The Royals announced that right-hander Luke Jackson and left-hander Génesis Cabrera have been signed to minor league deals. Jackson opted out of a deal with the Mets last week. Cabrera was with the Phillies on a minor league pact but he was released last week, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. Presumably, both pitchers will report to Triple-A Omaha.
Jackson, 34, is really just getting his season going. He missed all of spring training, as he only signed with the Mets in the first week of April. He then made three scoreless Single-A appearances, followed by five Triple-A appearances. At that higher level, he allowed six earned runs in 4 2/3 innings before opting out.
The Royals are presumably banking more on his track record than those recent numbers. Jackson has a 4.22 earned run average in 409 1/3 career innings. Not too long ago, he was an important leverage arm in the big leagues. With Atlanta in 2021, he posted a 1.98 ERA and recorded 31 holds. He then made 11 postseason appearances to help Atlanta win that year’s World Series.
Unfortunately, Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2022 season. He was back on the mound in 2023, putting up a 2.97 ERA with the Giants. But then his ERA climbed to 5.09 in 2024. He corrected it somewhat in 2025, getting his ERA down to 4.06, but with less encouraging numbers under the hood. Though he induced grounders on 51.7% of balls in play, his 17.4% strikeout rate and 12.8% walk rate were both subpar numbers. In 2024, though his ERA was higher, he was able to punch out 25.1% of batters faced.
Cabrera, 29, just allowed 20 earned runs in 17 1/3 Triple-A innings after signing that aforementioned deal with the Phillies. That makes it fairly unsurprising that they let him go. The Royals will be hoping for a bounceback based on some potential he has shown in the past.
With upper-90s velocity from the left side, Cabrera has flashed some occasional swing-and-miss stuff along with command struggles. In 318 1/3 big league innings, he has walked 11.1% of batters faced. His career strikeout rate of 21.9% is close to average but has been erratic. He struck out 27.8% of batters he faced over the 2020 and 2021 seasons. That dropped to 16.5% in 2022, bounced back to 24.3% in 2023, but then was below 19% in the following two seasons.
For the Royals, there’s no harm in bringing in some fresh arms on minor league deals, especially guys with some major league experience. The Kansas City bullpen has not been a strength this year. The club’s relievers have a collective 4.51 ERA, putting them in the bottom third of the league in that category. Carlos Estévez, Matt Strahm and James McArthur are all on the injured list at the moment. With starters Cole Ragans and Kris Bubic also hitting the IL recently, long relievers like Bailey Falter or Luinder Avila might need to move to the rotation or at least bulk roles. If a fresh arm is needed at some point, Jackson and Cabrera could be candidates to get the call.
Photo courtesy of John Froschauer, Imagn Images