The Royals announced that two of their top starters are heading to the 15-day injured list. Cole Ragans has been sidelined due to a left groin strain, while Seth Lugo (whose placement is retroactive to May 14) is dealing with a sprained middle finger on his throwing hand. Left-hander Noah Cameron was called up from Triple-A and will start today’s game against the Cardinals, and fellow southpaw Evan Sisk has also been called up in a corresponding move.
Neither IL placement comes as a big surprise, as it was already known that Cameron would be making a spot start in what was initially Lugo’s regular turn in the rotation today. Lugo’s finger issue was initially described as inflammation, and it arose in his last outing on May 11. The official diagnosis of a sprain indicates that a scan revealed something beyond just soreness, so while the original plan was just for Lugo to miss one start, the veteran right-hander will now get at least 15 days of rest and recuperation.
Ragans had one of his own starts skipped a few weeks ago due to a groin strain, and he left during the sixth inning of yesterday’s game with St. Louis due to a similar groin issue. Ragans will now also head to the IL in order to hopefully put this injury behind him, and the nagging groin problem could explain why Ragans has a 7.20 ERA (eight earned runs over 10 innings) in his last two starts.
It has been an unusual season for Ragans, who is pitching much better than his 4.53 ERA would indicate. An inflated .376 BABIP is the biggest culprit behind Ragans’ lack of bottom-line success, as his 37.7% strikeout rate is among the game’s best, and his 6.8% walk rate is also solidly above the league average. With a 2.28 SIERA and a .249 xwOBA, the advanced metrics indicate that Ragans is actually pitching better than he did in 2024, when he finished fourth in AL Cy Young Award voting.
Lugo was the runner-up in last year’s AL Cy voting, after posting a 3.00 ERA over 206 2/3 innings with Kansas City. In something of the reverse of Ragans, Lugo has been outperforming his secondary numbers in both 2024-25, and he has a cumulative 3.01 ERA over the two seasons but a more modest 4.00 SIERA. Lugo’s lack of strikeouts and his tendency to allow hard contact may not impress the Statcast crew, but his strong control and elite curveball spin rate has allowed him to achieve quite a bit of success over his two seasons with the Royals.
Cameron made his MLB debut earlier this season and was brilliant in his lone start, tossing 6 1/3 shutout innings of one-hit ball against the Rays on April 30. He’ll get another chance to display his stuff both today and likely throughout at least the end of May, as Cameron is the logical choice to fill one of the two spots that have suddenly opened up in the K.C. rotation.
There aren’t many teams that could easily handle losing two starters at the same time, and the Royals’ depth has been further thinned since Alec Marsh and Kyle Wright are also both still on the IL. Rich Hill was signed to a minors deal earlier this week, but Hill is only just starting to properly ramp up and won’t be game-ready for a while. At the Triple-A level, prospect Luinder Avila could be called up for his own MLB debut, or Thomas Hatch could be called if the Royals opened up a spot on the 40-man roster.
Kansas City’s rotation has been one of the best in baseball this year, between the contributions of Ragans, Lugo, Michael Wacha, Michael Lorenzen, and Kris Bubic. This excellent pitching staff has helped the Royals keep pace in the crowded AL Central despite some very inconsistent hitting, so K.C. will now need both better offense and some reinforcements from beyond the starting five to keep from slipping back in the playoff race.