Royals make pitching move as Alec Marsh lands back on IL, likely out for ’26

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals made some adjustments to their 40-man roster on Thursday with a pitching shakeup.

The Royals announced that the club traded right-handed pitcher A.J. Causey for righty Mitch Pence from the Athletics.

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In a corresponding move, the Royals placed right-hander Alec Marsh on the 60-day injured list (IL) to make room for Spence on the 40-man roster while Marsh recovers from shoulder surgery.

Marsh underwent surgery for right labral repair back in October 2025 after missing the entire ’25 season with a shoulder injury, and is now expected to miss the entire 2026 season as well.

Across Marsh’s two seasons with the Royals, he tallied a 4.96 earned run average (ERA) across 203.1 innings in 43 games, 33 of which were starts.

Spence, a former #1 overall selection in the Rule 5 Draft by the New York Yankees, has spent two seasons at the big-league level. In those two years, he’s recorded a 4.77 ERA with 192 strikeouts (K) and, impressively, just 70 walks (BB) across 236 innings pitched (IP).

The 27-year-old out of the University of South Carolina Aiken spent both of those major league seasons with the A’s, where 32 of his 67 appearances were starts.

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According to MLB.com’s Anne Rogers, the Royals’ thought process when acquiring Spence comes down to depth and versatility.

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