Yesterday was a *very* light news day. It was an off day, so I guess it makes sense.
The Star had nothing as of the time of this writing.
MLB dot com has a listicle detailing 1 trade chip for each team. Anne Rogers contributed the Royals bit.
Royals: RHP Michael Wacha The Royals won’t tear it all down, but they do have desirable arms who could net them what they need for the immediate future. Kris Bubic is the most likely, if he’s able to get healthy, with free agency coming this offseason. But Wacha tops
the list in terms of performance, with a 3.44 ERA in his first 13 starts. And he comes with at least one more year of control, potentially two with the club option for 2028. Wacha has been one of the most consistent starters since joining Kansas City ahead of ’24, with a 3.58 ERA in 73 starts as a Royal. — Anne Rogers
David Lesky writes about how the winning weekend affects the Royals trade deadline (among other things), which is not much!
The problem with a stretch as bad as 3-16, which is what they did after climbing back into the face, is that it takes more than a good week against beatable teams for anyone to buy back in. This is probably a discussion for another day, but the reality is that teams just aren’t trading right now. I think they should, but there are a number of reasons why they aren’t. The draft taking up so much bandwidth is one of them, and that draft isn’t until the weekend before the break. The Royals have 31 games before the break. If there’s a rallying cry in the clubhouse, it has to be that they need to win like 20 of them to have a shot at the team not getting dismantled.
Philip Ruo at Royals Keep says Salvy needs to have a smaller role.
While Jensen has not yet established himself as the impact hitter in the Royals’ lineup, he has outperformed Perez offensively and provided competent defense behind the plate.
With Jensen earning more opportunities behind the plate, the Royals must decide how to best deploy Perez moving forward.
Perez has the third most plate appearances among Royals hitters, and most of those plate appearances have come from the cleanup spot in the batting order. That is a lot of plate appearances in an important position for the worst hitter (according to wRC+) on the roster. On May 30, Perez was moved down to 5th in the order, but that was a temporary adjustment.
Kevin O’Brien at Royals Keep writes about some stats that defined the past week of Royals play.
15 Strikeouts to Zero Walks for Noah Cameron
After posting a 5.40 ERA and 1.61 WHIP in six starts and 31.2 IP, it looked like Cameron was on his way to some major regression in 2026 after posting a 2.99 ERA in 138.1 IP a season ago. Not only did he give up 40 hits in April, but he also gave up five home runs, a sign that opposing hitters were locked in on his profile and approach.
To Cameron’s credit, he’s been slowly getting better and more efficient with every start this season.
In May, the St. Joseph, Missouri product posted a 3.43 ERA and 1.10 WHIP in four starts and 21 IP. He allowed only 17 hits and didn’t give up a single homer. Cameron also improved his BB/K ratio from 2.55 in April to 3.33 in May. Thus, the lefty was making the proper adjustments after a challenging first month of play.
Jacob Milham at Kings of Kauffman goes through some potential prospects from the Athletics should the Royals trade Kris Bubic to them.
Ben Clemens at FanGraphs details that bunting is on the rise.
Max Kepler, still serving a PED suspension despite being a free agent, signed with the Diamondbacks.
Orioles starter Chris Bassitt hits the IL.
Mariners shortstop JP Crawford also hits the IL.
The Spurs took Game 3 of the NBA Finals last night.
The Kansas City Chiefs are bringing back cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, who was traded to the Titans after the 2023 season.
College sports are having a moment, apparently, trying to figure out what to do about Brendan Sorsby. Here are some more legal details if you want more.
Wide receivers in football are gonna wide receiver.
Death Cab for Cutie has a new album out, in which they/Ben Gibbard remain sad.
I saw the He-Man movie over the weekend and loved it. It embraced the cheese. I thought the soundtrack was pretty awesome.
Your song of the day is The Darkness with Masters of the Universe.
