Opening Day is almost here for the Kansas City Royals, as in just a few days time they’ll hit the field at Truist Park in Atlanta for a inter-league opening series against the Braves.
Royals fans know which 26 players have cracked the Opening day roster, but they also know which names will unfortunately be starting the season on the shelf.
Three prominent names will start the season on the injured list for Kansas City. Pitchers Stephen Kolek and James McArthur will start their seasons on the 15-day IL, while second baseman Michael Massey has hit the 10-day IL.
Stephen Kolek’s quest to join Royals starting rotation hits an early injury snag
This was likely the least surprising of the names to be announced on the IL considering how long he’s been out already.
Kolek went down with an oblique injury after just one Cactus League start, which was especially unfortunate as his improved arsenal was really something to get excited about and made him a legitimate candidate to land the team’s fifth rotation spot.
Obliques can be tricky and there doesn’t seem to be a definitive timeline on his return as of yet, nor is there really a space in the five man rotation when he returns after Noah Cameron unsurprisingly won the battle for the Royals fifth rotation spot following his strong rookie campaign.
The bright side for the Royals is that Kolek still has options and can serve has some luxury depth should they need to call upon him when he’s healthy.
But after how good he looked following his trade to the Royals at last seasons deadline – where he threw to a 1.91 ERA, 0.76 WHIP and .167 BAA – this is certainly a blow, even if we was set to start the year in Omaha anyways.
James McArthur suffers the all too familiar fate of the injured list to start 2026
A name that could get lost in the weeds a bit, in a very similar fashion to fellow injured Royal Alec Marsh, is James McArthur.
Royals fans have become accustomed to seeing the former closer on injury reports after he missed all of the 2025 season due to complications from an elbow procedure.
And after not appearing in any spring training games this season, it was no surprise to see him open the 2026 season in a similar way to how he opened 2025; on the IL due to right elbow inflammation.
At this point with names like Nick Mears, Alex Lange and Bailey Falter being added to the fold since last season’s trade deadline, it seems as though the Royals have prepared their bullpen depth for life beyond McArthur.
Michael Massey already experiencing frustrating injury reality he became familiar with in 2025
Now we move the the last, but arguably most frustrating of the injured Royals to start the season in Massey.
The oft-injured second baseman carried some of the immense momentum he built at the end of the 2025 season – when he salvaged a putrid start to the season with a 151 wRC+ showing in his final 68 plate appearances coming off the IL – with a 157 wRC+ in spring training before hitting the shelf again with a calf strain.
And Massey’s status seemed to be a decision that was going to come down to the wire, with Anne Rogers of MLB.com reporting this week that Massey didn’t travel to Texas for their pair of exhibition games in order to test his “test his running and see whether he can be ready” for the start of the season.
Obviously, he wasn’t ready and at least for the Royals they have Jonathan India to occupy second who’s getting off on the right foot himself after a rough first season in Kansas City in 2025, posting an above-average 119 wRC+ in spring training.
Still, second base was one of Kansas City’s most vulnerable positions entering the offseason and is still likely just as vulnerable to start the year, so this injury came at the worst possible time.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
