Noah Cameron

Royals Have Received Interest In Ryan Bergert, Stephen Kolek

By Anthony Franco | December 9, 2025 at 5:26pm CDT

Royals president of baseball operations J.J. Picollo is on record about the club’s willingness to trade from their rotation for outfield help. Most of the focus has been on left-hander Kris Bubic, who is down to his final season of arbitration. Even if Bubic remains the likeliest candidate, K.C. has predictably gotten hits on their controllable arms as well.

Anne Rogers of MLB.com writes that the Royals have gotten calls on each of Noah Cameron, Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek. (The Cardinals are among the teams known to like Cameron, who is coming off a 2.99 ERA across 24 starts as a rookie.) Bergert and Kolek are less established but also have extended windows of club control. Bergert has yet to reach a full service year and is under control for six seasons; Kolek has a little over one year of service, so he’s controllable for five years.

The two right-handers landed in Kansas City over the summer in the same deadline trade. The Royals picked up both arms in a trade sending backup catcher Freddy Fermin to the Padres. It was a nice bit of business for Picollo and his staff. Bergert combined for a 3.66 earned run average with a solid 22.6% strikeout rate over his first 19 MLB appearances. He sits in the 93-94 MPH range and has an above-average slider. If he can develop a better changeup or add a cutter against left-handed hitters, he could be a mid-rotation arm.

Kolek is a former Rule 5 selection who moved back to the rotation after spending his rookie year working out of San Diego’s bullpen. He’s also in the 93-94 MPH range with his fastball and uses six pitches with regularity. Kolek’s stuff has never played for many whiffs, but he got ground-balls at a strong 51.4% clip over 19 starts this year. He tallied 112 2/3 innings of 3.51 ERA ball, and while that’s better than his peripherals suggest, he looks like a fine fourth/fifth starter.

As it stands, neither Bergert nor Kolek project as one of the top five starters on the depth chart. Cole Ragans, Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, Bubic and Cameron would be the front five if everyone’s healthy. Bergert and Kolek have minor league options, so they could begin the season in Triple-A. Bailey Falter is out of options and probably ticketed for long relief if he sticks on the roster all offseason.

The Royals are unlikely to trade Wacha or Lugo, each of whom recently signed significant extensions. They’ll probably hear teams out on Cameron, but the asking price would be significant even if his middling 20.5% strikeout rate suggests he’s unlikely to turn in another sub-3.00 season. The only pitcher whom the team is all but firmly taking off the table is Ragans.

“We’re in a really good spot, so if the right trade comes along, and it costs us a starting pitcher, we have to look at it. It’s just not going to be Cole,” Picollo told Rogers. He subsequently left the door ever so slightly open with the caveat that another team could offer “something crazy,” but he pointed out that they’d be selling low on an ace-caliber pitcher who missed a good chunk of the season with a rotator cuff strain.

“We have to ask ourselves: Is this his max value right now? Probably not,” Picollo said. “If Cole pitches like he did in ‘24, who knows what his value is going to be? We just think right now, three years of control on a really good starting pitcher, it would have to be something crazy, something that’s like, ‘How can we pass this up?'”

The focus for Kansas City remains acquiring multiple outfielders, one apiece in trade and free agency. Rogers writes that they’re specifically after a right-handed hitter who can play center field. Harrison Bader is the top free agent center fielder, while Jake Meyers fits that bill on the trade front. The Royals have unsurprisingly been linked to both players this week. Speculatively speaking, Colorado’s Brenton Doyle is another possibility — though he’s coming off a terrible offensive season and might be too redundant to another glove-only player in Kyle Isbel. High-end talents Byron Buxton and Luis Robert Jr. are unlikely to move at all this offseason, and that’s before getting into the difficulty of lining up a trade within the division.

In free agency, Rogers lists JJ Bleday, Adolis García and Lane Thomas as players whom the front office has considered. All three are reclamation targets, and none should be an everyday option in center field. García is a full-time corner outfielder. Bleday and Thomas have played up the middle but fit better in right field, especially in a spacious outfield. García will be the most expensive of that trio but they’re all likely to take one-year deals.

While the outfield is still the priority, Picollo called adding a reliever a “secondary” goal. Bringing in another lefty to join Angel Zerpa and Daniel Lynch IV would be preferable. It’s a rough class for free agent lefty relievers, but the Royals are facing budgetary constrains and weren’t likely to spend big on that either way. Danny Coulombe, Hoby Milner, Caleb Ferguson, Caleb Thielbar and Drew Pomeranz are among the available free agents. The Cardinals’ JoJo Romero is the most obvious bullpen trade candidate of the winter. Tanner Banks, Keegan Akin and Brandon Eisert are a few other players who could be available for a modest trade return.

Cardinals Notes: Nootbaar, Cameron, Pitching

By Mark Polishuk | December 7, 2025 at 5:34pm CDT

As one of the few teams in baseball in true rebuild mode, the Cardinals are open to offers on most players on their roster, yet some of the Cards’ most-cited trade candidates may be a little more available than others. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch hears from sources on rival teams that the Cardinals don’t seem to be “actively seeking to trade” outfielder Lars Nootbaar. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Nootbaar won’t be dealt, of course, but there are also some obvious reasons why the Cardinals might want to wait until beyond this offseason to move the 28-year-old.

Injuries have been a subplot of Nootbaar’s career, and while he hit new career highs in games played (135) and plate appearances (583) in 2025, he underwent surgery in October on both of his heels. The surgery was meant to address Haglund’s deformities, which are bone spurs that develop on the heel bone near the base of the Achilles tendon. It seems likely that playing through this discomfort led to Nootbaar’s underwhelming numbers in 2025, and it isn’t yet known if the recovery from the procedure will allow Nootbaar to be ready for Opening Day.

Between the health question mark and Nootbaar’s 96 wRC+ (from 13 homers and a .234/.325/.361 slash line), St. Louis would probably be selling low if Nootbaar was traded this winter. As such, it makes sense that the Cardinals would hang onto Nootbaar for now and see if he’s able to bounce back in the first half of the 2026 season, so a trade deadline move might be more realistic.

Trading Sonny Gray to the Red Sox cleared $20MM off of the Cardinals’ payroll ledger for 2026, and the team would also save a lot of money if Nolan Arenado or Willson Contreras were traded. There isn’t any similar financial pressure involved with a potential Nootbaar trade, as he is projected to earn $5.7MM this winter in the second of three trips through the arbitration process. That extra year of control gives the Cards more flexibility in allowing Nootbaar to get fully healthy before more properly shopping him to any interested teams.

President of baseball operations Chaim Bloom has been open about his team’s desire to add starting pitching, whether it’s younger arms or (likely on short-term deals) more experienced hurlers. The Gray trade brought Richard Fitts and prospect Brandon Clarke into the fold, and St. Louis is expected to seek out more pitchers in other trades or in free agency. Whether or not the Cards explore free agent pitchers will hinge on what they can land on the trade front, Goold writes, so it may be yet be a while before the Cardinals look too deeply at signings given how much interest they’re getting in their various trade chips.

Other teams’ trade endeavors could also delay matters. For instance, Goold notes that some teams interested in Brendan Donovan for their second base vacancy also have interest in the Rays’ Brandon Lowe or even the Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte. If one of those players is dealt elsewhere, that eliminates one Donovan suitor, but also puts more pressure on other interested teams to up their offers to St. Louis in order to land a second baseman (though Donovan’s versatility also doesn’t limit his market just to keystone-needy teams).

Perhaps related to both the Cardinals’ pitching search and the Royals’ known interest in Donovan, Goold reports that the Cards “have had interest before in” Kansas City’s Noah Cameron. The 26-year-old southpaw is coming off an impressive debut season that saw Cameron finish fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting after posting a 2.99 ERA over 138 1/3 innings.

Between Cameron’s ability and multiple remaining years of team control, it would take a whole lot to pry the left-hander away from the Royals. While K.C. president of baseball operations J.J. Picollo has discussed his team’s openness to trading from its pitching depth for much-needed outfield help, Cameron would likely be one of the last arms the Royals would prefer to move. That said, adding a real impact bat to the lineup might require an impact pitcher in return, and Donovan’s market has been so crowded that the Royals might make to make a special offer to break away from the pack.

Royals Place Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo On 15-Day Injured List

By Mark Polishuk | May 17, 2025 at 1:18pm CDT

The Royals announced that two of their top starters are heading to the 15-day injured list. Cole Ragans has been sidelined due to a left groin strain, while Seth Lugo (whose placement is retroactive to May 14) is dealing with a sprained middle finger on his throwing hand. Left-hander Noah Cameron was called up from Triple-A and will start today’s game against the Cardinals, and fellow southpaw Evan Sisk has also been called up in a corresponding move.

Neither IL placement comes as a big surprise, as it was already known that Cameron would be making a spot start in what was initially Lugo’s regular turn in the rotation today. Lugo’s finger issue was initially described as inflammation, and it arose in his last outing on May 11. The official diagnosis of a sprain indicates that a scan revealed something beyond just soreness, so while the original plan was just for Lugo to miss one start, the veteran right-hander will now get at least 15 days of rest and recuperation.

Ragans had one of his own starts skipped a few weeks ago due to a groin strain, and he left during the sixth inning of yesterday’s game with St. Louis due to a similar groin issue. Ragans will now also head to the IL in order to hopefully put this injury behind him, and the nagging groin problem could explain why Ragans has a 7.20 ERA (eight earned runs over 10 innings) in his last two starts.

It has been an unusual season for Ragans, who is pitching much better than his 4.53 ERA would indicate. An inflated .376 BABIP is the biggest culprit behind Ragans’ lack of bottom-line success, as his 37.7% strikeout rate is among the game’s best, and his 6.8% walk rate is also solidly above the league average. With a 2.28 SIERA and a .249 xwOBA, the advanced metrics indicate that Ragans is actually pitching better than he did in 2024, when he finished fourth in AL Cy Young Award voting.

Lugo was the runner-up in last year’s AL Cy voting, after posting a 3.00 ERA over 206 2/3 innings with Kansas City. In something of the reverse of Ragans, Lugo has been outperforming his secondary numbers in both 2024-25, and he has a cumulative 3.01 ERA over the two seasons but a more modest 4.00 SIERA. Lugo’s lack of strikeouts and his tendency to allow hard contact may not impress the Statcast crew, but his strong control and elite curveball spin rate has allowed him to achieve quite a bit of success over his two seasons with the Royals.

Cameron made his MLB debut earlier this season and was brilliant in his lone start, tossing 6 1/3 shutout innings of one-hit ball against the Rays on April 30. He’ll get another chance to display his stuff both today and likely throughout at least the end of May, as Cameron is the logical choice to fill one of the two spots that have suddenly opened up in the K.C. rotation.

There aren’t many teams that could easily handle losing two starters at the same time, and the Royals’ depth has been further thinned since Alec Marsh and Kyle Wright are also both still on the IL. Rich Hill was signed to a minors deal earlier this week, but Hill is only just starting to properly ramp up and won’t be game-ready for a while. At the Triple-A level, prospect Luinder Avila could be called up for his own MLB debut, or Thomas Hatch could be called if the Royals opened up a spot on the 40-man roster.

Kansas City’s rotation has been one of the best in baseball this year, between the contributions of Ragans, Lugo, Michael Wacha, Michael Lorenzen, and Kris Bubic. This excellent pitching staff has helped the Royals keep pace in the crowded AL Central despite some very inconsistent hitting, so K.C. will now need both better offense and some reinforcements from beyond the starting five to keep from slipping back in the playoff race.

AL Central Notes: Lugo, Ragans, Castro, Meadows

By Mark Polishuk | May 17, 2025 at 8:59am CDT

Seth Lugo was scratched from a scheduled start today against the Cardinals, as the Royals right-hander is battling inflammation in the middle finger of his throwing hand. The hope is that Lugo will be out for just one turn in the rotation, manager Matt Quatraro told reporters (including Jaylon Thompson of the Kansas City Star) though “we are in the very early stages of it and we are going to see how [Lugo] responds” to the extra rest. Last season’s AL Cy Young Award runner-up is having another good year with a 3.02 ERA over 56 2/3 innings, though Lugo’s 4.26 SIERA and his Statcast metrics aren’t nearly as flattering.

It was just a few weeks ago that the Royals skipped a Cole Ragans start due to a minor groin strain for the southpaw, but while Ragans was able to avoid the injured list at the time, his nagging injury continues to be a concern. Ragans left during the sixth inning of yesterday’s game due to left groin tightness, though Quatraro described the removal as somewhat preventative. Rookie Noah Cameron will be recalled from Triple-A to start today’s game in Lugo’s place, and Cameron might well be in line for an extended look in the majors if one or both of Lugo or Ragans ultimately require a 15-day IL stint to fully heal up.

Royals Recall Noah Cameron For MLB Debut

By Anthony Franco | April 30, 2025 at 10:00am CDT

April 30: The Royals have formally announced Cameron’s recall from Omaha. They’ve also reinstated infielder Tyler Tolbert from the bereavement list. Righty Jonathan Bowlan and infielder Nick Loftin were optioned to Triple-A in a pair of corresponding moves.

April 29: Left-hander Noah Cameron is listed as the Royals’ probable starter for Wednesday evening’s game against the Rays. He’ll go opposite Drew Rasmussen in his major league debut. Cameron was added to the 40-man roster last November, but Kansas City will need to recall him while making a corresponding active roster move involving a pitcher.

This would have been Cole Ragans’ turn through the starting five. The star southpaw was pulled early from his most recent start with left groin tightness. He’s evidently not ready to go on normal rest, but the Royals haven’t placed him on the injured list. Jaylon Thompson of The Kansas City Star reports that the team is optimistic that Ragans will not require an IL stint. He’s scheduled for a bullpen session in the coming days and could start one of the games during the weekend series against the Orioles.

The delay opens the opportunity for Cameron’s first major league call. The 6’3″ lefty was a seventh-round pick in 2021. He hadn’t pitched during his draft year at the University of Central Arkansas because of Tommy John surgery. Cameron has impressed since entering professional ball, emerging as one of the team’s better pitching prospects in the process. Baseball America ranked him eighth overall in the K.C. system during the offseason. BA credits Cameron with a plus changeup as the headliner of a solid, if not overpowering, four-pitch arsenal.

Cameron doesn’t have huge velocity. His fastball averaged 92 MPH during his Triple-A work last year. It’s closer to 93 this season. Cameron mixes his pitches fairly regularly. It has worked against minor league competition. He turned in a 3.08 earned run average with a near-28% strikeout rate between the top two minor league levels last season. He has been similarly effective through five starts with Triple-A Omaha this year. Cameron has fanned 30.3% of opponents while working to a 3.22 ERA across 22 1/3 frames. He has gotten ground-balls at a career-high 58.5% clip.

If Ragans does require an injured list stint, Cameron would probably be the top choice to step into the rotation. Assuming Ragans can avoid the IL, Cameron will likely head back to Omaha after the spot start. Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Kris Bubic and Michael Lorenzen round out the rotation. The Royals have been without Alec Marsh and Kyle Wright all season. Wright, who missed all of last season rehabbing shoulder surgery, is the closer of that duo to a return. Anne Rogers of MLB.com relays that Wright will begin a minor league rehab stint this week.

Royals Notes: Rotation, Cameron, Bowlan, Mitchell

By Mark Polishuk | February 23, 2025 at 4:48pm CDT

Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, and the re-signed Michael Wacha and Michael Lorenzen project as the Royals’ top four starters, setting up a competition for the fifth spot between such pitchers as Kris Bubic, Alec Marsh, Kyle Wright, and Daniel Lynch IV. However, MLB.com’s Anne Rogers writes that left-handed prospect Noah Cameron might also be on the radar as at least a depth arm, since Marsh (shoulder soreness) and Wright (hamstring strain) are both dealing with injuries.

Marsh’s right shoulder first began to bother him during his offseason ramp-up process, leaving the Royals taking a cautious approach to Marsh’s workload in spring camp. Marsh did throw his first bullpen session of the spring on Friday, but it remains to be seen if he’ll be fully ready to go by Opening Day, given the slowed throwing progression.

In Wright’s case, his hamstring strain is thought to be mild in nature, though he’ll be delayed around a week in recovery. It makes for a frustrating late development near what seemed to be the end of a much longer rehab process for Wright, who hasn’t pitched since September 2023 due to shoulder surgery. Those shoulder problems also limited him to 31 innings during the 2023 season, so it has more or less been a two-year odyssey for Wright to return to form as a regular starting pitcher.

Bubic is now probably in the driver’s seat for the fifth starter’s job, yet he is being built back to a starters’ workload himself after a Tommy John surgery cost him most of the last two seasons. Bubic was able to return to action last July and pitched well in a relief role, with a 2.67 ERA over 30 1/3 innings out of the K.C. bullpen.

All this uncertainty could open the door to a youngster like Cameron. Rogers writes that the Royals have “reassured Cameron that he’ll be helping out in Kansas City at some point in 2025,” which would mark the 25-year-old’s MLB debut. The club already showed some faith in Cameron by adding him to the 40-man roster last November, in advance of the Rule 5 Draft.

Cameron was a seventh-round pick for the Royals in the 2021 draft, and he made a great accounting for himself with a 2.32 ERA, 27.8% strikeout rate, and 6.7% walk rate over 54 1/3 innings with Triple-A Omaha last season. Baseball America ranks Cameron as the eighth-best prospect in the Kansas City farm system, describing him as “a finesse lefthander” with an interesting four-pitch arsenal, highlighted by a 60-grade changeup. Cameron’s fastball touched the 96mph threshold last season but he generally throws the pitch in the early 90s, still getting good results due to “the deceptive life on the pitch and its good vertical carry.”

The Royals also signed veteran swingman Ross Stripling to a minors deal last week, adding to the list of rotation candidates. One name not mentioned as part of the competition is Jonathan Bowlan, since Rogers says the Royals see the right-hander as a relief pitcher heading into 2025. Using Bowlan as a reliever could allow K.C. to take better advantage of his one remaining minor league option year, plus Rogers writes that Bowlan’s stuff “probably ticks up in short stints.”

Bowlan has worked as a starter for most of his minor league career, but he came out of the bullpen in 19 of his 35 appearances in Omaha last season. The splits were telling, as Bowlan had a 2.77 ERA in 26 relief innings and a 5.58 ERA across 80 2/3 innings as a starter, as well as a much lower walk rate as a reliever.

Since Bowlan’s walk rate had started to tick upward over his last couple of minor league seasons, this improved control is a particularly interesting sign. Working as a reliever might also help Bowlan get more of a foothold in the big leagues, as his MLB resume consists of three appearances and 5 2/3 innings over the last two seasons, with Bowlan posting a 7.94 ERA in that small sample size.

In other Royals prospect news, one of Kansas City’s top minor leaguers hit a significant setback, as Blake Mitchell will undergo surgery to fix a fractured right hamate bone. (Manager Matt Quatraro revealed the news to Jaylon Thompson of the Kansas City Star and other reporters.) Mitchell will need 4-6 weeks of recovery time, meaning Mitchell will miss the rest of spring camp, and will need to participate in extended Spring Training to make up for the lost prep time. Hamate injuries aren’t usually too serious, yet it will cut into some important development time for the 20-year-old backstop.

Mitchell was the eighth overall pick of the 2023 draft, and was a fixture within the top-100 prospect lists this spring — ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranked him highest as the 42nd-best prospect in the sport. Mitchell is already considered a solid defensive catcher, and he hit .232/.368/.424 with 18 home runs over 486 plate appearances last season, almost all of which came at A-level Columbia. Pundits are mixed on Mitchell’s future as a hitter, but he has solid power potential and some unusual strength on the basepaths for a catcher. Despite a lack of speed, Mitchell still stole 26 bags in 33 attempts last year.

Royals, Kyle Wright Avoid Arbitration

By Darragh McDonald | December 17, 2024 at 3:00pm CDT

The Royals announced that they have avoided arbitration with right-hander Kyle Wright and also signed new deals with lefties Evan Sisk and Noah Cameron. Wright’s deal is for $1.8MM, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. The salaries for Sisk and Cameron haven’t been reported but they are pre-arb players and likely set to make something near the $760K league minimum.

Wright’s $1.8MM salary is the same he made in 2024. He missed the entire season while recovering from a shoulder surgery he underwent in October of 2023, still with Atlanta at that time. It was known that he wasn’t going to be a factor this year but the Royals traded for him anyway in a long-play move.

Under the arbitration system, a player’s salary almost never goes down, so the Royals had likely planned on something like this. Wright can be retained through 2026, so they have effectively committed $3.6MM over a two-year period to get his services in 2025, with a chance at keeping him around another year as well.

There’s risk coming off a notable surgery and lost season but Wright will be a bargain at those price points if he can get back to his 2022 form. That year, he tossed 180 1/3 innings across 30 starts for Atlanta. He allowed 3.19 earned runs per nine with a 23.2% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 55.6% ground ball rate. His shoulder problems limited him to a 6.97 ERA in 31 innings in 2023 before the surgery wiped out the entire 2024 campaign.

The Royals had a strong rotation this year but just traded Brady Singer to the Reds to get Jonathan India and Joey Wiemer. They currently have Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha in three rotation spots. Assuming Wright is healthy and back in form, he’ll be a strong candidate for a back-end spot. His competition will likely come from Kris Bubic and Alec Marsh. Bubic missed most of 2023 due to Tommy John surgery but returned this year and posted strong numbers out of the bullpen. Marsh had a solid 4.53 ERA at the back of the rotation in 2024, logging 129 innings.

Royals Select Three Players To 40-Man Roster

By Nick Deeds | November 19, 2024 at 4:56pm CDT

The Royals have selected left-hander Noah Cameron, right-hander Luinder Avila, and right-hander Eric Cerantola to their 40-man roster ahead of this evening’s Rule 5 Draft protection deadline, per a team announcement. No corresponding moves were necessary, and the club’s 40-man roster now stands at 37 players.

Cameron, 25, was a seventh-round pick by the Royals in 2021. A starter at every level of the minors so far, the southpaw struggled badly in his first taste of Double-A action last year but made significant strides this year. After seeing Cameron pitch to a solid 3.63 ERA in 16 starts at that level, the Royals promoted him to Triple-A where he really took off over nine starts down the stretch. In 54 1/3 Triple-A innings, Cameron posted a 2.32 ERA while striking out 29% of opponents and walking just 5.1%. That late-season breakout at the highest level of the minors surely made it an easy decision to roster the lefty ahead of today’s protection deadline.

Avila, 23, signed with the Royals out of Venezuela and made his pro debut back in 2018. The righty moved to stateside ball in 2021 as a starting pitcher and has generally stayed in that role throughout his time in the minors. This year, Avila made 19 starts for the club’s Double-A affiliate in Northwest Arkansas, pitching to a solid 3.81 ERA in 82 2/3 innings of work with a 22.9% strikeout rate. That earned Avila a promotion to Triple-A, though he was shelled for five runs in 4 1/3 innings of work in his lone start at the level this year. Even so, the Royals evidently decided he was close enough to the majors to warrant protection from the Rule 5 Draft next month.

Cerantola, 24, was selected by Kansas City in the fifth-round of the 2021 draft. The right-hander has mostly acted as a multi-inning reliever throughout his time in the minors and posted big strikeout numbers in Double-A this year, punching out 31.7% of opponents faced. Unfortunately, that was accompanied by an untenable 16.2% walk rate. The right-hander’s 2.78 ERA in 58 1/3 innings at the level earned him a midseason promotion to Triple-A, but those underlying issues remained following the promotion. In 14 1/3 frames at the minors’ highest level, Cerantola walked 12.5% of opponents but made up for it with a 31.3% strikeout rate while posting a 3.77 ERA for the Royals’ Omaha affiliate. As an upper-minors relief prospect with impressive stuff, it’s hardly a surprise the Royals decided to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft rather than risk a team attempting to stash him in their bullpen next year.

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