Royals Notes: Ragans, Rotation, Estévez

The Royals got a bit of injury scare yesterday with Cole Ragans departing his start. He’ll continue to be evaluated but the Royals appear to be hopeful that the move was precautionary and that Ragans won’t need to go on the injured list.

Ragans threw 58 pitches over three innings before departing last night. After the game, he told Anne Rogers of MLB.com that he felt soreness and tightness in the bottom of his triceps and elbow. That sounds a bit ominous, especially for a guy with two prior Tommy John surgeries, but Ragans feels this is different. “I’ve been through the elbow stuff,” he said. “I know it’s not what I’ve been through before.” Manager Matt Quatraro told broadcaster Joel Goldberg that he was being cautious with the removal and that he’s hopeful Ragans can make his next start.

The southpaw isn’t out to his best start, with a 4.84 earned run average and 15.2% walk rate so far this year. Regardless, the Royals don’t want to lose him, knowing what he’s capable of. In 2024, he finished fourth in American League Cy Young voting after posting a 3.14 ERA over 32 starts.

If Ragans does ultimately end up on the IL, the Royals are in a decent spot to cover for him, with Stephen Kolek currently on the outside of the rotation looking in. Kolek started the year on the IL himself due to an oblique strain. He came off the IL a couple of days ago and made a spot start when Noah Cameron was experiencing some back tightness. Kolek had a strong start, getting the win against the Guardians after throwing six innings of three-run ball. But since Cameron is expected to make his next start, Kolek was optioned to Triple-A.

A pitcher who is optioned normally has to wait 15 days before being recalled but an exception is made when someone is placed on the IL. If Ragans or Cameron were put on the shelf, Kolek could be promptly recalled.

Kolek has a 4.03 career ERA and just posted a 2.76 ERA on his rehab assignment before that spot start. He would be in the rotation for a lot of teams but is currently blocked by Ragans, Cameron, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Kris Bubic. Other depth options on the roster including Mason Black and Mitch Spence but the Royals recently lost Ryan Bergert and Ben Kudrna to season-ending surgeries.

There’s also a notable injury situation to watch relating to the Kansas City bullpen. Reliever Carlos Estévez exited a rehab game yesterday due to shoulder discomfort. That’s a bit of a worrisome development since that’s a new injury. He landed on the IL a little over a month ago due to a left foot contusion suffered when he was hit by a comebacker.

Even before getting hit by that comebacker, his velocity was down and his early-season results were poor. His fastball averaged around 97 miles per hour for most of his career. He was closer to 96 last year. He was below 90 mph in spring training and posted a 7.20 ERA. In his lone regular season outing, he was at 91 mph and allowed six earned runs in a third of an inning.

Perhaps this shoulder discomfort provides an explanation for the diminished stuff but time will tell what sort of remedy will be required. With Estévez out, Lucas Erceg has been the closer. He has racked up ten saves but not in smooth fashion, having walked 17.7% of batters faced. Among pitchers with at least 15 innings pitched this year, only Connor Phillips of the Reds has a higher walk rate than that. Ideally, Estévez would come back and bump Erceg back to a setup role but it doesn’t seem like that will happen anytime soon.

Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, Imagn Images