{"id":2508460,"date":"2026-07-19T18:18:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2508460"},"modified":"2026-07-19T18:18:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:18:00","slug":"royals-place-starter-stephen-kolek-on-15-day-injured-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/royals-place-starter-stephen-kolek-on-15-day-injured-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals place starter Stephen Kolek on 15-day injured list"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Injuries have derailed the Kansas City Royals this season. And on Sunday, the club was dealt another serious blow.<\/p>\n

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Royals starter Stephen Kolek was placed on the 15-day injured list<\/a> with a right flexor strain. He sustained the injury while pitching with Triple-A Omaha on Saturday.<\/p>\n

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Kolek made the minor-league start in preparation to return from the Restricted List\/Family Medical Leave List. He allowed two runs<\/a> in 2 \u2154 innings before exiting the game.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe said he didn\u2019t feel well playing catch,\u201d Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. \u201cBut then, as he got on the mound, he felt better. The first couple of innings were pretty good. The third inning, he felt more aggressive discomfort. So thought it was best to get him out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kolek is the latest starter to hit the injured list. He joins Cole Ragans (UCL surgery), Kris Bubic (shoulder soreness), Ryan Bergert (Tommy John surgery) and Ben Kudrna (olecranon stress fracture fixation surgery).<\/p>\n

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The Royals will have Kolek undergo more testing. He is expected to get an MRI on Monday to get more clarity regarding the injury.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou know, guys have battled stuff all the time,\u201d Quatraro said. \u201cI mean, you have little symptoms here and there. But this was something that we were not expecting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kolek last started on July 2 against the Tampa Bay Rays. He allowed three runs in two innings as he returned following the birth of his daughter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The Royals have utilized Kolek to fill a rotation spot. He responded with a 4.50 ERA in 10 starts \u2014 which included a complete-game shutout<\/a> on May 23 against the Seattle Mariners.<\/p>\n

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Now, the Royals must cobble together their rotation. The remaining healthy starters are 2026 All-Star Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, Luinder Avila and Noah Cameron. The club has utilized a bullpen game for the fifth spot.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s possible that will continue while Kolek is sidelined. The Royals used right-hander Randy Dobnak in Saturday\u2019s 6-1 win over the San Diego Padres. He tossed 4 \u2153 innings in his first start since the 2021 campaign.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, Bubic is the closest starter on the mend. He received a cortisone injection<\/a> on July 2 and could begin a new throwing program this week.<\/p>\n

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This leaves the Royals in an interesting spot. With the Major League Baseball trade deadline approaching on Aug. 3, the club is in dire need of pitching. The overall depth has been ravaged with injuries and underperformance.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s possible the Royals will operate as sellers at the trade deadline. But they could also buy low on fresh arms just to finish out the 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n

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The front office made a similar move<\/a> by acquiring right-hander Easton McGee from the Milwaukee Brewers earlier this week. McGee was designated for assignment and the Royals got him for cash considerations.<\/p>\n

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For now, the Royals will move forward with their current group. And there is hope Kolek won\u2019t miss extended time pending his test results.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe think flexor, but we are going to get him checked out more these next couple of days and get an exam and see how he is doing,\u201d Quatraro said.<\/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":"

Injuries have derailed the Kansas City Royals this season. And on Sunday, the club was dealt another serious blow. Royals starter Stephen Kolek was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right flexor strain. He sustained the injury while pitching with Triple-A Omaha on Saturday. Kolek made the minor-league start in preparation to return […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2448358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2508460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Beck-Way-records-two-strikeouts-in-Royals-debut.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508460","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=2508460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2508461,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508460\/revisions\/2508461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2448358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2508460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2508460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2508460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}