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.
Well that puts an end to that Disastrous trade.
I was surprised the Royals went through with that trade. It did somewhat make sense at the time but not really.
Terrible take. Might be what it takes to get him right and actually make it a decent trade in the end.
You have to love how fans like to write off injured guys. Of course it’s a Twitter world where no one pays attention for more than five minutes before they spout off. You can always tell who actually played and/or knows the game.
Lol it’s not too late to delete this.
India won’t play again in a Royals uniform, this was it. There’s no “making it a decent trade in the end.” The end was him tearing his labrum, and honestly, that’s more help to the Royals than anything he was going to provide.
What could the Royals possibly do to salvage this trade? I am genuinley asking.
They score 100 runs off of Brady Singer?
@Reply Relax brotha I am not saying India can never become a decent player, but his team control is up and he will do it in another uni if he can manage it.
You never lose a trade when you trade with Nick Krall and the Reds. Just wait it out and something will turn in your favor.
So many injuries. I thought the TJS last year was an expodemic last year. It’s never been limited to mostly pitchers. This just sucks. I’m glad JIndia is off the reds but I hate that he’s out for the season
Sucks for him but great for the Royals.
India must have gone to the “Kevin Maas” school of show early signs of greatness then gradual drop stats off a cliff in a few seasons.
The same front office that turned India into Brady Singer took on the KeBryan Hayes contract for no reason.
No reason? They’d already run through all the dead money on Mike Moustakas and only had a season and a half left of sunk cost left on Jeimer Candelario. That money hole at 3B can’t just fill itself.
Yikes. How that guy still have a job
They also turned Lux in to Brock Burke. Signed Lowe cheaply who’s about ready to take over 1B and probably put Stewart back at his natural position. 3B.
They gave Mike Sirota for a one year Gavin Lux rental. Youre kidding right? Sonny Gray trade. Castillo trade. Frankie Montas. Stop.
Lux gave them Burke at least.
Talk about Sirota when he makes the majors. He’s not even in AAA. I didn’t mention the Gray trade as they did not need to
Make it and should have got more. Don’t disagree there. Petty may still be a good pitcher at least. Castillo trade only Arroyo can salvage it if Williamson is going to remain injured.
Montas? He was a low cost FA? He cost nothing. Why bring him up at all?
You of course forgot the India for Singer trade. Still a win for the Reds even at this point. Signing Lowe.
I don’t care if they fire him. I think he’s hamstrung by the way this ownership group is structured. I think he should make more trades and quit hoarding prospects.
Agreed on the hoarding prospects. Its the way he evaluates players. He has constructed a roster with guys who are lifetime .230 hitters because he sees some stat he likes and thinks it a fit. Listen to his rare interviews. Its like listening to a bratty kid. He is extremely unlikeable and smug which would be fine if he was smart and knew what he was doing.
Look at the roster. He puts no value on batting average. You can have low average/higher OPS guys sprinkled in a lineup with a few guys who can at least hit .265-.275. And they only have 1 or 2 guys even capable of hitting .250. Someone has to put some pressure on the defense. They don’t develop talent, they are ruining Marte like they ruined Senzel and McClain. Elly has hardly improved and still makes dumb mistakes. Until Trevino and Suarez came there were no veterans leaders and it was obvious. They are constructed with a spreadsheet and a guy who looks at the wrong numbers on it. He has pulled off putting the worst offensive baseball team in the have ever seen in my lifetime of being a Reds fan. I give him credit for the Singer deal (even though India was the only OBP guy on the team) and bringing in Tito. Other than that itll take 5 years to undo his mess.
Montas also had a 21 million dollar 1 year deal with the Reds. Coming off TJ surgery. Noone makes that on this team. Terrible deal. He then one upped himself and signed Candelario. If he couldnt top that he did with taking a bad contract from a division rival and traded for Hayes. 23 million they will pay 2 third baseman who will give them negative replacement level offense.
Incorrect. Montas signed a 1-year, $14M contract with the Reds. Where did you get $21M from?
Really hope Massey seizes this opportunity.
Don’t know how this guy keeps getting work.
His next gig is selling tokens for the subway 🤣
There’s no subway in Kansas City
hes cooked, time to go coach highschool baseball
I don’t mind people celebrating injuries suffered by players or famous people. I think Anthony Rendon was lazy after ripping off the Angels and that is why he kept getting hurt. This was a interesting one for one trade before last season. Thought one or both would sign extension with their new team though.
It’s safe to say that the Reds won that trade.
Poor guy, labrum surgery is no fun
Word! Six weeks of sleeping in a chair await. They didn’t mention that part to me. I woke up night one in screaming agony and twitching from all the surgical meds leaving my system. First and hopefully last time I chew a Vicodin.
8 million from arbitration and a sunk season. Piccolo really fumbled this one.
Feel for India. But the Royals really needed this kick in the pants. The evaluation and selection of players by this admin has been confounding at best, and humiliating at worst. India has just been one in a line of “why’d they do that?”s.
The good news is that Nick Loftin is finally being given the shot he deserves. Loftin – has the type of high volume hitting potential – that screams Royals baseball. He’s been clubbing +.300 BA with a +.350 OBP at Omaha for three straight seasons. They had NO business sticking him back in Omaha this season. And he’s doing his job, hitting .276 / .382 / .379 with 3 doubles in only 34 plate appearances. He needs to be getting everyday opportunities.
India might as well Pak-istan has bags.
No you didn’t
I want a refund from the Reds
Ha, I hear you my friend. But Brady Singer has kinda sucked so far this year. So, we’ll see.
Maybe we can give you Ke’Bryan Hayes? LMAO. (Talk about sucking.)