KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals are dealing with some injuries after the insult of a disappointing series split vs. the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday.
The Royals put themselves in a great spot to win their second series in a row, carrying a five-game win streak through the first two of the four-game series vs. the Guardians on Monday and Tuesday. However, the Royals lost both Wednesday and Thursday’s games.
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Making matters worse for the Royals, starting pitcher Cole Ragans had to leave Wednesday’s game early with soreness in his left elbow.
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MLB.com’s Anne Rogers confirmed on Thursday that Ragans has valgus extension overload, commonly known as “pitcher’s elbow” in his throwing arm. The club’s next steps in terms of treatment are currently to be determined based on how the lefty feels over the next few days.
If Ragans’ early exit on Wednesday wasn’t enough, another Royals pitcher had to leave his outing early on Wednesday as well.
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Former closer Carlos Estévez, who appeared just once for KC in 2026 while giving up six runs en route to a drastic blown save during the first series of the season before hitting the IL, left his rehab outing in AAA Omaha with shoulder discomfort.
On Thursday, Rogers confirmed that Estévez has a right rotator cuff strain and will miss at least three more weeks before being reevaluated.
While Lucas Erceg has taken the closer’s role and ran with it for the most part over the last few series, having Estévez back as another proven high-leverage arm in the bullpen certainly wouldn’t hurt KC’s ability to close out close games.
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However, the Royals will have to get by with the combination of Erceg, Daniel Lynch IV’s newfound power arm, Matt Strahm and others to deal the high-leverage innings in the meantime.
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On the back end of the rotation, LHP Noah Cameron is also dealing with an injury. He was scratched from his scheduled start vs. the Guardians on Tuesday, one which Stephen Kolek took over and performed well.
The Royals’ plan for Cameron, according to Rogers, is for the young lefty to throw a bullpen on Thursday. From there, the club will determine how he recovers and go from there. Cameron’s next scheduled start would be on Sunday. Thursday’s bullpen will determine if that will be the case.
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Up next, the American League Central action continues at Kauffman Stadium into the weekend. The Royals will begin a three-game series vs. the Detroit Tigers on Friday at 6:40 p.m.
Royals’ left-hander Kris Bubic (3-1, 3.32 ERA) will take the mound for KC, facing Tigers righty Keider Montero (2-2, 3.48 ERA).
As of Thursday afternoon, the Royals have slid back into fourth place in the ALC at 17-21. They’re 2.5 games back of the Guards (20-19) and a game back from the second-place Tigers (18-20).
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sports.yahoo.com ’
