Cole Ragans is the Royals Opening Day starter

The lefty gets the nod for the second consecutive season. Plus, the Royals make some roster cuts and the requisite Jac Caglianone update.

As Spring Training opened, there were two questions hovering over the Royals rotation: Who was going to fill out the back of the rotation as the fifth starter, and who was going to get the baseball on Opening Day?

The Royals settled one of those on Sunday when they announced Cole Ragans would be their Opening Day starter.

When Ragans started Opening Day last year, it was just the 13th start of his Royals career. Of course, all he did in 2024 was throw 32 starts for 186.1 innings. He struck out 223 and walked just 67 while finishing with a 3.14 ERA. His 4.9 fWAR was second-best in the AL behind Tarik Skubal. He developed into an ace and parlayed that season into a three-year contract extension he signed earlier this spring that will guarantee him $13.25 million through the 2027 season.

Here’s manager Matt Quatraro on his number one starter:

(Ragans is) excited. We're excited. He certainly earned it. His whole body of work, right? His stuff. The person he is. The way he competes. The way the other guys look up to him.

He's an Opening Day guy.

I think Quatraro distills what Ragans is about in that last sentence. He’s an Opening Day guy. Indeed. He’s the best starter of what is shaping up to be another talented rotation. Last year when the Royals tabbed Ragans as the Opening Day guy, I thought it showed something about how this team was going to operate. In the past, Seth Lugo would’ve been the default guy as the veteran on a large free agent contract. The Royals made something of a statement selecting Ragans ahead of Lugo.

This year, no statement is necessary.

While I’ve been writing about Ragans at the top of the rotation as something of a done deal all spring, it wasn’t all that obvious according to Quatraro. They gave plenty of thought to giving the ball to Lugo. Quatraro again:

It wasn't easy. Lugo comes in second in the Cy Young. Cole was somewhere in those rankings as well, and we didn't take that lightly.

We put a lot of thought, a lot of consideration into it, but the fact that we have multiple guys that we feel good about is a good thing for us. So, you know, we were very sensitive to the fact that Lugo could have been that guy, too…We really wrestled with it.

But we picked Cole for good reasons, we think.

Lugo is absolutely deserving of the honor. Understandably, Quatraro would describe the process as somewhat difficult. The Royals are fortunate in this regard: A legitimate debate can be had over who is the best pitcher in this rotation.

That’s a good thing.

In the grand scheme of the season, the Opening Day starter doesn’t matter much. Once the games come, a number one starter versus a number one starter doesn’t happen all that often. The Opening Day starter is more of a ceremonial thing. Trivia fodder for future years. That’s probably why I like to focus on it a bit.

So here’s your Royals trivia for today: Kevin Appier has made the most Opening Day starts in franchise history with seven. Behind Appier is Dennis Leonard with four. Then, a bunch of guys who have made three Opening Day starts for the Royals. It’s an interesting mix. Paul Splittorff, Bud Black, Bret Saberhagen, Jeff Suppan, Gil Meche, Danny Duffy and Zack Greinke.

Please use the above information responsibly.

Prior to Sunday’s game, the Royals made a handful of roster cuts. Pitchers Austin Cox and Thomas Hatch, along with catchers Carter Jensen and Luca Tresh were assigned to minor league camp. Pitchers Jonathan Bowlan and Steven Cruz were optioned to minor league camp and will open the season in Omaha. There are currently 44 players in camp.

There aren’t really any surprises in the moves. The first group of Cox, Hatch, Jensen and Tresh aren’t on the 40-man so moving them to the minors is fairly straightforward.

Cruz, acquired from the Minnesota Twins in the Michael A. Taylor trade before the 2023 season, had an outside shot to make the team as a reliever and did well in the Cactus League. In seven appearances covering seven innings, he allowed just two runs and struck out eight while walking two.

Here’s Quatraro on the right-hander:

We have a lot of confidence in Cruz. That's a really tough decision for us. Seeing his growth since the time he got in the organization to now, he's made himself a really viable option for us; it’s just not going to be on Opening Day. That's a tough message because he worked really hard. He's really diligent, he's a really good person, all the stuff that we hope that he embodies. And he can get big league hitters out, so that's nice depth for us, but it doesn't make the decision any easier today.

Cruz has had a couple cups of coffee with the Royals, so he’s always been on the radar. Command issues have prevented him from sticking in the majors. Last season in Triple-A he finally got his walk rate down below 14 percent for the first time since joining the organization (he finished with an 11 percent walk rate) while still punching out a quarter of all hitters he faced. It was a bit of a decline in the strikeout rate, but if that’s what it takes to get the walks under control, I suppose you make that trade.

As Quatraro alluded to, Cruz didn’t do anything wrong in camp. He was a victim of the numbers. I suspect he’ll be near the top of the list once the club needs depth in their bullpen. Bowlan will be in the mix as well.

Jac Caglianone got into Sunday’s 10-2 victory over the Rockies and walked in his only plate appearance.

I was going to drop this update as kind of a laugh. We’re all obsessed with Caglianone, so why not? But then I saw the pitch chart, and well…

Dude falls behind 1-2 to Seth Halvorsen who figures to be a setup man in the Rockies bullpen this year. He fouls off a tough slider on the inner half and then Halvorsen goes straight to challenge mode, unleashing near triple-digit heat to our beloved prospect. Caglianone fouls off the two closest to the zone and then takes an elevated fastball followed by a splitter down and in.

I’m sure I’ve lost all objectivity here, but damn that’s an impressive plate appearance.

I need help.