Hunter Harvey Signs With Cubs, Leaving Hole in Royals Bullpen

The Kansas City Royals are losing a talented arm from their bullpen as reliever Hunter Harvey has agreed to a one-year deal with the Chicago Cubs.

The news was first reported by Will Sammon of The Athletic on Saturday, with the deal pending a physical.

Harvey never quite got to show what he could do in a Royals uniform due to injuries, and that is what makes this departure so tough for Kansas City.

The right-hander was acquired from Washington at the 2024 trade deadline for a Competitive Balance Round A pick and infield prospect Cayden Wallace, which was a steep price for a reliever.

Unfortunately, a back injury ended his 2024 season early and a teres major strain in April followed by an adductor strain in August limited him to just 12 appearances in 2025.

When Harvey was able to take the mound for the Royals, the results were hard to argue with.

In his limited time during 2025, he did not allow a single run while striking out 11 batters and walking just one across 10.2 innings.

That gave him an incredible 0.656 WHIP in what turned out to be his final season with Kansas City.

Over his career, Harvey has posted a solid 3.11 ERA with a 1.10 WHIP across 185 innings in 182 appearances.

His fastball sits in the upper 90s and he has shown the ability to miss bats at a high rate when healthy.

The problem has always been staying on the field, and the Cubs are now betting they can get more out of him than the Royals did.

The Royals finished the 2025 season with an 82-80 record and placed third in the AL Central.

They will need to find ways to improve their bullpen if they want to get back to the postseason after their 2024 playoff run.

The good news is Kansas City has options to fill Harvey’s spot in the relief corps.

Lucas Erceg is set to anchor the back end of the bullpen after putting together a strong 2025 campaign with a 2.64 ERA, 48 strikeouts, and a 1.174 WHIP in 61.1 innings.

Carlos Estévez, who signed a two-year deal with the team, will share high-leverage duties with Erceg and gives Kansas City another experienced arm they can trust.

James McArthur is another name to watch after the Royals surprisingly tendered him a contract despite missing all of 2025 with an elbow injury.

He has closing experience and showed strong underlying numbers when healthy, including a 90th percentile walk rate and 91st percentile ground ball rate in 2024.

The team also added Alex Lange and Matt Strahm this offseason to give them more depth and left-handed options in the bullpen.

While losing Harvey stings given the price they paid to get him and the potential he showed when healthy, the Royals appear to have enough pieces in place to move forward without him in 2026.

‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’

‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sports.yahoo.com ’