was a long short from when the rumors started.
He gave up a lot of $$ to stay in KC
Not really. Guys who hit free agency at 36 don’t get big contracts anymore no matter how good they’ve been.
Kansas City must be in the works on a bat otherwise this wouldn’t make since. After the Arizona trade with one more solid outfield addition they could get in with the head to heads they have remaining. They just took two of three from Cleveland right front them!
I am a big Royals fan and I’m going to predict that they will make a trade with the Mets to get Starling Marte. He technically is an outfielder but mainly is a DH. Ultimately the Royals just need another good bat. He would work great for them. That’s my prediction.
can he play Centerfield?
I think this move is more about the next few years than this year. KC has a decent window to build around Witt.
Going contrarian here that this is not a good use of financial resources for an older SP that may have just had his peak final year of good performance. KC badly needs offense (2 to 3 bats) to help BWJ. They only made playoffs last year by going 12-1 vs historical loss record of WSox. This year exposed bottom feeding and decent pitching/bad offense isn’t a recipe to earn postseason berth.
Umm….not to burst your bubble but ALL postseason teams last year kicked the White Sox asses last year!!! If Lugo had been a starting pitcher his entire career, I would of hated this deal, but his first several years of his career were from the bullpen, pitching 50 or 60 innings a year instead of 200. Not a typical 35 year old starting pitchers arm.
KC was 74-75 against everyone else in 2024 while going 12-1 vs the highest loss team in MLB history. If a FO is self-critical, they have to look at that as who they were. All I’m saying is they are paying an older pitcher 50% more the next 2yrs while it’s team is below average even off his good year. They are going to be overly reliant on its recent high draft pick position players (from being bad several years) magically being its major offensive improvement at a low price. That is difficult since most position player high draft picks don’t pan out in baseball whether it is not adjusting to failure and/or nagging injuries.
yup, that team also won a series against the Orioles. If they were a team that didn’t belong in the post season they would have been blown out first round. Not won a series.
They weren’t and aren’t ready to win a championship but honestly only a couple of teams are every year.
I get it that everyone talks about how KC owned the Sox last year. They forget however that we had to play the exact same number of games with the Guardians, and Tigers. Both of who won post season series last year. Everyone plays crappy teams. I honestly think the Sox record was because there were so many above average teams in the division.
Lugo was told either sign or be traded; not losing you in offseason for nothing. He wanted to stay in KC and gave a $25-30 million home town discount. Stability for him and family is worth it. He certainly won’t be poor
Yellow – I’ll go along with all except 25-30
Mil discount. I don’t think at turning 36 he gets another year tacked on guaranteed and I don’t think he gets 15 mil / year more either.
I’d say more like he did want to stay and he took the bird in the hand approach while realizing he might get a little more money (or might not) somewhere else.
I don’t think there is any way a player would discount 30 mil on that size of a deal (maybe if it was 600 mil and he took 570).
Smart extension for both sides. Lugp has been great and KC has decent starting pitching to back him. Not great but definitely solid
If they can get a little more out of the 4th and 5th spots they would be very good
Yeah as i said Lugo has been great and definitely solid behind him.
I didn’t say bad. For what its worth Ragans has had 2 or 3 good years and 2 or 3 so so to below average. Wacha is around a 4.00 career era guy also decent but not spectacular. Cameron great so far. Lugo very good.
As i said if they can get a little more out of 4 and 5 it’d be a very good staff all round
Once they are healthy, they will have a GREAT starting rotation. Ragans and his 3.14 2024 ERA at 1 (been injured most of this year), Lugo and his 2.95 ERA at 2, Wacha and his 3.53 ERA at 3, Bubic and his 2.55 ERA at 4, and Cameron and his 2.44 ERA at 5. How do you only call that “decent starting pitching”?????
And at this point in time I would say 1. Lugo 2. Cameron 3. Bubic 4. Wacha and 5. Ragans since he has been mostly injured and which version do they get in 2026
Set for life! Way to go!
Good deal for player and team. Healthy but not insane price point, healthy deal length.
This Is The Way.
Like the deal for both sides. The Royals wouldn’t have gotten a ton for him and didn’t have to spend a ton to keep him. If KC can get it together the core of there staff is together for a bit to try and make a run.
46M is cheap? At age 35?
In this pitching market, unfortunately. I don’t like it but it’s reality
In this market unfortunately, yes
Ramon Laureano under the radar pickup having a solid year.
I’d be cool with trading for him, but I wonder what he would cost.
Rays–you listening? At least you should put a QO on Littell, and get a decent draft pick, not a castoff from a basement-dwelling farm system.
what wonderful news to wake up to! this means I can still wear my Lugo jersey for another couple of years. I also might have another chance to try to get his Mets rookie card autographed.. I really want to get it autographed but I don’t trust the “send us something to a player care of the Royals and maybe or maybe not it will get signed”. I did that three years ago with four cards & I did not get any of them back.
Well deserved. A guy who really waited his turn, bet on himself, and won big. Even more impressive that he secured his bag quite late in his career.
Cant help but feel good for the guy.
But all the rich teams wanted to dump their overrated prospects for him. I’m aghast.
Smart move. Sign an extension or be traded.
I think Lugo’s going to be the next Rich Hill. What a cool guy, best of luck to him.
KC management so much smarter than the Pirates who only sign players to one year contracts and then try to flip them for prospects. The list of names is endless and they end up doing the exact same thing every year. They never improve the team for the following season. You don’t have to wonder why this team is in last place again with this stupid philosophy.
Would have loved to see him come play for my Cubbies, but I’m not mad in the slightest. I’m glad a smaller market team was able to keep one of their best guys around long term.
The Cubbies are goign to pay him 46M for two yrs at age 35?
No. I’m saying I would have loved for the Cubs to have traded for him for the remainder of the season. Not given him that extension.
Age 36. 2 yrs 46m. Wow.
he won’t be 36 until November.
I’d counter with “low miles” robw.
great deal for both sides. the sport is more fun when witt jr is playing meaningful games in september
Nice to see the Royals actually keep instead of trading them
Good for Lugo. At 35 he is finally getting to cash in. Moving to the Padres to become a starter and then to the royals has paid off handsomely for him.
Congrats KC and Loogs!
This is old effing news MLBTR. It’s the trade deadline, let’s focus on the trades. Tues.7/29 9 p.m.