Royals Rumors

Pirates Trade Adam Frazier To Royals

By Steve Adams | July 16, 2025 at 10:45am CDT

10:45am: The teams have announced the trade. Pittsburgh optioned Devanney to Triple-A Indianapolis.

9:27am: The Royals are set to acquire infielder/outfielder Adam Frazier from the Pirates, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Kansas City will send infielder Cam Devanney back to Pittsburgh in the trade. Devanney was just selected to the major league roster by the Royals eight days ago but has not appeared in a big league game. Since both players being exchanged are on their respective teams’ 40-man rosters, neither club will need a corresponding move to make the swap official.

It’s a reunion for Frazier and the Royals, as the now-33-year-old veteran spent the 2024 season with Kansas City, struggling to a .202/.282/.294 batting line in 294 plate appearances. Frazier has had a much better go in 2025, returning to the club that drafted him (Pittsburgh) and hitting .255/.318/.336. That’s still below-average, but Frazier has been more productive since mid-May. He’s hitting .302/.356/.387 across his past 119 trips to the plate — albeit with a .360 average on balls in play that he’s not likely to sustain over a larger period of time.

Frazier has played second base, left field and right field in his return to Pittsburgh so far. He’s spent the majority of his time on the field at second base, but the Pirates have been using him in the outfield more over the past month or so. He’ll give the Royals a left-handed bat on what had been an all-right-handed bench and also provide manager Matt Quatraro with an option at multiple positions.

Jonathan India and Michael Massey lead the Royals in innings at second base this year, but both have struggled (and Massey is currently on the injured list). The Royals have used a remarkable 10 players in left field already this season, none of whom have managed to be all that productive. Frazier, presumably, will soon become the 11th player to take reps in left field for K.C. this season.

Frazier signed a one-year deal with the Pirates, which contained a modest $1.525MM guarantee. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end and has just under $615K of his salary yet to be paid out between now and season’s end. The Royals will take on all of that sum.

Devanney, 28, was a 15th-round pick by the 2019 Brewers. Milwaukee traded him to Kansas City in exchange for righty Taylor Clarke back in 2023. He’s enjoying a career year in Triple-A but is in his fourth trip through that level at this point. The righty-hitting Devanney is slashing .272/.366/.565 with 18 home runs, 14 doubles, three triples, an 11.8% walk rate and a 24.3% strikeout rate in 288 plate appearances at the top minor league level. He’s gone 3-for-4 in stolen base attempts as well.

The Royals have used Devanney primarily at shortstop in Omaha, but he’s logged plenty of time at third base and second base as well. He’s primarily an infielder but has gotten some nominal exposure to left field, suiting up for six games there (two in 2025). The Pirates are using Isiah Kiner-Falefa as their primary shortstop, but he’s quite likely to be traded in the next two weeks as well. Devanney could see plenty of time at short for the remainder of the season after Kiner-Falefa is moved, but if he has a long-term role with the team it’ll likely be as a right-handed utility option off the bench. Since last week was Devanney’s first selection to the major league roster, he still has a full slate of three minor league options remaining.

Royals Place Michael Lorenzen On Injured List

By Steve Adams | July 14, 2025 at 12:44pm CDT

The Royals have placed right-hander Michael Lorenzen on the 15-day injured list due to a left oblique strain, per a team announcement. The move is retroactive to July 11, so he’ll be eligible to return no sooner than July 26. He joins fellow starters Cole Ragans (rotator cuff strain) and Alec Marsh (shoulder impingement) on the injured list.

Lorenzen, 33, re-signed with the Royals on a one-year deal worth $7MM this past offseason. He’s been a serviceable back-end option for Kansas City, taking the ball 18 times and pitching to a 4.61 ERA with a 20% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate in 99 1/3 innings. Lorenzen had his two worst starts of the season back-to-back on May 26 (six runs in five innings) and on June 3 (seven runs in 2 2/3 innings), but he’s rebounded with a tidy 3.63 earned run average and a 31-to-9 K/BB ratio over his past six starts (34 2/3 innings).

Kansas City didn’t specify a projected timetable for Lorenzen’s return, though even Grade 1 oblique strains (the least-severe) can sideline players for upwards of a month. The Royals also did not announce a corresponding move at this time. They’ll open the second half with three games in Miami and would need a fifth starter for the second game of their following series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field on July 22.

With Lorenzen headed to the shelf, the Royals only have four healthy starters on the major league roster: Kris Bubic, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Noah Cameron. It’s a talented quartet, but the depth beyond the group is shaky.

Right-handers Kyle Wright and Luinder Avila are both on the 40-man roster in Triple-A but are both injured; Wright is dealing with a Grade 2 oblique strain, while Avila has been out since late May due to a shoulder impingement. Rich Hill, Thomas Hatch and Dallas Keuchel are among the veteran options who are in the Royals’ system but not on the 40-man roster (although Keuchel just signed last week). Down in Double-A, prospects Ben Kudrna, Steven Zobac and Frank Mozzicato are having tough seasons. The Royals could opt for bullpen games in the fifth spot if Lorenzen isn’t expected to be shelved much beyond the minimum 15 days. Righty Jonathan Bowlan tossed three innings in his most recent appearance and could handle the bulk of bullpen game if the need arises.

Royals Receiving Interest In Catching Prospects

By Nick Deeds | July 12, 2025 at 11:10pm CDT

The Royals have had a tough season. They’re 46-50, buried in their division by 13 games, and currently sit 4.5 games out of a Wild Card spot with a negative run differential and ace Cole Ragans on the injured list. They don’t exactly look like the likeliest buyers with the trade deadline less than three weeks away, but The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal writes that the front office is getting “consistent interest” from rival executives regarding top catching prospects Blake Mitchell, Carter Jensen, and Ramon Ramirez.

Mitchell, 21 next month, was the eighth-overall pick in the 2023 draft. He’s a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport who’s even more well-regarded by some outlets, though he’s gotten into just 14 games this year due to hand and wrist injuries. Jensen, 22, was a third-rounder back in 2021 and has split the 2025 season between Double- and Triple-A with a .286/.356/.462 slash line overall. In his first 13 games since being promoted to Omaha, Jensen has already crushed six homers and four doubles. As for Ramirez, the 20-year-old is currently on the injured list but signed with the club out of Venezuela and made his pro debut back in 2023. This year, he’s slashed .252/.366/.472 in 44 games at the Single-A level.

It’s an impressive crop of catching talent, and it’s not hard to see why some clubs would be intrigued by adding any of these youngsters to their farm system. Teams like the Nationals, Padres, Rays, Rangers, Twins, Phillies, Reds, and Guardians all have catching tandems with room for improvement in the near future, whether that’s due to an existing pair of catchers that could use an upgrade or an established option that figures to hit free agency within the next year or two. With so many teams that could stand to upgrade at catcher, either now or in the next few years, it’s not hard to imagine the Royals being able to bring back a controllable piece like the Phillies did when they traded Logan O’Hoppe to land Brandon Marsh at the 2022 trade deadline.

Of course, it can’t be ignored that the Royals could use some more certainty behind the plate themselves. Salvador Perez is a World Series champion and franchise legend, but he’s also been a replacement level piece in his age-35 season and it could be hard to justify picking up the $13.5MM club option on his services for 2026 rather than paying him a $2MM buyout. Freddy Fermin has been a solid partner to Perez behind the plate in recent years but has never had more than 368 plate appearances in a season and could be miscast as a regular.

There’s clearly some uncertainty behind the plate in Kansas City for the first time in a long time, and it would be understandable if that made the Royals hesitant to trade from their crop of catching talent. While that group could quickly turn into a surplus of catching talent in the coming years, one need look no further than MJ Melendez to see how quickly even a well-regarded catching prospect can flame out in the majors. There’s little reason for the Royals to rush into trading any of their catching prospects now unless they get a deal they’re pleased with; after all, it wasn’t long ago that the Blue Jays were viewed as overflowing with legitimate catching options but they waited until all four of Alejandro Kirk, Danny Jansen, Reese McGuire, and Gabriel Moreno were either in the majors or at Triple-A to start parting with that talent behind the plate.

Still, the idea of trading one of their catching prospects for a more immediate impact talent at another position of need on the roster has merit. Kansas City has received below-average offensive production from second base, DH, and all three outfield spots this year. A controllable bat that fills one of those holes could help the Royals not only try to get back into the playoff race this year, but help fortify the team and maximize the club’s current window while players like Ragans and Bobby Witt Jr. remain under team control. If another team was willing to dangle such a player for one of the club’s prospects, especially one further from the majors like Mitchell or Ramirez, that could be difficult to turn down.

Which Other Draft Picks Are Eligible To Be Traded Before Sunday?

By Steve Adams | July 11, 2025 at 11:42am CDT

The Rays made an “early” strike in deadline season yesterday, shipping off their Competitive Balance Round A selection (No. 37 overall) in Sunday’s draft to acquire righty Bryan Baker from the division-rival Orioles. Baker, 30, has had his two worst outings of the season in his final Orioles appearance and last night’s Rays debut — which came just hours after he was “shocked” to learn he was traded and boarded a last-minute flight to meet his new team in Boston — but carried a 2.58 ERA and 33.3% strikeout rate through July 5. He comes to the Rays with three additional seasons of club control, as well.

Following the trade, O’s general manager Mike Elias acknowledged that Thursday’s trade was “earlier than my comfort level” but that the timing of the draft and strength of the return pushed him to make a deal sooner than he’d have preferred (link via Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com). It’s feasible that other general managers/president of baseball operations feel similar pressure if presented with opportunities to add an extra pick over the next two-plus days.

As a refresher, Competitive Balance picks are the only picks in the annual amateur draft that are eligible to be traded. They can only be traded one time, meaning the pick the Orioles received for Baker — and the picks the Dodgers, Guardians and Red Sox received in trades of Gavin Lux, Josh Naylor and Quinn Priester, respectively — are now locked in place for those clubs. There are still a handful of selections that could be traded, however.

Here’s a rundown of the picks in Competitive Balance Rounds A and B. MLBTR has confirmed via industry sources that the picks held by the Dodgers, Yankees and Mets in Round A are ineligible to be traded, as they’re technically first-round picks that were dropped down into Competitive Balance Round A as penalty for exceeding the luxury tax by more than $40MM. Similarly, the picks held by the Rays and Brewers in Round B are ineligible to be traded due to the fact that they are compensation for failing to sign last year’s picks in Competitive Balance Round B. Picks that are eligible to be traded are in bold; those ineligible to be moved are in strikethrough font. The deadline to trade any of these eligible picks is 4pm ET on Sunday — two hours prior to the start of this year’s amateur draft.

Round A

~~No. 33 overall: Red Sox (acquired from Brewers in exchange for RHP Quinn Priester)~~
No. 34: Tigers
No. 35: Mariners
No. 36: Twins
~~No. 37: Orioles (acquired from Rays in exchange for RHP Bryan Baker)~~
~~No. 38: Mets~~
~~No. 39: Yankees~~
~~No. 40: Dodgers~~
~~No. 41: Dodgers (acquired from Reds in exchange for INF/OF Gavin Lux)~~
~~No. 42: Rays (acquired from A’s in exchange for LHPs Jeffrey Springs, Jacob Lopez)~~
No. 43: Marlins

Round B

No. 66 overall: Guardians
~~No. 67: Rays (compensation for unsigned pick in 2024)~~
~~No. 68: Brewers (compensation for unsigned pick in 2024)~~
No. 69: Orioles
~~No. 70: Guardians (acquired from D-backs in exchange for 1B Josh Naylor)~~
No. 71: Royals
No. 72: Cardinals
No. 73: Pirates
No. 74: Rockies

The Tigers are the only clear buyer with a pick that can be traded, and it’s a prominent one. The Mariners and Cardinals are only one game out of a Wild Card spot in their respective leagues. Seattle is expected to act as a buyer and has been on the hunt for corner infield bats and late-inning bullpen help. The Royals (3.5 games), Twins (4) and Guardians (5) are all within five games of a Wild Card spot.

Fans would largely welcome the advent of additional selections becoming eligible to be traded, but that’s not in the cards for now. MLBPA executive director Bruce Meyer joined Foul Territory earlier this week and told hosts Scott Braun, Erik Kratz and A.J. Pierzynski that the union is in favor of trading draft picks and has unsuccessfully raised the issue in past waves of collective bargaining (video link, draft pick talk coming around the one hour, 12-minute mark).

“This union has consistently been in favor of teams being able to trade draft picks,” said Meyer. “It would help competition. We think it would help small-market teams that have those valuable draft picks. They should have the flexibility to trade them if it’s in the best interest of the team. I think many teams would agree, but the league for whatever reason has, to date, been against allowing clubs the ability to trade Rule 4 [amateur] draft picks. We proposed it last time. It was rejected. I don’t want to commit to much for the next round of bargaining, but I feel pretty confident we’ll propose that again, because we think it’s actually beneficial to competitive balance.”

It should be noted that virtually any proposal in collective bargaining comes with some give and take. Meyer’s comments only portray one side of the discussion, and it’s not clear whether anything else was attached to that proposal. Regardless, it’s notable that the union’s lead negotiator has signaled a desire to again broach the subject of draft pick trades when the two sides return to the table to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement.

Poll: Which Teams Should Make The Biggest Push For Jarren Duran?

By Nick Deeds | July 10, 2025 at 8:32pm CDT

The Red Sox have fought their way back into playoff contention after their shocking trade of franchise face Rafael Devers last month. Boston has rattled off a seven-game win streak to put themselves at a 50-45 record entering play today and in a statistical tie with the Mariners for the final AL Wild Card spot. That hasn’t stopped some of their top players from finding their names in the rumor mill, however. While it would be shocking for a team in playoff position that has plenty of uncertainty on the infield as it is to trade away someone like Alex Bregman, the Red Sox do have an overflowing outfield mix that could at least theoretically be put to use this summer and bring back some much-needed pitching help.

Masataka Yoshida returned to the Red Sox yesterday after missing the first half of the season while rehabbing his surgically repaired shoulder, and with his return comes an embarrassment of riches in the Red Sox outfield. Roman Anthony entered the season as the sport’s consensus top prospect and, after a slow start, has taken off in recent weeks with a .308/.413/.462 slash line since the Devers trade. Fellow youngster Ceddanne Rafaela has also caught fire of late, with an absurd .303/.341/.630 slash line since the start of June that he’s paired with some of the best outfield defense in the entire American League. And that’s before even getting into Wilyer Abreu and Jarren Duran, both of whom established themselves as impact players with big campaigns in 2024.

It’s Duran who’s gotten the most attention as a trade candidate of that group, and he’s certainly attractive. He’s just one year removed from a top-ten finish in AL MVP voting, and while his 2025 season (105 wRC+) has left something to be desired, it’s easy for teams to dream on that upside given his three-and-a-half years of team control remaining. There aren’t many teams in baseball who wouldn’t stand to benefit from adding someone of Duran’s caliber to their lineup, but which clubs should be most interested in his services? A look at some potential fits:

San Diego Padres

The most discussed potential suitor for Duran early on, San Diego has targeted the outfielder in the past and that interest appears to be ongoing. The Padres are operating under a tight budget, so a player like Duran who remains in the early years of arbitration is an attractive addition. They’ve also got a gaping hole in the lineup after their left field platoon of Jason Heyward and Connor Joe to open the season did not work out. Gavin Sheets is currently holding down the fort at the position, and while his 118 wRC+ this year has been impressive he’s also a poor defender best suited to DH work. Adding Duran, then, could upgrade the club both offensively and defensively.

Houston Astros

There might be no team that’s a better on-paper fit for Duran than the Astros. With Yordan Alvarez on the injured list for most of the season and Kyle Tucker having been dealt to Chicago, Houston has no left-handed regulars in its lineup. That lack of lefty bats has made them a pedestrian offense (103 wRC+) against right-handed pitching this year, and while Cam Smith has settled in well as the club’s new right fielder a combination of Taylor Trammell, Cooper Hummel, and Jose Altuve in left isn’t great. Duran would be a perfect addition for the club, though a farm system typically viewed as one of the weakest in the majors could make acquiring a talent of his caliber difficult.

Kansas City Royals

The Royals have been looking to find help for Bobby Witt Jr. in their lineup, and while they thought they found just that this winter when they traded for Jonathan India, the addition hasn’t worked out as hoped so far. No team gets less production from their outfield mix than Kansas City, and while Jac Caglianone should contribute at some point, the rest of the group is in need of a serious makeover. Duran would be a strong addition who could fill the leadoff role India was brought in to address, but the team’s 46-48 record could make buying this summer a tough sell unless they can rattle off a big win streak. While other contenders are likely more motivated to make a deal now, the Royals could be an especially interesting suitor if Duran remains in Boston headed into the winter.

Philadelphia Phillies

The Phillies are clinging to a small lead over the Mets in the NL East at the moment, and they’re doing that without much production from their outfield. Brandon Marsh has turned things around after a disastrous start to the year and is now roughly league average overall, and Nick Castellanos remains his usual self. The addition of Max Kepler simply hasn’t worked out, however, and Johan Rojas hasn’t looked good as anything more than a defense-first bench option either. Replacing Kepler with Duran would not only help the Phillies in the short-term, but it would also allow the team to add a controllable, cost-effective bat to the lineup at a time where multiple significant pieces (Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Ranger Suarez) will either need to be re-signed or replaced.

Other Options

While the four teams mentioned above are arguably the teams that could benefit most from adding Duran, there are certainly other clubs that should have at least some interest in his services. Michael Conforto’s OPS is below .600, and with him ticketed for free agency after the season the Dodgers would certainly stand to improve from adding Duran and could make room for him long-term. The Mariners could be a tricky fit given that both Duran and Randy Arozarena are best suited to left field, but they could certainly use an extra outfield bat. The Pirates are clear sellers this season but need reliable bats to surround Paul Skenes and the rest of their young rotation, and even Bob Nutting can afford an arbitration-level player like Duran. The Twins will need a replacement for Harrison Bader’s production going forward, and perhaps Duran could serve as a bridge to Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez for Minnesota.

If the Red Sox decide to move Duran, which club would benefit most from bringing him in? Have your say in the poll below:

Royals Sign Dallas Keuchel To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | July 9, 2025 at 9:22am CDT

The Royals announced Wednesday that they’ve signed left-hander Dallas Keuchel to a minor league contract. ESPN’s Jeff Passan notes that Keuchel held a workout for clubs last week, which the Royals attended. He’ll earn a prorated $2MM salary for any time spent on the major league roster.

Keuchel, 37, has pitched in parts of 13 big league seasons and was one of the top lefties in the sport at his peak. The 2015 American League Cy Young Award winner with the Astros, Keuchel starred for Houston from 2014-18 when he pitched a combined 950 1/3 innings with a 3.28 ERA, a 20.2% strikeout rate, a 6.5% walk rate and a mammoth 60% ground-ball rate. He had a solid partial season with Atlanta in 2019 and signed a three-year pact with the ChiSox spanning the 2020-22 seasons. The first year of that contract played out wonderfully, but Keuchel was ineffective in 2021 and pitched poorly enough in 2022 to be released before the contract had concluded.

Since his career began trending downward with the South Siders, Keuchel has slipped into journeyman status. He’s pitched for the White Sox, Rangers, D-backs, Twins and Brewers in the past three years and also had a stint with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Keuchel started four games for the 2024 Brewers and yielded a 5.40 ERA with 11 strikeouts against eight walks in 16 2/3 innings pitched. He also made 13 solid starts for the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma last year.

Kansas City entered the 2025 season with a strong quintet in the rotation. Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Kris Bubic, Michael Wacha and Michael Lorenzen is a deeper one through five than most clubs can boast, and there were quality depth options like righty Alec Marsh and prospect Noah Cameron. Ragans is now sidelined with a strained rotator cuff that’ll keep him out until at least Aug. 7. Marsh has been on the IL all season due to a shoulder impingement that is taking longer than anticipated to mend.

That’s left the Royals with scant depth beyond the currently healthy group of Lugo, Bubic, Cameron, Wacha and Lorenzen. Cameron has been a godsend on the whole but has looked far more mortal in his past six starts (4.26 ERA in 31 2/3 innings) than he did in his historic first five starts (0.85 ERA in that same sample size of 31 2/3 innings). His performance has been direly needed, especially with several of the organization’s other top young arms either struggling (e.g. Luinder Avila, Ben Kudrna, Steven Zobac) or falling to injury (e.g. Tyson Guerrero).

Keuchel is the second veteran lefty whom the Royals have signed to a minor league pact to serve as depth. He’ll join Rich Hill on an Omaha pitching staff that also includes several journeymen with big league experience: Thomas Hatch, Justin Dunn and John Gant among them.

Royals Select Cam Devanney, Transfer Cole Ragans To 60-Day IL

By Steve Adams | July 8, 2025 at 2:07pm CDT

The Royals announced today that they have selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Cam Devanney. In a corresponding active roster move, outfielder Mark Canha has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to left elbow epicondylitis. To open a 40-man spot, left-hander Cole Ragans was transferred to the 60-day IL.

Devanney was a 2019 Brewers draftee (15th round) who landed in the Royals organization by way of 2023’s Taylor Clarke trade. He’s posting career-best numbers in Triple-A this year, albeit as a 28-year-old who’s in his fourth season at that level.

Devanney has taken 288 turns at the plate and logged a .272/.366/.565 batting line with 18 homers, 14 doubles, a pair of triples, three steals (in four tries), an 11.8% walk rate and a 24.3% strikeout rate. He’s primarily played shortstop but also logged time at second base, at third base and in left field. The outfield work is largely new to him, but Devanney has 608 career innings at second and 806 career frames at third (plus more than 3100 innings as a shortstop).

This will be Devanney’s first action at the big league level. He’ll give the Royals some versatility and a right-handed bat to replace that of Canha, who’s posted a career-worst .212/.272/.265 slash in 125 plate appearances with Kansas City so far in 2025. Canha was sporting a league-average batting line into late May, but it’s fair to wonder how long his elbow has been bothering him, given that he’s recorded an anemic .104/.137/.188 line over his past 51 trips to the plate.

Ragans has already missed more than a month due to a rotator cuff strain and only recently resumed throwing. He’ll need to progress through multiple checkpoints — throwing off a mound, facing live hitters — before he commences a minor league rehab assignment that’ll likely span multiple starts. It was already known that he was likely to be out beyond the All-Star break.

The move to the 60-day injured list doesn’t reset Ragans’ IL clock but rather pushes back the earliest possible activation date. Given that only just starting to play catch after a four-week shutdown period, there wasn’t much chance he’d have been ready for activation before early-to-mid August anyhow. He can now be activated no earlier than Aug. 7.

AL Central Notes: Thomas, Ragans, Lynch, Cobb

By Mark Polishuk | July 6, 2025 at 8:59pm CDT

Prior to today’s game, the Guardians placed outfielder Lane Thomas on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to July 5), as Thomas is again dealing with plantar fasciitis in his right foot. Infielder Will Wilson was called up from Triple-A to replace Thomas, who is headed to the IL for the third time this season. The first placement was due to a bone bruise in his right wrist, and the last two placements were prompted by Thomas’ recurring foot problems. Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt told MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins and other reporters that Thomas again started to feel discomfort in his foot during Friday’s game, so the team decided to see if the combination of an IL stint and the All-Star break can provide enough time for Thomas to finally heal up.

The injuries have contributed to a brutal .160/.246/.272 slash line over 142 plate appearances for Thomas, though he was starting to heat up a little with an .816 OPS and three homers in last 38 PA. Thomas’ struggles have been emblematic of an ugly offensive year for the Guardians as a whole, and today’s loss to the Tigers extended the Guards’ losing streak to 10 games. It increasingly seems like Cleveland will be sellers at the deadline, yet Thomas’ injuries and lack of production will probably mean the Guards won’t be able to move the impending free agent.

Royals Select Luke Maile

By Darragh McDonald | July 4, 2025 at 7:40pm CDT

The Royals announced that they have selected the contract of catcher Luke Maile. Outfielder Drew Waters has been optioned to Triple-A Omaha in a corresponding active roster move. The 40-man roster had a vacancy, so no corresponding move was required there.

As noted by Anne Rogers of MLB.com, the move is related to some calf tightness that Salvador Perez is experiencing. Perez is in tonight’s lineup as the designated hitter, with Freddy Fermin behind the plate, but Maile gives them a bit of extra protection at the catcher spot for the event that there’s a negative development with Perez.

Maile, 34, previously spent a bit more than two weeks on Kansas City’s roster under similar circumstances. He was called up in early May with Perez battling hip soreness. Maile got into three games and put up a massive .375/.500/.750 line in ten plate appearances before being designated for assignment and outrighted to Omaha.

He obviously wasn’t going to maintain that kind of offensive production. He has a career batting line of .209/.276/.322 in 1,260 trips to the plate. But he’s carved out a decade-long career in the big leagues thanks to a solid reputation for his work while donning the tools of ignorance.

His status on the roster is presumably tied to the health of Perez. If Perez is fine, then Maile will likely end up cut from the roster just like he was back in May. Though if the calf injury worsens or lingers, Maile could stick around for a lengthier as Fermin’s backup.

Photo courtesy of Gregory Fisher, Imagn Images

Royals Sign Michael Fulmer To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | July 3, 2025 at 4:10pm CDT

The Royals announced Thursday that they’ve signed righty Michael Fulmer to a minor league contract. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Omaha. Fulmer, a client of BBI Sports Group, recently passed through waivers and elected free agency after being designated for assignment by the Cubs.

Fulmer, 32, is a former American League Rookie of the Year whose career has been slowed by injuries. He was an integral part of the Tigers’ rotation for three years before elbow and knee surgeries pushed him to the bullpen. He found second life as a reliever with the Tigers, Twins and Cubs from 2021-23 before a torn UCL required Tommy John surgery and wiped out his entire 2024 campaign. He spent all of last year and the beginning of the current season in the Red Sox organization after inking a two-year minor league contract, but the Royals are now his third organization before the All-Star break.

Fulmer started 75 games with the Tigers from 2016-18 and posted a combined 3.81 ERA. His 2021-23 work as a closer and setup man resulted in another 190 1/3 innings of 3.55 ERA ball. He fanned 24.6% of his opponents in that time against a 9.4% walk rate, and Fulmer added in 19 saves and 45 holds along the way.

Though his return from Tommy John surgery hasn’t yet netted him a lengthy look in the majors, he did get into three games between Boston and Chicago this season. In that time, he pitched a combined 5 2/3 innings and allowed three runs on six hits and a pair of walks with three strikeouts.

The bulk of Fulmer’s 2025 season, however, has been spent in Triple-A. He’s tossed 36 innings between the top affiliates for the Red Sox and Cubs, recording a sharp 3.00 ERA with a huge 33.8% strikeout rate against a shaky 11.5% walk rate. He’s sitting 92.7 mph with his four-seamer in Triple-A, which is down about 1.5 mph from his pre-surgery form.

Kansas City has had a quality bullpen in 2025, ranking sixth in the majors with a collective 3.55 ERA. They’ve been more of a middle-of-the-pack group over the past month, however, pitching to a 16th-ranked 3.94 ERA in that time. They’ve still gotten mostly solid work from their top relievers, but they’ve cycled through several names in the final couple bullpen spots and received poor performance over the past month. Trevor Richards, Sam Long and Taylor Clarke all have ERAs north of 6.50 in that span (albeit in a total of just 19 innings between the three of them). Fulmer will add a veteran arm to the depth chart in Omaha and could get a look as the summer wears on.

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