The Kansas City Royals announced a litany of moves ahead of Tuesday’s return to action, but the injury situation gets worse. Royals starters Luinder Avila and Stephen Kolek are slated for Tommy John surgery today, putting their 2027 availability into question.
“It’s been a tough year injury-wise all the way around,” Quatraro said. “You know, you can name off a whole bunch of guys that have gone through it. And like we said a bunch of times, it’s really unfortunate and I feel really badly for the guys.
They have put in the work to try to stay healthy and unfortunately they haven’t. Especially when you have these major surgeries that cost you a whole year there, it’s really trying.” The Royals will now turn to remaining starters Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, Noah Cameron and Randy Dobnak. It’s possible the club also tries Daniel Lynch IV in a starting role given the injuries.
David Lesky did not hold back in his reaction to the trade deadline by the Royals.
That was uneventful and even maddening. The Royals made three trades (though one was simply a DFA pickup, and a player I knew very little about was traded for him), but they held on to multiple pending free agents. I can’t remember the last time I was this disappointed by a Royals trade deadline. I had a pretty good idea that they were not going to trade anyone controllable other than maybe a reliever, but I didn’t expect them to hang on to John Schreiber. I can’t believe there wasn’t a team in baseball that wouldn’t have offered something for him.
So this is a big miss from me for the Royals. I will get to this shortly in more detail, but what they did (and didn’t do) yesterday has told the whole baseball world what they’re going to do this offseason. And if they don’t do it successfully, I believe that they both should and will be looking for new jobs. They absolutely can still run this gambit successfully, but they’ve chosen the path that leads to jobs being lost. In some ways, I suppose that’s admirable. In others, well, it’s probably foolish. The 2027 Royals have to win, and they have to win with pitching brought in from outside the organization. That is certainly no easy task, which I will get to shortly.
Craig Brown had similar thoughts on the trade deadline he dubbed a dud.
None of this is surprising because these are the Kansas City Royals, where next year is forever going to be their year, damnit. Therefore they never tear down or build up, instead choosing to plod forward, never failing to deviate from the only path they know. They are predictable in their mediocrity.
What makes this so frustrating is that the Royals actually have assembled a roster with some talent. They have a generational superstar. They have a decent nucleus of young bats. They built a successful pitching lab and the depth to serve it. Yet they somehow always seem to shoot themselves in the foot. And when they’ve finished blowing off a few toes, they wonder how it all happened and then resume course on the exact same path. Weird how things never seem to change around this team.
Can we be disappointed if we’re not surprised? It seems as if we’re angry at the Royals for their lack of proactivity in attacking a trade deadline, shouldn’t that be on us? We have years of evidence at this point. The Royals are who they are, stuck in a quagmire of their own mediocrity. The lack valuable players to deal and those who have value are too often held past their “sell by” date, rendering the eventual return uninspiring and unhelpful.
Royals Opening Day third baseman Maikel Garcia hasn’t played since June 23 and is still working back to playing after receiving a cortisone shot in his left hand.
“They found, you know, a similar area that had kind of not resolved yet,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “They found a more specific, smaller area that they were able to give him a cortisone injection, which we think will calm it down.” Garcia is set for 4 to 5 days with no activity. And from there, he will begin a progression towards a return to action. “He’ll ramp back up for another five days or so and hopefully, he’ll be able to, if everything goes smoothly, be able to get back into games,” Quatraro said.
Royals general manager J.J. Picollo responded to reports of the interest in Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo at this week’s trade deadline.
Not only was the interest in Wacha and Lugo not as reported in the days leading up to the deadline, but discussions with teams showed the Royals wouldn’t get a return they found satisfactory.
“I think the big takeaway, it’s important to understand, you trade a Michael Wacha, you trade a Seth Lugo, you’re going to get prospects back, which is not a bad thing, but also depends on where your team’s timeline is. And right now with the injuries we’ve suffered this year, we’re going to be active trying to build a starting rotation up,” Picollo said. “Given the injuries we have, that guys who won’t be available for the better part of next year — we’ve got a lot of work to do to try to rebuild the pitching staff. So getting prospects back that are three years away, four years away, wasn’t that exciting to us, but it doesn’t mean we weren’t going to listen. It just never got to the point where I would categorize it as great interest. There was some interest, but there wasn’t great interest in that. So if we were able to get a bat, get another arm in return that are already in the major leagues, that’s a different discussion. But when we’re a team that’s not in contention right now, and you’re dealing with teams that are in contention, the last thing they want to do is really take off of their major league team, so that makes it a difficult match.”
Royals catcher Salvador Perez spoke with the media ahead of Tuesday night’s celebration of his breaking Hall of Famer George Brett’s franchise home run record.
Kansas City Star’s Vahe Gregorian had a tribute of sorts to Perez following his press availability.
While signed through next season, his production has dwindled this season, and it’s unclear how much longer he will seek to play. Farther down the road will come discussions of whether he will join Brett in Cooperstown. Time for all that later, though, after a night to pause and appreciate Perez’s journey. Perhaps most of all coming from Perez himself because of all he came from … and how unlikely any of this at all was.
The Athletic’s Eno Sarris says Royals outfielder John Rave is poised for a bigger role following the trade deadline.
John Rave, who was recalled from Triple-A Omaha last week, might be 28 years old, but that’s not too old to join the party in Kansas City. He’s done some bat speed training and now pairs well above-average raw power with good swing decisions and around average contact. The projections don’t agree but this sort of skill set should produce an above-average hitter. Since 2020, the Royals have had two outfielders put up an above-average slash line in more than 400 plate appearances, so they have a need at any outfield spot that Rave can fill.
Can he be a center fielder? The prospect grades, usage and age don’t necessarily suggest it, but that’s where the best opening is, considering that Kyle Isbel hasn’t approached league average with the stick in any of his chances at the spot. Maybe it makes sense, in a lost season, to put Rave out there in center and see if he can hack it. And see if the added bat speed has changed his trajectory as a player.
KC Kingdom’s Parker Buchele ponders if Randy Dobnak is a Royals pitcher beyond this season.
But provided that J.J. Picollo, for all his faults, has it in him to pay the man for 2027, Dobnak would probably best serve the Royals as a sort of in-between piece. KC is set on Lugo, Michael Wacha, Noah Cameron, and hopefully Cole Ragans as starters next year when he returns. Making Dobnak basically the fifth-to-sixth rotation starter and the first guy they’d call out of the bullpen to see extended time on the mound.
Assuming Dobnak can keep up his solid play so far in his Royals tenure, there should be no doubt his new contract is coming. Letting him walk in the offseason after trading for him would be incredibly poor asset management by Picollo, but that’s something he’s all too familiar with.
The Athletic gave Kansas City a C grade on the trade deadline.
The Royals decided to hold on to both Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo, as both veterans are under team control beyond this season. The best player they traded was Thomas and they got a strong return back with Braun, who profiles as a mid-rotation starter. It’s been a disappointing season for the Royals and with little to sell at the deadline, they just weren’t able to help their future much.
The Royals were also labelled “snoozers” for their bare-minimum approach by Stephen J. Nesbitt.
The Royals operated sensibly at this trade deadline. They sent lefty Kris Bubic to the Dodgers for right-hander Carlos Duran. They swapped outfielder Lane Thomas and lefty reliever Bailey Falter for two interesting prospects. They did what teams with bad records but reasonable hopes for next season do at this time of year: They sold what needed to be sold, and held the rest.
NBC Sports, George Bissell reports that former Royals pitcher Dan Altavilla exercised the opt-out in his minor-league contract with the Royals.
FanGraphs names its winners and losers from the 2026 trade deadline.
The San Diego Padres’ new rotation additions are set for their team debuts this week.
The Colorado Rockies sign surging outfielder Mickey Moniak to a two-year deal worth $16.25 million.
The Milwaukee Brewers push young pitcher Brandon Sproat to Triple-A after acquiring Dustin May.
The Seattle Mariners shuffle the position player corps as they look to right the 2026 ship.
Philadelphia Phillies fans hear from new acquisition Luis Arraez for the first time.
How does backstop Adley Rutschman gel with his new team? The Boston Red Sox catcher is trying to find the answer.
The Atlanta Braves activate catcher Sean Murphy and utilityman Ha-Seong Kim from the IL.
After decades of dwindling numbers, a drive-in theater in Wichita is rebuilding hope for the niche movie-going experience.
Could two houses in Ivanhoe blossom into a larger, more affordable community for area families?
Today’s song of the day is I Hope I’m Stoned (When Jesus Takes Me Home) by Charlie Worsham and Old Crow Medicine Show.
