The Kansas City Royals could compete for an American League Central division title in 2026. Surpassing the Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers will not be a simple task, but it is possible. Kansas City features a talented ball club. However, if the Royals want to seriously compete, they will need their ace to be on top of his game.
Following a tremendous 2024 season, Cole Ragans struggled and missed time in 2025. In 2024, the southpaw recorded a 3.14 ERA across 32 starts, as he earned an All-Star selection and finished fourth in American League Cy Young voting. The 2025 season saw Ragans only appear in 13 contests, and he turned in a 4.67 ERA during that span.
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The good news is that Ragans is feeling healthy heading into 2026.
“I feel great,” Ragans said recently, via MLB Network. “Feel as good as I ever have.”
It goes without saying, but Ragans’ update is promising. There is reason to believe that his performance will rebound with a healthy campaign. It is difficult to find a rhythm while also battling missed time, so Ragans could certainly get back on track in 2026 if the injury bug does not prove to be an obstacle.
Ragans was terrific in 2024. While his 2025 statistics did not leave much room for optimism, some of the underlying stats suggested there was indeed reason for hope.
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Ragans struck out 38.1 percent of the hitters he faced in 2025. That mark is well beyond his 29.1 percent career rate. It was also above his 29.3 2024 strikeout percentage. He also had a lower walk rate (7.8 percent) in 2025 than in 2024 (8.8 percent).
So, what went wrong last year? Ragans’ had a 39.4 percent hard-hit rate against, which was above his career average. When hitters did make contact against Ragans, they hit the ball extremely hard. His 9.5 percent barrel percentage ranked in the 28th percentile.
Nevertheless, Ragans still did a lot of good things on the mound despite his underwhelming ERA and hard contact allowed. One has to imagine he will be better if he is able to have a full season in 2026.
Ragans’ recent injury update is encouraging to say the least. The Royals are hoping for a big season from the left-hander as they look to make a playoff run during the 2026 season.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sports.yahoo.com ’
