As expected, Vinnie Pasquantino has been placed on the 10-day IL following a pop-up that appeared to injure his right hand during last night’s game. The injury is being described as a right hamate fracture, which is quite bad for the Royals’ first baseman and another brutal injury blow for a team that wasn’t playing well enough before everyone started getting hurt.
Vinnie was not having the season he or anyone else wanted, but he’d been doing better lately. He was slashing .224/.309/.350/.660 for the year, but .289/.372/.408/.780 over his last 20 games and .316/.381/.474/.855 over his last 10. The Royals will miss his bat in the middle of the order.
To replace Vinnie on the roster, the Royals have recalled John Rave. Rave is a 28-year-old, left-handed outfielder who debuted for Kansas City last year. He slashed .196/.283/.307/.590 in 72 games for the big league club. He has been slashing .278/.395/.475/.880 for the Omaha Stormchasers this season. He’s also been walking more and striking out less than he did in the minors last season, so perhaps he can offer more than he did last year.
Rave’s biggest problem would seem to be that he’s too passive at the plate, but he also doesn’t hit the ball hard consistently despite a more than respectable .197 ISO for the year. He’s been known for his speed and defense at the minor league level, though that didn’t always show up in the big leagues last year.
Hamate injuries are notoriously difficult for hitters to overcome. If you want to read more, MLB.com has a detailed article on the subject, thanks to hamate injuries affecting stars like Corbin Carroll, Francisco Lindor, and Jackson Holliday earlier this year. The recovery timeline is 4-8 weeks, but not everyone is at full strength upon their return.
Blake Mitchell suffered a hamate bone injury last year and basically lost his ability to hit for power, even once he returned, hitting far fewer extra-base hits in 2025 than he did in 2024 or has in 2026. There has been a wide range of outcomes even among the people who have had the surgery this year. Carroll didn’t miss a beat, Holliday is hitting for more power than ever (though still struggling as a hitter overall), but Lindor is having by far the worst season of his Hall of Fame career.
Even if Vinnie returns in a month, the Royals were floundering with him in the lineup. Thanks to Buddy Bell, no Royals fan would ever say things can’t get worse, but it’s hard to imagine the Royals being even as close as they currently are to competing whenever Vinnie returns.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.royalsreview.com ’
