Royals take chance on high-upside reliever who couldn’t stick with Cardinals

Stop me if you’ve heard this before; the Kansas City Royals have signed a former big league veteran to a minor league contract.

It’s been a frequent occurrence for the Royals this season to stockpile veteran depth in their minor league ranks. And they stuck to that trend again on Tueday and added another name to the fold, signing reliever Nick Robertson to minors deal, as per Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 Houston.

Robertson becomes the second minor league deal the Royals have made in the past week after they agreed to terms with former Red Sox top prospect Bobby Dalbec this past Friday. He also joins a long list of veteran arms the Royals have signed since the season has started, headlined by the likes of the now DFA’d Rich Hill as well as a former Cy Young Award winner in Dallas Keuchel and a former Rookie of the Year in Michael Fulmer.

Royals add intriguing arm in Nick Robertson to plethora of veteran pitching depth

Robertson has spent the entirety of the 2025 season with the Houston Astros Triple-A affiliate in Sugar Land before he was released earlier on Tuesday. In 36.0 innings across 34 games with the Space Cowboys this year, the 27-year-old righty threw to a 4.25 ERA, 1.42 WHIP and .191 BAA.

While he may not have reached the majors this season, Robertson is no stranger to the show, having pitched for four major league teams across the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

In 2024, other than an inning of work with the Toronto Blue Jays, the last extended run Robertson had with a big league squad was with the Royals’ in-state rivals in the St. Louis Cardinals.

In a 12.1 inning span in St. Louis, he pitched to the serviceable tune of a 4.38 ERA, but also a less impressive 1.38 WHIP and .300 BAA.

Paired with a 6.04 ERA in 2023 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox, he doesn’t have the greatest MLB track record. However, that’s not to say he doesn’t have any promising facets to his game.

Looking back at his time in St. Louis, Robertson posted a solid 10.22 K/9 (26.9% K-rate), which he would follow up with another more-than-one strikeout-per-nine mark in 2025 in Triple-A – posting a 9.50 K/9 (24.2% K-rate) in Sugar Land.

Now, he’s also paired that with an inflated walk-rate of 16.6% this season, however with the Cardinals last year, he only issued free passes at a 3.8% mark.

He sports a diverse pitch mix, headlined by a 93 mph fastball and complemented by a slider and changeup combo as secondary offerings with the odd cutter thrown in there as well.

Whether or not Robertson gets a shot in the majors with Kansas City this season remains to be seen, but he does offer another major league capable arm in their ranks, should they ever need to call upon him.