Making moves

The Royals spent the weekend burning up the transaction lines.

The Royals made a series of impactful roster moves over the weekend. A weekend that saw the familiar offensive struggles continue in a three-game set that saw the team score five runs total. Somehow, they won once—on Sunday in typical fashion in that the starting pitcher and bullpen held the opposition down while the lineup plated just a pair. Oh, they also lost a game on Saturday where they limited the Cardinals to just a single run. That means the Royals were shutout for the fifth time this season.

The roster moves that will test the pitching depth

A double-whammy of transactions hit the wire on Saturday as the Royals placed starting pitchers Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo on the 15-day IL. There’s losing 40 percent of your starting rotation in one fell, and then there’s losing your number one and number two starters. (I understand that number one and number two is fungible when ranking starters. Kris Bubic and Michael Wacha have been the Royals’ two best starters this season. Still, when you lose the second and fourth-placed finishers in the Cy Young award balloting from the year before, that’s going to sting.) The Royals, who had such fantastic injury fortune in 2024, are not going to be repeating that luck in 2025.

Let’s begin with Ragans. He exited a start back on April 24 in the third inning with what the Royals said was “groin tightness.” He missed his next start (which ended up being the major league debut of Noah Cameron. More on him in a moment.), but dodged a stint on the injury list. His return to the rotation was a successful one as he throttled the Chicago White Sox for five innings, striking out 11. His next two starts, however, were carbon copies of mediocrity which was unlike Ragans, as he went five innings in both outings, surrendering four runs. Even before he left the game in the sixth inning on Friday, it was clear he was still dealing with a groin issue. His velocity was down about a tick overall with his four-seamer in the sixth clocking around 90 mph. You don’t need me to tell you that’s a very un-Ragans fastball.

Ragans tried to pitch through the issue, but it just wasn’t going away. Here’s what Ragans had to say to Jackson Stone after the game:

“Kind of the same as last time,” Ragans said. “Just stiffened up on me a little bit in the fifth, and then just didn’t get loose in the sixth. I just couldn’t use my legs. Obviously, it affects anything rotation, lower half.”

For a guy who has had a pair of procedures on his elbow, you absolutely do not want him altering his delivery because he can’t push off with his legs. Ragans said his groin has never felt 100 percent since exiting that start last month against Colorado, but that some days were better than others. He’s talking like he’ll miss the minimum amount of time, but given that he never really got right from his initial injury, the Royals and the lefty need to be absolutely certain that he fully recovers before he makes his next start.

As for Lugo, what was initially reported as inflammation on his right ring finger, where he would miss just a single start, turned into a full-blown strain and a stint on the IL. It flared up in his start last week against the Red Sox where he went six innings, surrendering three runs on two home runs. His timetable is a little less certain that that of Ragans.

There aren’t many comps for a pitcher who missed time with a finger sprain at the Baseball Prospectus IL Ledger. Cincinnati’s Nick Lodolo went on the IL with a middle finger sprain in August of 2024 and missed the rest of the season. Tim Hill has a ring finger sprain in August of 2023, missed a month, came back and made three appearances before going back on the IL and ultimately had to have surgery. Taylor Rodgers had a middle finger sprain in July of 2021 and missed the rest of the season.

Even with a few comps to work from, this doesn’t sound like an injury where a pitcher misses the minimum amount of time. Lugo could be on the shelf for a month or more.

With a team that refuses to score runs on a consistent basis, any shot to their starting pitching depth is potentially fatal. The offense has scored more than four runs in just eight of their 48 games to this point. They are scoring just 3.3 runs per game. They cannot count on their offense to do anything on a consistent basis; this is a team that depends on their pitching to an insane degree.

If the Royals score more than four runs in a game, they’re literally unbeatable.

I can’t believe they’ve posted double-digits in the run column three times this season.

The move that was inevitable

In my previous post (apologies for the semi-extended absence…there was a lot going on at the end of last week), I noted that manager Matt Quatraro was handling Chris Stratton about as well as could be expected, using him in blow-out games where innings needed to be consumed. Even in those low-leverage situations, Stratton struggled, pitching to a 7.94 ERA over 17 innings. Opponents were hitting .377/.425/.558 against the reliever.

That came to an end on Sunday as the Royals designated Stratton for assignment.

You’ll recall that Stratton came to the Royals last season, signing a one-year deal with a player option for 2025. He exercised that option after struggling for most of the season before landing on the IL in September. No, it wasn’t a great contract and a definite whiff for general manager JJ Picollo on the free agent market, but the Royals still needed to see if anything at all was left in the tank, no matter how unlikely. They gave him about a quarter of the season before they decided it was in their best interests to part ways.

In some ways, a move like this harkens back to the GMDM era. Dayton Moore did a number of things by a certain book. One of those was, he would wait 40 games or so before making moves like this. While there were a number of moves and methods Moore made that I disagree with, I can’t really argue against this. Especially when the player can be stashed at the end of the bullpen like the Royals did with Stratton. Still, it’s been clear for some time that Stratton did not have a future on this team. It happens.

The moves to replace those guys

With three subtractions from the roster, the club added starter Noah Cameron, who made his second career start (and first at home) on Saturday which was a—you won’t beleive this—a 1-0 loss. He was as effective and efficient against the Cardinals as he was against the Rays in his debut. In fact, according to the Royals media relations department, Cameron was the first pitcher in the Majors since 1901 to record at least 6.1 innings and allow two hits or fewer in each of his first two career starts. A bit of an esoteric stat, but a fun one.

One thing about Cameron that I think we can all appreciate was the fact that he began his major league career with an 11.1 inning scoreless streak. That stretch ended on a Jordan Walker solo home run in sixth inning on Saturday. In true Royals-in-2025 fashion, that was the only run he allowed and Cameron still took the loss. Welcome to The Show, kid.

Cameron, whose debut was to fill in for Ragans the last time he experienced groin soreness, is expected to remain in Kansas City and in the rotation as long as Lugo is on the shelf. The Royals are only playing six games a week for the next six weeks, so they can get semi-creative when it comes to the rotation, but with Ragan’s spot coming up again on Wednesday, I expect Quatraro to run a bullpen game against the Giants.

The corresponding move for the other starter was to bring up a reliever, Evan Sisk. The lefty has made two scoreless appearances for the Royals this year and absolutely dominated in Triple-A to the tune of a 0.75 ERA with 15 strikeouts and just two walks over 12 innings of work.

When the Royals jettisoned Stratton on Sunday, they recalled Jonathan Bowlan. Bowlan has one scoreless two inning appearance for the Royals and has a 2.08 ERA in 17.1 innings for Omaha. He’s walked five and punched out 25.

The Royals really seem to have built up some kind of pitching depth in the organization. Both Bowlan and Sisk will be an upgrade over Stratton, but that depth is going to be put to the test here soon.

Here is how the Royals do when they score four runs or fewer in a game.

That is simply the most absurd table I could imagine. When scoring between four and two runs, they’re 18-9? That right there is a testament to their pitching.

What a crazy season.

The moves that are still to come

The Royals aren’t done making moves as there are more to come. They activated Dairon Blanco off the IL on Friday—he immediately made an impact, starting in center and driving in the tying run in Sunday’s 2-1 win against the Cardinals. The spot for Blanco was opened when the Royals put Taylor Clarke on the paternity list. I would assume he will be activated on Monday, so the Royals will need to move a position player off the roster. It will probably be Luke Maile now that Salvador Perez looks to be back behind the plate as part of the regular catching rotation, but don’t sleep on Hunter Renfroe. Refroe’s fWAR is -1.0, which, among players with 100 or more plate appearances this season, is the third worst in the majors. The Royals moved on from Stratton. It won’t be long before they do the same with Renfroe.

The moves that are fun

Well, Jac Caglianone has nothing left to prove in the Texas League. The Royals promoted their number one prospect to Triple-A Omaha on Sunday.

In 38 games for Northwest Arkansas, Caglianone hit .322/.394/.553. That’s sexy.

What’s even sexier is the fact that he’s walked 19 times against just 37 strikeouts. That’s a manageable 21 percent strikeout rate and a walk rate he’s doubled from his time last season in Quad Cities. The Royals wanted him to work on pitch recognition and lay off the pitcher’s pitches. Looks like he’s done that as he’s cut down his frequency of swings, especially on those pitches outside the zone. The results are there: eight doubles and nine home runs are among his 49 hits.

Of course he also obliterates baseballs for fun.

Legendary exit velocities. Large distances. The power is Caglianone’s best tool and, damn if it doesn’t show. He’s also going the opposite field at times with that power. That’s where the real fun is.

Caglianone is listed as an first baseman, but as we know, that position is covered. He’s played one game in left for the Naturals and six games in right. I think the plan was for him to first be comfortable at the plate. That meant he would stay at his most familiar position at first. Once he established the offensive game, they would move him to the outfield. He’s looked good defensively, so yeah…He’s ready.

And he’s probably close to reaching the majors.

While the Royals outfield has looked a little more productive of late, they’re still lagging offensively. The Royals outfield has the second-worst OPS+ at 72. They’re tied with Atlanta and Pittsburgh and ahead of only the Chicago White Sox. That follows last season’s outfield OPS+ of 81. The Royals outfield is, in software parlance, a known issue.

They can use a guy like Caglianone, but he has to be ready. The Royals cannot afford to push him too fast and mess this up. Still, he can force the issue by laying waste to Triple-A pitching the same way he treated the pitchers in the Texas League. This is a big step, though. That means I’ll take the cowardly way out and refuse to speculate when we will see him in Kansas City.

At the same time, the Royals announced they were promoting left-handed starter and their top pick of the 2021 draft, Frank Mozzicato to Double-A from High-A Quad Cities. Mozzicato, selected out of high school, has moved slowly up the organizational charts, but has packed a little bit of velocity on his fastball and continues to exhibit a killer curve. This season in Quad Cities, he’s thrown 36 innings with a 1.24 ERA. The walk rate remains a touch elevated at 15 percent, but the other results are there and it’s time to move him along.

It’s probably worth noting that Mozzicato is a year younger than Caglianone.

Up next

The Royals hit the road for a six-game trip. They’ll open in San Francisco to face the surprisingly strong Giants team that is keeping pace in the difficult NL West. From there, they travel to Minnesota for three against the smoking-hot Twins.

Mon at SF - LHP Kris Bubic (4-2, 1.66) vs. LHP Robbie Ray (6-0, 3.04) at 8:45 p.m.
Tue at SF - RHP Michael Lorenzen (3-4, 3.76) vs. RHP Hayden Birdsong (1-0, 2.31) at 8:45 p.m.
Wed at SF - TBA vs. RHP Logan Webb (5-3, 2.42) at 2:45 p.m