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Royals Place Hunter Harvey On Injured List

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Today: Manager Matt Quatraro tells MLB.com’s Anne Rogers that Harvey’s injury is a Grade 2 strain, and thus, the righty will miss “significant” time. However, the Royals remain “hopeful” that he can return before the end of the season.

August 11: The Royals announced today that right-hander Hunter Harvey has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right adductor strain. Fellow righty Luinder Avila has been recalled in the corresponding move and will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.

Harvey’s IL stint is another frustrating development in his tenure as a Royal. He was acquired from the Nationals in July of 2024. He was still a year and a half away from free agency at that time, so the Royals were presumably hoping to get a decent amount of good innings from him.

Unfortunately, he’s been injured for a large chunk of the time since that trade. He made six appearances after the trade before mid-back tightness sent him to the IL in August. He wasn’t able to return to the club down the stretch. This year, a teres major strain put him on the shelf in mid-April. He was reinstated from the IL on July 25th but is now back there yet again.

Around the IL stints, Harvey has still been good. He has thrown 10 2/3 scoreless innings this year. He has punched out 28.2% of batters faced while only giving out walks to 2.6% of opponents. It’s unclear how long the club expects him to be out of action but they will have to proceed without Harvey for at least another couple of weeks. That’s less than ideal with the club hanging onto a slim chance of competing. They are currently four games back in the American League Wild Card picture, needing to leapfrog three teams to get a spot.

Avila, 23, will try to pick up some of the slack. An international signing out of Venezuela, the Royals added him to their 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft, but this will be his first time on the active roster of the big league club.

He has largely been a starter in his minor league career but has been working shorter stints lately. He landed on the minor league IL in late May due to a shoulder impingement, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. He only began a rehab assignment a couple of weeks back. He has made four appearances in that recent span, working on a starter’s schedule but not having eclipsed three innings in any of those outings. He could perhaps make his major league debut in a long relief capacity.

On the season as a whole, he has tossed 50 1/3 innings with a 4.47 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate, 10.4% walk rate and 45.7% ground ball rate. Baseball America currently ranks him as the #23 prospect in the system, noting that he could have a future as a back-end starter, though an eventual move to relief role is also a long-term possibility.

Photo courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff, Imagn Images

Rangers Interested In Hunter Harvey, Phil Maton

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The Rangers are looking for bullpen help and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Phil Maton of the Cardinals and Hunter Harvey of the Royals are two of their targets. Rosenthal also mentions Jake Bird of the Rockies and David Bednar of the Pirates but notes that the Rangers expect the asking price on Bednar to be too steep. The Rangers’ interest in Bednar and Bird has been previously reported. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that Texas would like to clear some payroll space today in order to accommodate bullpen upgrades.

Financial constraints have been an ongoing theme for the Rangers this year, as they clearly want to avoid the competitive balance tax. Owner Ray Davis admitted as much back in January. To stay under that line, their bullpen signings were modest. They inked Chris Martin, Hoby Milner, Luke Jackson, Jacob Webb and Shawn Armstrong to one-year deals, none of them worth more than $5.5MM.

The returns on those deals have been mixed. Jackson was recently released and is now with the Tigers. Armstrong and Milner have been good. Martin has also been good but is currently on the injured list. Webb is on the IL as well.

Texas relievers have a collective 3.37 earned run average, fourth-best in baseball. However, that might belie the true talent of the group. Their .277 batting average on balls in play, 72.6% strand rate and 8.4% homer to fly ball rate are all a bit to the unfortunate side. Their 13.3 K-BB% is 15th in the majors and their 3.82 SIERA 16th.

Regardless, most contending clubs look for bullpen upgrades ahead of the deadline. The Rangers are currently tied with the Mariners for the last American League Wild Card spot and figure to be adding.

Maton, 32, is often underrated. Dating back to the start of 2020, he has thrown 322 1/3 innings with a 3.69 ERA. He has struck out 27.1% of opponents, given out walks at a 9.2% rate and induced grounders on 42.8% of balls in play. He also does very well in terms of limiting damage. His average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard hit rate are often near the top of the league leaderboards. He also has a 2.57 ERA in 28 playoff innings.

Despite that solid track record, his market hasn’t always been strong, perhaps because his velocity maxes out around 91 miles per hour. He first reached free agency ahead of 2024 and signed a modest one-year, $6.5MM deal with the Rays. He didn’t do especially well in Tampa, posting a 4.58 ERA. However, he righted the ship after being flipped to the Mets, posting a 2.51 ERA with that club.

He returned to free agency ahead of the current season and lingered on the open market into March. The Cardinals grabbed him with a $2MM guarantee on a one-year deal. That has worked out nicely, as Maton has a 2.35 ERA in 38 1/3 innings. He has a 30.4% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate and 50.6% ground ball rate. He’s also still inducing weak contact, like usual. The Cards are clearly selling, having already traded Ryan Helsley to the Mets and Steven Matz to the Red Sox. An impending free agent like Maton is sure to go. He’s also been connected the Blue Jays this week.

Harvey, 30, is a bit more of a wild card. He hasn’t pitched much in the past year due to injury. He was traded from the Nationals to the Royals at last year’s deadline. Back tightness put him on the shelf after that deal. This year, a right teres major strain put him on the shelf for a few months and he only recently returned. He has only thrown 13 1/3 big league innings for the Royals since they acquired him.

But the results have been good when healthy. Dating back to the start of 2022, he has a 3.13 ERA, 27.3% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate and 42.7% ground ball rate. It’s unclear if the Royals would make him available, however, as they’ve been acting as buyers. They extended Seth Lugo instead of trading him and have brought in role players like Randal Grichuk and Adam Frazier.

Neither Maton nor Harvey would deal a massive blow to the Rangers’ budget. Maton is making only $2MM this year, leaving roughly $640K to be paid out. Harvey is making $3.7MM, with about $1.2MM left.

RosterResource has the Rangers’ CBT number at $235MM, roughly $6MM away from the $241MM base threshold. Cot’s Baseball Contracts gives them a bit more wiggle room, putting them at $233MM. Those are just estimates and might be off by a few million, but it seems like there’s room for someone like Maton or Harvey to be added without pushing the Rangers too high, though the club also has a few players with notable bonuses who could complicate matters.

If the Rangers need to move some money around, it’s been speculated that they could look to make players like Adolis García, Jonah Heim or Kyle Higashioka available. Garcia is making $9.25MM this year and isn’t having a great season. Perhaps he would appeal to the Royals, who need more offense from their outfield. Heim and Higashioka are also having underwhelming seasons. Heim is making $4.575MM while Higashioka is in the first season of a two-year, $13.5MM deal.

Photo courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff, Imagn Images

Royals Designate Cavan Biggio For Assignment

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The Royals announced Friday that infielder/outfielder Cavan Biggio has been designated for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to reliever Hunter Harvey, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Righty Jonathan Bowlan has been optioned to Triple-A.

Biggio, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Royals in the offseason. He cracked the Opening Day roster but hit just .174/.296/.246 in a part-time role. In late May, the Royals optioned him to the minors. As a veteran player with at least five years of big league service time, he can’t be optioned without his consent, so he presumably agreed to the move.

Since getting sent down, he’s been playing well for Triple-A Omaha, with a .285/.375/.464 line and 120 wRC+. However, he never got called back up, so it seems the Royals didn’t have him in their big league plans. He heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Royals could take as long as five days to explore trade interest.

Biggio had some early-career success thanks to a keen eye at the plate. However, it seems that pitchers realized they could attack him more without really being afraid of the consequences. In his 2019 debut season, he hit 16 home runs and drew walks at a 16.5% clip, helping him produce a .234/.364/.429 line and 115 wRC+. 49.8% of pitches he saw that year were in the zone. That number gradually ticked up closer to 60% over the years and he didn’t make pitchers pay. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has a .214/.323/.342 line and 90 wRC+.

He is at least capable of being a serviceable multi-positional guy. He has experience at every position on the diamond outside the battery, though he has just one inning at shortstop. His brief big league stint with the Royals didn’t go well but he seemed to bounce back in the minors, so perhaps he’ll garner interest from a club that needs some position player depth. With the trade deadline coming up, some clubs will be subtracting from their rosters and might look for veterans to fill in the gaps.

Photo courtesy of Brad Rempel, Imagn Images

Royals Notes: Marsh, Wright, Harvey

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Royals fans received some tough news today regarding their rotation depth. As noted by Anne Rogers of MLB.com, right-hander Alec Marsh has been shut down from throwing after the shoulder injury he’s been nursing all season did not respond well to his throwing progression. Meanwhile, Kyle Wright was scratched from his start for Triple-A Omaha yesterday due to tightness in his left oblique.

Marsh, 27, was a second-round pick by the Royals back in 2019 but did not make his MLB debut until the 2023 season. He wasn’t especially impressive during his rookie year, with a 5.69 ERA and nearly matching 5.70 FIP in 74 1/3 innings of work. He followed up that rather pedestrian performance in a swing role with a solid season as the Royals’ fifth starter last year, however. In 129 innings of work, Marsh posted a 4.53 ERA (92 ERA+) with a 4.34 FIP. That’s solid enough back-of-the-rotation production overall, Marsh’s season was more complicated than that.

The right-hander started off strong with a 3.63 ERA and 3.84 FIP in his first 12 starts of the 2024 campaign, but he surrendered 26 runs in his next 34 1/3 frames before being optioned down to Triple-A. After nearly a month in the minors, Marsh resurfaced down the stretch and posted a 3.90 ERA with a 4.76 FIP in his final six starts of the season. His up-and-down season left him on the periphery of Kansas City’s rotation mix and led the club to listen to offers on him early in the offseason. The Royals ultimately shipped Brady Singer out instead and kept Marsh in the fold, but the right-hander has been sidelined by shoulder soreness since the start of Spring Training.

Marsh has attempted to start up a throwing program multiple times since then, but has suffered setbacks each time and been forced to halt his progress. Marsh had progressed to throwing off the mound in this latest attempt at a comeback, but did not progress to facing hitters before he was shut down. He won’t throw for a couple of weeks yet and is scheduled to be re-evaluated on July 9, according to Rogers.

As for Wright, the right-hander has never appeared in the majors as a member of the Royals. He debuted in Atlanta all the way back in 2018 and spent parts of six seasons in the majors with the organization but various injuries led him to make just 60 appearances over those six years. 30 of those appearances were during his dominant 2022 season, when he posted a 3.19 ERA and 3.58 FIP across 180 1/3 innings en route to a tenth-place finish in NL Cy Young award voting. He was once again set to be a fixture of the Atlanta rotation in 2023 but was sidelined by a shoulder issue that eventually required surgery.

He was swapped to Kansas City not long after undergoing the procedure, which would cost him the entire 2024 campaign. He’s yet to make it back to the majors, as he was optioned to Triple-A earlier this week following a lengthy rehab process. Unfortunately, the aforementioned oblique tightness knocked him out of what would have been his very first post-rehab start. Rogers writes that Wright is expected to head to Kansas City for an MRI on Monday, and that the Royals will determine next steps from there. Wright has struggled to a 5.48 ERA in eight starts between Double-A and Triple-A this year, but some amount of rust was to be expected given his nearly two-year layoff from pitching. If Wright’s oblique issue doesn’t set him back even further, it wouldn’t be a shock to see the righty make his Royals debut later this year.

In more positive news, MLB.com notes that right-hander Hunter Harvey is making progress as he works his way back from a teres major strain. Harvey went on the shelf in early April and isn’t expected back until August, but he’s nonetheless poised to take a big step in his rehab process tomorrow when he takes the mound for what is expected to be a “light” throwing session. Despite the fact that it sounds like he won’t be throwing at full strength at this point, much less to hitters, taking a mound at all is a major step for a pitcher who has been limited to playing catch so far in his rehab. Harvey was a major acquisition by the Royals last summer but has thrown just 11 innings for Kansas City since the trade, including 5 1/3 frames this year.

Royals Select Thomas Hatch

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The Royals announced Thursday morning that they’ve selected the contract of righty Thomas Hatch from Triple-A Omaha. Injured reliever Hunter Harvey moves from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Kansas City also technically optioned righty Andrew Hoffmann to Omaha but immediately re-added him to the roster as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader.

Hatch, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Royals back in February. He originally had signed a one-year deal with the Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization, but that arrangement fell through due to some concerns stemming from his physical. Hatch wound up signing with Kansas City instead, and he’s now back in the majors.

Hatch has pitched in parts of four big league seasons, all with the Blue Jays or Pirates, and spent time pitching with Japan’s Hiroshima Carp in Nippon Professional Baseball last year. The former third-round pick (Cubs, 2016) has totaled 69 big league innings and carries a 4.96 earned run average, a 19.7% strikeout rate, a 10.7% walk rate and a 46.9% ground-ball rate in that time.

Whatever concerns led to the voiding of his KBO deal haven’t manifested in an injury this year. Hatch has been healthy all season and working out of the Storm Chasers’ rotation down in Omaha. He’s posted decent overall results in 51 innings — 4.59 ERA, 20.8 K%, 8.6 BB% — but has been better and more consistent than that rudimentary ERA would indicate. Hatch allowed nearly one-third of his seasonlong run total in a single, disastrous outing on April 15, when the Orioles’ Norfolk affiliate trounced him for eight runs. Since that time, he’s started seven games and rattled off a far more presentable 3.68 ERA with below-average strikeout numbers but solid command and ground-ball tendencies.

The Royals were off yesterday due to a rainout in St. Louis, so the entire bullpen is fresh. However, they used six relievers on Tuesday and presumably want some extra length in the ’pen for today’s twin bill. Hatch won’t start either game, but he’s fully stretched out (seven shutout innings in his most recent Triple-A start) and can thus provide ample long relief if either Game 1 starter Noah Cameron or Game 2 starter Cole Ragans runs into a short start. Ragans is expected to start Game 2 today, so he’ll presumably be reinstated from the 15-day IL between games. Cameron, good as he’s been so far in his big league tenure, could wind up being optioned to make room for Ragans’ return — a testament to the strength of Kansas City’s rotation.

The move to the 60-day IL isn’t a reflection of any sort of new setback for Harvey. He’s already missed 57 days, and the move from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL does not reset his minimum stay on the injured list. He’s technically eligible to return as soon as this weekend, but there’s no indication he’s close to returning. Harvey landed on the IL after experiencing shoulder discomfort in his most recent appearance back on April 7.

Harvey was subsequently diagnosed with a Grade 1 strain of his teres major. Harvey resumed throwing in early May but felt lingering discomfort and was shut back down. He hasn’t yet gone out on a minor league rehab assignment, and the team hasn’t provided an update on his status since May 23, when MLB.com’s Anne Rogers relayed that Harvey is playing catch but has still not progressed to the point where he’s able to more seriously ramp up his rehab.

Royals Notes: Outfield, Caglianone, Harvey

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The Royals enter the weekend with the American League’s fourth-best record (23-16) and in possession of the league’s second Wild Card spot. Their starting rotation, as highlighted by MLBTR’s Anthony Franco yesterday, looks exceptional. Their top four relievers, by workload, have ERAs of 2.65 or better.

Pitching was never going to be the question with this Kansas City roster, however — at least as long as they stayed mostly healthy. (So far, so good.) The lineup was a far more glaring question heading into the season. Kansas City traded from its rotation depth in an effort to bolster the lineup over the winter, sending Brady Singer to Cincinnati in return for Jonathan India. The move hasn’t panned out as hoped just yet. India’s .340 on-base percentage is strong, but he’s hitting .237 and slugging .313.

But while India hasn’t been as productive as hoped, he’s hardly the culprit in the Royals’ lackluster offense overall. Rather, that lies primarily in the outfield. Kansas City outfielders have been the second-worst offensive unit in the majors, by measure of wRC+ (72). Their collective .229/.286/.332 batting line is 28% worse than league-average when viewed through that lens.

Drew Waters has provided some offense, but MJ Melendez was optioned to Triple-A after an awful start recently. Center fielder Kyle Isbel is a strong defender but currently has a .253 on-base percentage; he’s walked once in 98 plate appearances. Hunter Renfroe’s already disappointing 2024 production has declined even further, making his signing all the more regrettable for the club.

The Royals’ outfield was woefully unproductive in 2024 as well. Early last May, in a piece for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers, I explored the team’s near decade-long drought when it comes to developing outfielders. In essence they haven’t drafted/developed or traded for/developed an above-average outfielder since the days of Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain. Suffice it to say, a lack of outfield production isn’t new. Since 2019, no team’s outfield has produced a lower wRC+ than Kansas City’s 83 — and that’s including 916 plate appearances of better-than-average production from Andrew Benintendi, who was acquired as an already-established big leaguer. The Royals’ homegrown outfielders have struggled even more.

The hope within the organization is that top prospect Jac Caglianone, last year’s No. 6  overall pick, can end that drought. Caglianone starred as a first baseman at the University of Florida, but with Vinnie Pasquantino set at first base, the Royals have given the former Gator a few looks in right field. He’s made five starts there, all of which have come in the past 15 days.

Caglianone is just 22 and has yet to even play in Triple-A, but his bat has been so prodigious that there are increasing calls to bring him to the majors as soon as possible. One glance at his .328/.404/.586 slash line and eight homers in 136 plate appearances in Double-A makes it easy to understand the reason for that clamor.

Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star took a look this week at Caglianone’s possible timeline to the majors and spoke to Kansas City GM J.J. Picollo about the possibility of a promotion. Picollo spoke in general terms but was, of course, complimentary of Caglianone and optimistic about his outlook.

“We like what he’s doing. We’re happy with what he’s doing,” said the GM. “We’re trying to allow him to develop properly as a hitter, and when this offense settles in, that might be a proper time for him to come up.”

McDowell points out that Caglianone has still only faced faced a repeat opponent once this year. His second meeting with said team brought a very different approach from their pitchers. He was attacked differently and had some uncomfortable swings. Caglianone’s contact rate on pitches within the strike zone, his overall swinging-strike rate (currently a lofty 14.5%) and his chase rate on balls off the plate are all elements the team is considering.

“…[W]hen you get a strike thrown to you in the major leagues and you don’t do something with it, that’s a missed opportunity,” Picollo added. “You might get that second opportunity in the minor leagues, but you’re not going to in the major leagues.”

While the Royals wait for Caglianone to check the necessary boxes, they’ve at least contemplated alternatives. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Royals considered placing a claim for outfielder Leody Taveras when the Rangers placed him on outright waivers but held off due to the financial commitment it would have required. Taveras is earning $4.75MM in 2025 and had about $3.73MM yet to be paid out at the time he was claimed by the Mariners.

On the one hand, it’s understandable if Royals brass took a look at the .231/.285/.350 line produced by Taveras and decided he wasn’t productive enough to merit a claim. On the other, even that sub-par production would still be an improvement over what the Royals have trotted out dating back to last year (and, really, dating back to 2019).

More concerning is the mention that Taveras’ salary might’ve been too steep and cut too heavily into any potential payroll flexibility they’ll have leading into the 2025 trade deadline. Kansas City’s Opening Day payroll of $126MM is the team’s largest since 2017 and the third-largest in franchise history. Under owner John Sherman, who purchased the club from the late David Glass in Nov. 2019, the Royals have averaged a $103MM payroll during 162-game seasons (i.e. excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign).

This year’s spending is already way up relative to Sherman’s prior comfort levels. Balking at a readily available upgrade due to a relatively modest salary would seem to suggest there might not be a ton of cash left in the team’s reserves.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be any upgrades available, of course. The Royals presumably have at least a few million in wiggle room, and there will be affordably priced outfielders, relievers and others on the market. They could also pay a slightly higher price in terms of prospects to persuade trade partners to pay down the salary of any veterans sent to Kansas City. Sherman could be heartened by a strong run through mid-July and simply approve a larger budget to further strengthen his club’s World Series hopes. However it plays out, the Royals seem likely to be eyeing outfield upgrades from within (Caglianone) and from outside the organization as well in the months ahead.

The bullpen could conceivably be an area of focus on the summer trade market as well, though right now it looks like a strength. Kansas City has been without setup man Hunter Harvey for more than a month now, however, due to a strained teres major muscle. Recent updates on him from manager Matt Quatraro weren’t overly encouraging. Via Anne Rogers of MLB.com, Harvey threw live batting practice earlier this week but felt some continued discomfort the following day. Quatraro said they’ll accordingly slow down his throwing progression a bit. While the manager cautioned that it’s “nothing alarming,” that also doesn’t bode well for a return in the short term.

Harvey was terrific to start the season, rattling off 5 1/3 scoreless innings with one hit, no walks and seven strikeouts. He looked far more like he did in the first half of 2024 with the Nationals, before back troubles torpedoed his season shortly following a trade to the Royals. Harvey’s velocity was down noticeably even during that terrific start (97.8 mph average four-seamer in 2024; 95.3 mph average in 2025).

The quartet of Carlos Estevez, Lucas Erceg, Daniel Lynch IV and John Schreiber has produced brilliant results thus far, lessening the urgency to get Harvey back into the fold. Erceg, Scheriber and Evan Sisk are the only healthy Royals relievers with above-average strikeout rates, though, and Sisk has pitched just 2 1/3 innings. Harvey adds an element of power and swing-and-miss that the majority of Quatraro’s bullpen currently lacks, making his efforts to return worth keeping a watchful eye on for Royals fans.

Royals Place Hunter Harvey On Injured List

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3:10pm: Anne Rogers of MLB.com relays some more info from manager Matt Quatraro. Harvey’s strain is grade 1, the lowest severity. He will be re-evaluated next week.

2:04pm: The Royals announced that they’ve placed right-hander Hunter Harvey on the 15-day injured list due to a teres major strain. Fellow righty Steven Cruz has been recalled from Triple-A Omaha in his place. The team has not yet provided a timetable for Harvey’s return.

Harvey, acquired from the Nationals last July, has been outstanding to begin the 2025 season. He’s appeared in six games and tossed 5 1/3 shutout frames with only one hit allowed and seven strikeouts. Strong as that start has been, it hasn’t come without red flags. The flamethrowing Harvey averaged 97.8 mph on his heater in 2024 but has averaged 95.3 mph on the pitch in the early stages of the current season. He’s seen a similar velocity drop in his splitter.

Kansas City parted with third base prospect Cayden Wallace and their Competitive Balance draft selection (No. 39 overall) to acquire Harvey last year. (The Nats selected catcher Caleb Lomavita with that pick.) However, Harvey pitched just 5 2/3 innings for the Royals following that swap, as a back injury wiped out the remainder of his season. He’s now headed back to the shelf for a yet-to-be-determined period of time.

Injuries are nothing new for Harvey. The former No. 22 overall draft pick (Orioles, 2013) had Tommy John surgery back in 2016 and has also missed extended periods of time with strains of his oblique, forearm (twice) and elbow. The 60 2/3 innings he pitched for the Nationals in 2023 stand as his career-high mark.

Carlos Estevez has picked up four of the Royals’ five saves this year. (Daniel Lynch IV has the other.) Harvey and Lucas Erceg have served as the primary setup men for Estevez. Lynch and John Schreiber figure to move up the pecking order and take on more leverage work in Harvey’s absence.

Mets, Royals Discussed Starling Marte Earlier This Offseason

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The Royals showed interest in Starling Marte earlier in the offseason, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Those talks obviously didn’t produce a deal, but Sherman adds that Kansas City hasn’t completely closed the door on the possibility. There’s no indication talks are active, but it’s nevertheless notable that the Royals are still interested to an extent. It shows that Kansas City is still weighing options to bring in an outfield bat and that they perhaps have some financial flexibility even with a player payroll that’s nearly $20MM north of last year’s spending levels.

Of course, the Royals wouldn’t be taking on the entirety of Marte’s salary in a trade. The 36-year-old is entering the final season of a four-year, $78MM contract and is owed $19.5MM in 2025. Coming off a pedestrian .269/.327/.388 batting line (104 wRC+), Marte is no longer productive enough for another team to have interest in taking on the full freight of his salary. The Mets have reportedly been willing to pay down a portion of that $19.5MM.

Health is another factor to consider. Marte missed the final seven weeks of the 2023 season with a groin strain and was out for nearly two months last summer due to a bone bruise in his right knee. He’s been hobbled by ongoing discomfort in that same knee this spring and has yet to appear in a game. Manager Carlos Mendoza did suggest yesterday that Marte could get into a game within the next few days (link via Newsday’s Tim Healey), but presumably any team looking into the possibility of acquiring him would want to see the veteran outfielder get into a few games to demonstrate that he’s healthy enough to be considered likely for Opening Day.

The Royals’ interest in Marte makes some sense on paper. They’ve been looking for an outfield bat for much of the offseason and have come up empty. The Royals have looked into various trade targets and reportedly made offers to free agents Anthony Santander and Jurickson Profar, who instead signed with the Blue Jays and Braves, respectively. Last year’s primary outfield of MJ Melendez, Kyle Isbel and Hunter Renfroe was among the least-productive outfield groups in all of MLB. The Royals plan to give trade acquisition Jonathan India and infielder Michael Massey some work in left field this season, but the broad outfield outlook remains bleak if they can’t get a long-awaited Melendez breakout and/or a return to form for the veteran Renfroe.

When the two sides talked earlier in the offseason, per Sherman, the Mets expressed interest in Royals relievers Hunter Harvey and Angel Zerpa. Kansas City understandably didn’t have interest in moving a quality reliever to buy low on an expensive veteran in his mid-30s.

Unless the Mets are willing to take on the second season of a two-year deal for Chris Stratton, who hasn’t panned out as hoped in K.C., it’s hard to envision them prying a member of the Royals’ bullpen away in a Marte swap. Harvey was excellent for much of the 2024 season but struggled in July before landing on the injured list with what proved to be a season-ending back issue in August. He’s being paid $3.7MM this year in his final season of club control. Zerpa isn’t even arb-eligible yet and is controllable through 2028. He posted a 3.86 ERA with a 20.5% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and massive 58.4% grounder rate in 2024. Both are in line to play notable roles for manager Matt Quatraro.

Royals Notes: Lorenzen, Marsh, Harvey, McArthur

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Michael Lorenzen will return from the 15-day injured list tomorrow. The Royals list him as the probable starter for the second game of their series in Washington. Kansas City will need to make a corresponding active roster move.

It’s a crucial start as K.C. fights for a playoff spot. The Royals squeaked out a 1-0 win in extra innings over the Nationals tonight. That kept them in front of the Tigers for the AL’s second Wild Card spot via the tiebreaker. They’re two games up on the Twins and 2.5 clear of the Mariners in the race.

Lorenzen has been down for more than a month because of a left hamstring strain. Acquired from the Rangers at the deadline, the righty had a sparkling 1.85 earned run average in 24 1/3 innings over his first five starts. That excellent run prevention was in spite of mediocre strikeout (17%) and walk (10%) rates. Lorenzen’s results have generally outpaced his peripherals for consecutive seasons. He carries a 3.43 ERA over 126 frames between Texas and K.C. this year.

Alec Marsh stepped back into the rotation while Lorenzen was on the shelf. He pitched fairly well, turning in a 4.50 ERA while striking out more than 32% of opponents over four starts. Marsh is moving into the bullpen to open a rotation spot, tweets Jaylon Thompson of the K.C. Star. The 26-year-old righty has turned in a 4.65 ERA with a solid 23% strikeout rate over 25 appearances (24 starts) on the year. He had an excellent start to the season before a terrible July led the Royals to option him to Triple-A for the three weeks preceding Lorenzen’s injury.

While Lorenzen’s return is a boost to the pitching staff, skipper Matt Quatraro provided disheartening updates on a pair of relievers this afternoon. The Royals have officially ruled out Hunter Harvey and James McArthur for the season, Quatraro said (X link via Anne Rogers of MLB.com). Harvey has been out since the middle of August with a back injury, while the Royals lost McArthur to an elbow sprain last week.

Quatraro said the Royals were sending Harvey for a second opinion, which at least raises the question of whether he’ll need surgery. Injuries have been a recurring problem for the 29-year-old righty. Harvey underwent Tommy John surgery as a prospect and has had extended absences during his MLB career for forearm, lat and elbow injuries.

Harvey can be a high-leverage reliever at his best, as he showed with the Nationals between 2023-24. He fired 60 2/3 innings of 2.82 ERA ball last season. This season’s 4.20 mark across 45 frames wasn’t as impressive, but Harvey punched out more than 26% of opponents behind a 13.4% swinging strike rate. The Royals viewed him as a late-game weapon and sent third base prospect Cayden Wallace plus the 39th pick in this summer’s draft to acquire him. They’ve gotten essentially nothing out of that deal, as Harvey allowed four runs over 5 2/3 innings before going on the shelf.

Kansas City controls Harvey for one more year via arbitration. The Royals would tender him a contract if they expect him to be back early in 2025, but a long-term injury could obviously change the calculus. He’d be due a small raise on this year’s $2.325MM sum.

McArthur operated as Kansas City’s closer for a time. He picked up 18 saves but also blew seven leads. McArthur’s heavy reliance on ground-balls without many whiffs plays better in the middle innings than it does in the ninth. His year concludes with a 4.92 ERA through 56 2/3 frames. The Royals are using deadline acquisition Lucas Erceg as their closer while turning high-leverage innings to converted starter Kris Bubic and left-hander Sam Long.

Royals Place Chris Stratton On 15-Day Injured List

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The Royals placed right-hander Chris Stratton on the 15-day injured list due to a right forearm flexor strain.  Left-hander Angel Zerpa was called up from Triple-A Omaha in the corresponding move.

Only 16 days remain in the regular season, so between the calendar and the usually serious nature nature of forearm and flexor-related injuries, it seems likely that Stratton’s 2024 campaign is over.  If the strain is mild, Stratton could conceivably return to action if the Royals make a deep playoff run, but the larger concern at this point could be whether or not the 34-year-old could be facing a surgical procedure that could threaten some (or all) of his 2025 season.

Stratton has allowed five runs over his last two appearances and two innings of work, but even if his injury factored into these rough outings, the righty has already been struggling in his first season in Kansas City.  Stratton has a 5.55 ERA over 58 1/3 innings, along with a 17.1% strikeout rate and 12.8% walk rate that are both far below the league average.  The K% and BB% rates are both career lows for Stratton over a full MLB season, while his ERA is only a touch better than the 5.57 ERA he posted with the Angels and Pirates in 2019.

The right-hander bounced back from that tough 2019 campaign with solid results and a full-time move to relief pitching over the next four years, posting a 3.91 ERA in 255 1/3 frames with the Pirates, Cardinals, and Rangers.  That includes a 3.92 ERA and a career-best 7.4% walk rate in 82 2/3 innings with St. Louis and Texas last year, and four more innings in the playoffs as Stratton won a World Series ring on the Rangers’ championship squad.

That performance provided a platform for Stratton to land a two-year, $8MM free agent deal with the Royals this past winter.  The deal is technically a one-year contract with a player option for 2025, as Stratton can choose to take either a $500K buyout or remain in the last year of the deal for a $4.5MM salary next season.  Between his subpar performance and now this injury, Stratton seems like a lock to pass on his opt-out clause.

While Stratton wasn’t delivering much in the way of results, his absence will leave K.C. short of an innings-eating bullpen arm.  Zerpa’s 4.40 ERA over 47 innings could provide a bit of a boost, but Stratton joins Will Smith (back spasms) and Hunter Harvey (mid-back tightness) on the list of injured Royals relievers.  In Harvey’s case, MLB.com’s Anne Rogers writes that Harvey has started throwing but the team isn’t yet sure when or if the right-hander might able to return to action.

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