The rotation takes a hit

Michael Lorenzen lands on the injured list. Plus, thoughts on All-Star Game uniforms, a wrap of the draft and a stadium update of sorts.

The All-Star Break is the worst. You’re going to put baseball games out there every single day for three and a half months and then suddenly rip them away from me for three of the next four days? Come on! This is cruel and unusual punishment.

I caught a bit of the Home Run Derby. Jazz Chisholm managed to hit just three home runs, which naturally triggers pleasant memories of 2012 and Robinson Canó. A small person robbed a Junior Caminero home run. Big Dumper won a tiebreaker by a something called a nanometer, and we still can’t get replay reviews correct. It was a decent substitute for a game. Decent. Not perfect. Still crave baseball.

If you’re feeling the same way, this newsletter is here for you. There was some actual Royals news on Monday. Let’s get to it.

When the Royals begin the second half of the season, they will be facing a bit of a starting pitching crisis. That’s because Michael Lorenzen hit the IL on Monday with a Grade 1 oblique strain. That comes after he missed his scheduled start on Saturday against the Mets with what the Royals said was an “illness.” Perhaps he pulled said oblique while sneezing.

At any rate, that leaves the Royals with just four healthy starting pitchers. The break means they can mix and match and reshuffle their rotation to get through the first four games, but they’ll likely need to find a starter for the game in Chicago against the Cubs on July 22.

Cole Ragans is on the 60-day IL with a left rotator cuff strain and isn’t eligible to return until early August. Alec Marsh has been on the IL since spring with a sore right shoulder and was building his way back, but was shut down from throwing in late June. Kyle Wright, signed prior to the 2024 season for just this sort of thing, was pulled from a start in Triple-A on June 27. A subsequent MRI revealed a Grade 2 oblique strain. Luinder Avila, the only other starter on the 40-man, has been sidelined for over a month with a shoulder impingement.

Rich Hill, Dallas Keuchel, Thomas Hatch, John Gant and Chandler Champlain were the starters for the Storm Chasers in their last series. If you were wondering. Adding anyone from this group would require a move on the 40-man roster as well.

This is not a problem that is unique to the Royals. Pitching will always be the currency of baseball because there’s not enough of it. The Royals build some good depth before the year started. That got them to the All-Star Break before it was depleted. They are now at the point where, to cover that fifth start, they have to chuck someone out there and hope for the best.

They should probably go ahead and put their remaining four healthy starters in bubble wrap.

As you know, the Royals will have four reserves in Tuesday’s 2025 All-Star Game. Bobby Witt Jr. and Kris Bubic were picks from the commissioner’s office when the rosters were first announced. Maikel Garcia and Carlos Estévez were added to the team once dudes began pulling out for various reasons.

The best part of the All-Star Game is frequently the player introductions. (Unless Fred Lynn shows up to pop another grand slam.) It will be cool to see four Royals lined up on the visitor side. What will make it even better is that they will be wearing their own road unis this year. For the first time since 2019, the teams will not be wearing some generic AL (or NL) team uniform.

Although this is Major League Baseball we’re talking about, and taste has never really been their forte, especially when they can soak the fans for an extra dollar or two. The Royals will be wearing their road grays, but they will have a special cap to go with it.

I would call those hats “minimally offensive.”

The Royals finished their draft on Monday. Overall, they selected 22 players, 13 of whom are pitchers. They also tabbed five infielders, three outfielders and one catcher. They drafted 16 players from the college ranks; six were high school players.

They are all exceptional athletes with tremendous upside.

The Royals sixth-round pick, shortstop Tyriq Kemp, drew some special attention from the crew at mlb.com.

A native of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Kemp had experience playing for the Dutch national team and in the country’s Honkbal Hoofdklasse before coming stateside to Western Oklahoma State College. After a down first year with Baylor in 2024, he was an All-Big-12 selection for the Bears as a senior, hitting .358/.446/.542 while showing plus speed and good defense at just 5-foot-7.

Honkbal!

It’s been a moment since I last wrote about the Royals and their stadium situation. That’s because, aside from various moments of excellence from various elected leaders (this is, in fact, heavy sarcasm), there’s been little news on this front. The Missouri General Assembly approved a state funding bill to provide some cash for both the Royals and the Chiefs last month. Kansas extended the deadline for its offer by six months to the end of the year.

The Missouri bill requires the teams to find “significant” local investment for their projects in order to receive funds from the state. Like redirecting funds from a 3/8 cent sales tax, perhaps? You know, like the one the Jackson County voters overwhelmingly rejected a year ago?

On Monday, Jackson County Executive and Royals Hall of Famer Frank White, floated a plan specific to the Chiefs where the proceeds from that existing sales tax would be chopped up into thirds. The Chiefs would take a third, University Health would get a third to fund capital improvements and the final third would go to improvements and repairs at the Jackson County Courthouse. The Chiefs currently receive half the proceeds from the sales tax, with the Royals taking the other half.

Consider White’s plan is dead on arrival.

You think the Chiefs are going to accept a reduction in revenue? Also, the state requires sales tax questions to be put on the ballot. Each separate recipient of the tax must go on the ballot. White’s plan means that there would be three tax questions on the ballot for one tax. And you thought the last ballot question was confusing.

And, as you probably noticed, White did not have a plan for the Royals. Instead, he kicked that issue over to Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, because the county has pretty much been frozen out of the process by the Royals. Turns out, the city has been, too.

What exactly is Lucas doing to keep the Royals in Kansas City, Missouri? While White has been throwing up roadblocks, Lucas just comes across as some sort of feckless politico, lacking any juice to get anything of substance done. His job seems to be to just stand on the sidelines and make empty statements.

Then, there’s Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe, who, in the aftermath of the budget the Missouri legislature passed in their special session last month, went to work cutting nearly $35 million from programs that serve Kansas City. Included in the governor’s targeted veto was $750,000 out of $2 million budgeted for the Negro League Baseball Museum and $250,000 out of the $350,000 set aside for the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center at the NLBM.

If the Royals want to step up and generate some goodwill, Royals Chairman and CEO John Sherman would write a $1 million check today.

I was critical of the Royals last year for running on used car salesman vibes and basically taking a “trust us” approach when going before the voters of Jackson County. After the vote failed, the Royals needed to regroup and take some time to get things aligned before going public with their next steps. Yet over a year has passed with no concrete information at all. (Concrete! Get it?) The latest plan seems to be to pit Missouri against Kansas to see which government can soak its citizenry for the best deal for the teams. It’s not a bad tactic to take, per se. But in today’s political climate, it feels difficult to get a legislative body to come up with any kind of plan that the team would find suitable.

Then there’s this fun twist. According to Fox 4, the Royals are getting tired of dealing with Lucas and White:

One source didn’t mince words:

“There’s been a complete lack of leadership and vision from the beginning. This is all solvable, but nobody is steering the ship. If the Royals leave Kansas City, that is on Quinton Lucas.”

Another high-level source who attended a meeting with Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe last Friday added:

“Since local officials have not been able to close the deal with the Royals, one would have to assume that the governor has taken the lead.”

Until then, the Royals are “exploring all options.” Maybe it’s just me, but I’m starting to think they don’t know what they’re doing. Meanwhile, White has his own problems, like a brewing recall election.

At this point, the Royals may as well accept fate and renew their lease at the Truman Sports Complex for 50 more years. Who among the fanbase would complain?