Royals Sign Tony Gonsolin To Major League Deal

The Royals announced that they have signed right-hander Tony Gonsolin to a major league deal for a 2026 with a club option for 2027. Gonsolin has been immediately placed on the 15-day injured list. To open a 40-man spot, fellow righty Eli Morgan has been designated for assignment. Financial terms of the deal haven’t been reported.

Gonsolin, 32, has been in the wilderness for a while but once had a strong run as a rotation member for the Dodgers. From 2019 to 2022, he logged 572 2/3 innings over 59 appearances for Los Angeles, with 51 of those officially being starts. He only allowed 2.51 earned runs in that time.

He was surely pitching a bit over his head, as his .223 batting average on balls in play and 81.3% strand rate were both very lucky figures, but his 24.8% strikeout rate was above average while his 8.5% walk rate and 40.1% ground ball rate were around par. ERA estimators like his 3.45 FIP and 4.04 SIERA suggested he was more a solid mid-rotation or back-end guy and not the ace that his ERA would suggest, but that’s still valuable production.

He has had quite the odyssey since then. In 2023, a left ankle sprain and some forearm inflammation sent him to the injured list. He was only able to make 20 starts that year and his 4.98 ERA was obviously a big increase relative to his prior work. He underwent Tommy John surgery in August of that year and missed the entire 2024 campaign, apart from a few minor league rehab outings in September.

It was hoped that he would be healthy for 2025 but that did end up being the case. He tweaked his back lifting weights and began the season on the IL. He returned at the end of April and made seven starts with a flat ERA of 5.00 before elbow discomfort put him back on the shelf in June. He underwent internal brace surgery in August. It was expected that he would require eight to ten months to recovery from that second elbow procedure. He could have been retained for 2026 but the Dodgers designated him for assignment in November and Gonsolin elected free agency.

Gonsolin’s current status isn’t known. The fact that the Royals have put him on the IL suggests he’s not an immediate option for them. Presumably, they will get a look at him over the next few weeks and then decide if they want to trigger the club option to have him be part of next year’s rotation. He currently has five years and 152 days of service time, 20 days shy of six years and automatic free agency.

From Kansas City’s perspective, 2027 is the important thing here. Their 2026 season is a lost cause at this point. The club is 49-73 and 11.5 games back of a playoff spot. Looking ahead to next year, there are concerns there as well. Their 2026 team was supposed to be anchored by a rotation consisting of Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Cole Ragans, Kris Bubic and Noah Cameron, with guys like Stephen Kolek, Ryan Bergert, Ben Kudrna and Luinder Avila around as depth. That group has been decimated by injuries this year.

Bubic dealt with various arm issues and, since he was an impending free agent anyway, was dealt to the Dodgers at the deadline while still on the IL. Ragans required UCL surgery in July. Avila and Kolek both required Tommy John surgery this month. In April, Bergert had Tommy John while Kudrna had an operation to repair an olecranon stress fracture.

Going into 2027, the Royals have Lugo, Wacha and Cameron in three spots with two spots wide open. They currently have Daniel Lynch IV and Randy Dobnak in the rotation. Lynch has been a reliever for years but the Royals recently started stretching him back out to see how that goes. Dobnak is a low-strikeout journeyman.

Among those injured pitchers, some of them could come back during the season but a lot of them will still be recovering when the season begins and might miss significant portions of it. Gonsolin isn’t healthy at this moment either but perhaps could be healthy by the offseason, which gives him a leg up on the rest of the group.

Morgan signed a minor league deal with the Royals in the offseason and cracked the Opening Day roster. He has been shuttled between Triple-A and the majors all year. In the big leagues, he has a 5.12 ERA in 19 1/3 innings. His 17.6% strikeout rate is a few ticks below par. In Triple-A, he has 25 2/3 innings with a 1.40 ERA and 32.4% strikeout rate, but also with a high walk rate of 13.9%.

With the trade deadline in the past, he’ll have to be placed on waivers in the coming days. Since he is still optionable for the rest of this season, perhaps that will give him some appeal. If he clears waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency as a player with at least three years of big league service. But since he has less than five years, he would have to forfeit his remaining salary commitments to do so. According to MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker, he is making $1.4MM this year. That leaves about $336K to be paid out.