Kansas City Royals Rotation Takes Another Hit

The Kansas City Royals were already dealing with a couple of big injuries to their rotation, with Michael Lorenzen landing on the IL on July 11 with a left oblique strain, and ace Cole Ragans initially placed on the 15-day IL with a left rotator cuff strain in early June, before being transferred to the 60-day IL in early July.

On Sunday, former Stanford Cardinal and 2025 All Star Kris Bubic is joining them on the IL with what is being reported as a left rotator cuff strain. Anne Rogers of MLB.com says that he will undergo further testing to determine next steps.

Given that this is the same injury as Ragans, the worry here has to be that Bubic may be out for an extended period. If he's on the same timeline as Ragans, Bubic's season is likely over. Of course, we'll have to wait and see what the tests say and determine his personal timeline from there.

Bubic has been having a career year in 2025 after shortened seasons the past two years that saw him total just 46 1/3 innings. This year he earned a spot in the rotation and has posted a 2.55 ERA in 20 starts spanning 116 1/3 innings of work. He's struck out a batter an inning and holds a 1.18 WHIP.

The big question coming from the Royals latest injury is if it will impact their plans for the trade deadline--specifically in regards to Seth Lugo. Contending teams have been after him, and while K.C. is technically in the race at 51-54, they're 8.5 back in the Central and 4.5 back in the AL Wild Card. Not an insurmountable deficits by any means, but it's harder to do while missing 60% of the starting rotation.

Lugo is signed through the end of this season and has a $15 million player option for 2026. Working out a deal could be a little tricky due to the option, given that the acquiring team wouldn't be sure if he'd stick around for a couple of months, or a year and a couple of months. That decision would play a big role in the return for Kansas City.

From the Royals perspective, they could always move him and express that if he were to become available this winter that they'd love to have him back, which would essentially be renting him to another club in the short term, while still ending up with Lugo in 2026 and perhaps beyond.

Trading Lugo may not necessarily be the path they want to go down, since they just acquired Randal Grichuk on Saturday, but with the Royals placing both Bubic and Jac Caglianone on the IL on Sunday, those plans may have changed.

The MLB Trade Deadline is on Thursday, July 31 at 6 p.m. (ET).