{"id":2301887,"date":"2026-02-26T21:33:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2301887"},"modified":"2026-02-26T21:33:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:33:18","slug":"royals-rhp-stephen-kolek-sidelined-with-oblique-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/royals-rhp-stephen-kolek-sidelined-with-oblique-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals RHP Stephen Kolek sidelined with oblique injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Kansas City Royals entered spring training with a deep stable of starting pitchers.<\/p>\n

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That depth will soon be tested.<\/p>\n

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Royals right-handed pitcher Stephen Kolek has a strained left oblique. He was set to pitch<\/a> in Wednesday\u2019s Cactus League game against the Seattle Mariners but was pulled back while warming up in the bullpen.<\/p>\n

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The Royals will take a cautious approach on Kolek\u2019s health. Acquired from the San Diego Padres<\/a> last season, he will undergo further evaluation in coming days.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are going to get an image later today just to see what the severity of it is,\u201d Royals manager Matt Quatraro told reporters in Surprise, Arizona. \u201cWe are obviously hopeful that it\u2019s not too serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kolek is competing for a spot<\/a> in the starting rotation. Noah Cameron, Ryan Bergert, Luinder Avila and Bailey Falter are also vying for the role. Cameron is expected to get first crack at the job, but Kolek remains in the Royals\u2019 plans.<\/p>\n

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They want to keep him built up as a starter and he pitched well last season. He posted a 1.91 ERA in five starts with the Royals.<\/p>\n

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The Royals love his competitiveness on the mound and effective control \u2014 he recorded 21 strikeouts and just five walks for KC in 2025 \u2014 as well as his ability to limit runs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGetting that depth there was really starting to help us into this year,\u201d Royals pitching coach Brian Sweeney said. \u201cSo it\u2019s going to be really important. It\u2019s really difficult to take 13 pitchers and go through a major-league season. So to have that depth is extremely important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Earlier this spring, Kolek mentioned the importance of staying healthy. He noted that he\u2019d had a great offseason in preparation for the upcoming season, refining his pitching arsenal and focusing on throwing his four-seam fastball more often.<\/p>\n

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Kolek hopes to return to game action soon. In the meantime, the Royals will allow him to get healthy and resume his ramp-up toward the regular season. It\u2019s expected that he will be shut down for 5-7 days, although his absence could extend longer pending what\u2019s found in further evaluation.<\/p>\n

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He had been tabbed to pitch two to three innings Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe shutdown will affect that and (his ability) to get back into games,\u201d Quatraro said. \u201cWe will see how quickly that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Related Stories from Kansas City Star<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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Jaylon Thompson<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Kansas City Star<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jaylon Thompson covers the Royals for The Kansas City Star. He previously covered the 2021 World Series and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jaylon is a proud alumnus of the University of Georgia.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kansas City Royals entered spring training with a deep stable of starting pitchers. That depth will soon be tested. Royals right-handed pitcher Stephen Kolek has a strained left oblique. He was set to pitch in Wednesday\u2019s Cactus League game against the Seattle Mariners but was pulled back while warming up in the bullpen. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2056456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[361429,43627,25866,21848,347944],"class_list":["post-2301887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-injury","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-stephen-kolek"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Cole-Ragans-shines-as-KC-Royals-finish-2025-on-high.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2301887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2301888,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301887\/revisions\/2301888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2056456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2301887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2301887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2301887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}