The Royals placed center fielder Kyle Isbel on the 10-day injured list before Wednesday’s game against Texas. Kameron Misner was recalled from Triple-A Omaha in a corresponding move.
Isbel is dealing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. Manager Matt Quatraro tells Anne Rogers of MLB.com that the team is awaiting results of an MRI before they’ll have a return timeline. Isbel has been playing through foot discomfort but needed to make an early exit from last night’s game.
The 29-year-old has gotten the lion’s share of playing time in center field for a fourth consecutive season. He’s providing his usual combination of solid defense and below-average production at the plate. Isbel is hitting .244/.298/.354 with three home runs over 183 plate appearances. The Kansas City outfield has yet again been an issue, ranking 22nd in OPS with a .239/.329/.355 batting line.
Isbel’s injury should give Misner a chance to make his team debut. A Missouri native who played his college ball at the University of Missouri, Misner hit .203/.260/.325 in 79 games with the Rays between 2024-25. Kansas City acquired him early last offseason in a DFA trade but have kept him on optional assignment all year.
The lefty-hitting Misner has an intriguing tool set. He’s a plus runner with big bat speed and a strong arm, all of which made him a supplemental first-round draft choice back in 2019. The production hasn’t matched up, as the 6’3″ Misner hasn’t made enough contact at the big league level. He has mashed Triple-A pitching this season, batting .276/.373/.547 with 13 home runs and 11 stolen bases. He’s striking out at a 27% clip, though, which remains in line with his prior swing-and-miss rates.
Misner can play anywhere in the outfield, so he could replace Isbel as the left-handed part of a center field platoon. Lane Thomas is in the lineup tonight with Texas sending left-hander MacKenzie Gore to the mound. Thomas is flanked by the usual corner tandem of Isaac Collins and Jac Caglianone.
Elsewhere on the roster, the Royals have made a change at the back of their bullpen. Alex Lange fired a scoreless inning with a couple strikeouts to nail down a 5-3 win in the series opener. It was the righty’s fourth save in as many appearances over the last week. Lange is riding a nine-game scoreless streak and has tossed 16 1/3 innings of three-run ball since the beginning of May.
Quatraro declined to anoint a closer when speaking about the ninth inning last week, framing it as a matchup situation (link via MLB.com’s Mike Petraglia). The usage certainly suggests that Lange is the preferred choice right now.
The Royals have been without Carlos Estévez since Opening Day. Lucas Erceg was the obvious first choice to step into the closing role, but he hasn’t found his footing all year. Erceg has allowed an even 6.00 ERA with a career-low 18.8% strikeout rate while walking more than 14% of opposing hitters. He had given up runs in four consecutive appearances leading up to June 3.
That opened the door for Lange, a Kansas City native who signed with his hometown club for $900K over the winter. The LSU product saved 26 games for the Tigers back in 2023. His career was thrown off track after that, as he struggled early in ’24 and was optioned to Triple-A. Lange suffered a significant lat injury almost immediately after going to the minors and required surgery that cost him 14 months. Detroit released him at the end of last season.
Despite Lange’s recent success, the Royals have had one of the shakier bullpens in the American League. That’d be an obvious area to upgrade if they’re in position to add at the deadline. Kansas City has the third-worst record in the AL and are 11 games under .500, but they’ve won three straight and are only 4.5 back in a still wide open Wild Card race.
Unsurprisingly, the front office is in no rush to determine their deadline trajectory. “There are so many teams that are still in this. If you look at where we are right now, we’re (4.5) games out of a wild-card race,” president of baseball operations J.J Picollo said on Tuesday (link via Pete Grathoff of The Kansas City Star). “Last thing we’re thinking about is the trade deadline right now.” Picollo suggested they’re unlikely to make any real trade decisions before the All-Star Break.
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