Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans have both been dealing with injuries, both are worse than initially thought.
The Royals announced today that both Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans had been added to the 15-day Injured List. Lugo’s addition is retroactive to May 14th, the last day he pitched. Left-handed pitchers Noah Cameron and Evan Sisk will take their spots on the active roster.
We have made the following roster moves:
News broke late Friday that Lugo would be skipping his scheduled start on Friday with swelling in his right middle finger, but many had believed he wouldn’t need to go on the Injured List. Now the injury is being classified as a sprain.
Ragans has been dealing with a strained groin for quite some time and even missed a start in late April because of it. He had made two starts since then, both short and neither up to the standard he had set before the injury. This is the latest in a long line of lower-body injuries the Royals’ ace has suffered since joining the team, though it will be the first time they’ve sent him to the injured list. Primarily the injuries before now have been leg cramps.;
It’s unclear when either of them will return, but with the 15-day limit, they’ll each miss at least two starts. Noah Cameron will start tonight and take one spot in the rotation. The Omaha Stormchasers have already been operating somewhat shorthanded at starting pitcher, so it’s unclear right now who might eventually take the other spot in the rotation or if the Royals might try to do some kind of bullpen game.
The Royals’ seemed to have adequate starting pitching depth at the beginning of the year with Alec Marsh and Daniel Lynch IV expected to compete for rotation spots. Kyle Wright was also on the path to returning to a big league mound. But Marsh was injured and both he and Wright have suffered setbacks in their recovery so are nowhere near ready. Ross Stripling was signed during Spring Training but showed absolutely no ability to still get big league hitters out. The Royals recently signed Rich Hill, but he’s still in the ramping-up phase of his latest attempt at a big league comeback.
Luinder Avila is on the 40-man roster, but hasn’t been particularly good in Omaha with a 4.74 ERA. Still, he’s got the best ERA of any Storm Chasers starter. Thomas Hatch would be the second-best with a 5.12 ERA. He has some big league experience, but primarily as a reliever. He pitched in Japan for the Hiroshima Carp last season. No one is exactly lighting things up in Northwest Arkansas either, in case you were wondering.
The Royals have thrived this season primarily on the back of their pitching, but losing the pitchers expected to be the staff ace and number-two on the same day would be a big blow for any team, and the Royals have less depth than most others. It will be interesting to see how the team responds to this devastating blow.