Royals are left with their biggest hole in the rotation yet after Kris Bubic injury

The Kansas City Royals are plummeting in the standings after losing their ninth game in their last 12 on Monday. However, before the game even got underway the Royals were already behind the eight-ball against their fellow struggling American League counter parts in the Boston Red Sox. After set-up man Matt Strahm joined the likes of ace Cole Ragans on the IL on Saturday, the Royals struggles with the injured list didn’t end there.

Scheduled to start Tuesday’s game against the Red Sox, All-Star lefty Kris Bubic was placed on the 15-day IL due to the ever-so cryptic and mysterious elbow soreness. This came off the back of a bit of blowup outing in his last start against the White Sox, where he surrendered five earned runs in just four innings of work.

While elbow soreness can carry many worries when it comes to determining it’s severity, the Royals can take some solace in the fact it appears more precautionary in nature. According to Anne Rogers of MLB.com, Bubic himself referred to the his soreness as “very mild”, which hopefully won’t tax their dwindling pitching depth too heavily.

“It’s not something I want to push, given my history and given the timing of the year,” Bubic said to Rogers. “So for me, this is good news in a sense.”

“I expect this to be pretty minimal IL, just a few weeks, and we should be back,” he said. “That’s the expectation in my head.”

The history in question here is of course the previous Tommy John surgery he had in 2023 that kept him sidelined until 2024 and out of the rotation until 2025. Then in 2025, a rotator cuff injury cut his maiden All-Star campaign short.

Kris Bubic’s makeup is really the glue that combines this entire Royals rotation

While the Royals still have quality in their starting staff with a pair of sub-4.00 ERA veteran arms in Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, Bubic’s injury takes them to a new low that even the loss of their ace doesn’t match.

As odd as it may sound given Ragans has looked like a perennial Cy Young contender when he’s firing on all cylinders, the fact remains after the injury woes he faced in 2025 and still faces to start the 2026 season, the Royals faithful haven’t seen that arm consistently in some time – only glimpses of it.

On top of that, Lugo and Wacha are craftier veterans that work efficiently, but don’t necessarily blow hitters away with things like high strikeout rates.

This is where Bubic comes in. When Ragans and his 11.49 K/9 rate hit the shelf, Bubic was the only remaining arm who offered the Royals that strikeout ability. As it stands now, Bubic gives them more than a single strikeout per inning this season, with a 9.12 clip. This certainly makes Lugo’s 7.82 K/9, Wacha’s 7.38 K/9, Noah Cameron’s 7.78 K/9 and Stephen Kolek’s 6.35 K/9 look quite inferior. The Royals rotation is now suddenly a lot more one-dimensional for opposing lineups to gameplan for.

Then there’s the fact that while Bubic is still in the final year of the arbitration stage of his career, he isn’t exactly a young arm like Cameron, but isn’t a grizzled veteran like Lugo or Wacha. He brings enough experience but enough youthful life to make him a perfect union of the two sides of this staff.

And just from a sheer statistical outlook, losing a respectable low-4.00s ERA arm who projects as mildly unlucky with a favorable 3.72 FIP and a real knack for avoiding hitters teeing off on him with a .200 BAA and 0.72 HR/9, the loss is just devastating in it’s own right.

With Eli Morgan being the corresponding move for Bubic, the Royals will turn to the returning lefty-long man Bailey Falter, who came back from injury after being the corresponding move for the IL placement of Strahm on Saturday. Perhaps a new routine, as Jaylon Thompson of the Kansas City Star outlined, could serve him well in his return, but given everything we’ve seen from Falter on a Royals uniform, Bubic would certainly be the preferred Tuesday starter everyday of the week.