Coming off a disappointing 2025 season, missing the postseason after an incredible 30-win turnaround and run to the ALDS the year prior, hopes are high again for the Kansas City Royals with the 2026 regular season nearly three weeks away.
Of the names hoping to lead that bounce-back is ace Cole Ragans, who will all but hope to have a personal rebound this year following an injury-ridden 2025 season.
Even with the injuries and abnormally poor outings, Royals fans still recognize Ragans as their ace based upon his prior track record and even caught glimpses of it during his limited time on the mound in 2025.
This is what makes Ragans’ placement of No. 15 amongst fellow aces in Sports Illustrated’s projected Opening Day starter rankings earlier this week feel disrespectful.
Abnormal 2025 season shouldn’t diminish all that Royals ace Cole Ragans has accomplished
Now, on the surface, when discussing number one starters in MLB rotations, being amongst the Top 15 of the best-of-the-best doesn’t seem all that bad.
However, with Ragans, before 2025, nothing screams middle of the pack amongst the elite by any means. After all, he’s only a year removed from finishing fourth in AL Cy Young voting.
From the time he debuted with the Royals in June of 2023 to the end of the 2024 campaign, few arms stacked up to Ragans’ production. His 3.00 ERA in that span (among qualified starters) was only bested by Tarik Skubal and Zack Wheeler. His FIP 2.85 FIP ranked second to only Skubal, while his .205 BAA also ranked third and 10.88 K/9 rate ranked fourth.
And despite his 4.67 ERA in 2025, Ragans still again showed signs that that ace pitcher was still in there and really came out at the end of the season when seemingly healthy again.
For the season, Ragans was still a strikeout savant, sporting an incredible 14.30 K/9 rate. And in his final three starts of the season in September upon his return from his lengthy IL stint, Ragans sported a 2.77 ERA, 2.67 FIP, 0.77 WHIP and .136 BAA along with a 45.8% K-rate.
All of this was enough to get the attention of Team USA World Baseball Classic manager Mark DeRosa, who reportedly still asked Ragans to join the squad in March despite the 2025 season he had as a whole, before Ragans ultimately declined the invite to focus on the upcoming Royals season.
Again, 15th isn’t bad by any means and Sports Illustrated writer Tim Capurso didn’t have anything particularly bad to say about the Royals lights-out lefty.
“‘I’m healthy and I feel good,’ Ragans declared to The Kansas City Star this spring after missing a large chunk of last season with a rotator cuff strain.” Capurso wrote. “The last time Ragans was healthy and felt good? He struck out 223 batters in 186.1 innings while finishing fourth in the 2024 American League Cy Young Award voting.”
The disrespectful aspect comes with some of the names above him. No one should be arguing against names like Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes or Yoshinobu Yamamoto being placed over Ragans. However, there’s a pair of names ahead of them that are puzzling to say the least.
Brandon Woodruff of the Milwaukee Brewers sits right above in Ragans in the rankings at 14th. However, despite a superior 3.20 ERA season in 2025, it came in only 12 starts, one less than Ragans.
On top of that, over the past three seasons, missing 2024 entriely due to injury, Woodruff has only thrown 131.2 in that span.
If we’re going to knock Ragans down for injuries, wouldn’t it make sense to place the guy with significantly less innings over the last three years lower?
Speaking of injuries, there’s Chris Sale in Atlanta, ranked fifth overall on this list.
Now, given he was the 2024 NL Cy Young award winner and, despite injuries, still threw in 125.2 innings in last year at a 2.58 ERA, arguing Sale over Ragans is justified.
But given his extensive career injury past before conquering the 2024 season, is he worth being 10 spots above Ragans? That seems excessive if you ask me.
At the end of the day, what matters is how Ragans bounces back on the the mound in 2026 and whether or not he can not only feel healthy, but remain healthy. So, perhaps lists like these are just fuel for what will hopefully be the rebound to elite form.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
