Cole Ragans’ injury status takes concerning turn for Royals following promising rehab start

In an already adverse start to the regular season for the Kansas City Royals, injuries have made their quest to enter the competitive fold once again that much more challenging. Arguably the most notable name that’s hit the injured list in the early going is Cole Ragans who’s currently in the process of rehabbing a left elbow impingement – or so everyone thought.

After successfully completing rehab start over the weekend in in Triple-A Omaha, reports surfaced on Monday from manager Matt Quatraro that the Royals’ ace “did not recover well” afterwards. He told the media that Ragans was suffering from similar symptoms to what put him on the injured list in the first place.

“He’s going to be shut down for a couple days, no throw,” Quatraro told media.

This comes after Ragans reportedly felt great while he was pitching with the Storm Chasers, and looked great for that matter too. In 4.1 innings of work with the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate, he struck out three and walked just one while surrendering a mere three hits and one earned run.

“He felt really good pitching, never had an issue with it and then came yesterday, woke up yesterday, travelled back here and then wasn’t feeling great,” Quatraro said. “He didn’t feel it in the bullpens, he didn’t feel it in the game, he just got flared up from pitching the game.”

Ragans’ setback forces Royals to rely on Stephen Kolek and Noah Cameron

From the sounds of it, it appears the Royals faithful shouldn’t expect their ace to grace the major league rotation with his presence anytime soon. This means that his injury replacement in Stephen Kolek, along with struggling fifth starter Noah Cameron will have to pick up the slack in the meantime.

This is especially the case after fellow starter Kris Bubic landed on the 15-day IL last weekend and the Royals were forced to rely on the floundering Bailey Falter as an opener. And after a terrible start to the season for Falter before hitting the IL himself, his return to the mound didn’t offer much reassurance, surrendering four hits and two runs over two innings and picking up the loss against the Boston Red Sox last Tuesday.

Luckily for the Royals, Kolek has stepped onto the scene in Kansas City and given them exactly what they’ve needed. In 26 innings of work across four starts this season, the 29-year-old righty has crafted an impressive 2.77 ERA, 0.85 WHIP and .185 BAA, highlighted by a complete game shutout on Saturday against the Seattle Mariners. He appears to be picking up right where he left off after joining them at the trade deadline last season, where he threw to a 1.91 ERA, 0.76 WHIP and .167 BAA in five starts.

And after what had been a dreadful start to the season for Cameron, the near AL Rookie of the Year finalist a year ago put a lot of minds at ease who may’ve thought his best days were behind after his Friday night masterclass. In six innings of work, Cameron lowered his season ERA back under 5.00 by surrendering no runs off just four hits and two walks.

Hopefully Ragans’ set back is just that and the Royals will have both him and Bubic back in the starting staff before too long. In the meantime though, they’ll have to settle for an all-hands on deck approach, which is not what any team with postseason ambitions sitting 10 games below .500 would want.