The Royals announced today that right-hander Hunter Harvey has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right adductor strain. Fellow righty Luinder Avila has been recalled in the corresponding move and will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.
Harvey’s IL stint is another frustrating development in his tenure as a Royal. He was acquired from the Nationals in July of 2024. He was still a year and a half away from free agency at that time, so the Royals were presumably hoping to get a decent amount of good innings from him.
Unfortunately, he’s been injured for a large chunk of the time since that trade. He made six appearances after the trade before mid-back tightness sent him to the IL in August. He wasn’t able to return to the club down the stretch. This year, a teres major strain put him on the shelf in mid-April. He was reinstated from the IL on July 25th but is now back there yet again.
Around the IL stints, Harvey has still been good. He has thrown 10 2/3 scoreless innings this year. He has punched out 28.2% of batters faced while only giving out walks to 2.6% of opponents. It’s unclear how long the club expects him to be out of action but they will have to proceed without Harvey for at least another couple of weeks. That’s less than ideal with the club hanging onto a slim chance of competing. They are currently four games back in the American League Wild Card picture, needing to leapfrog three teams to get a spot.
Avila, 23, will try to pick up some of the slack. An international signing out of Venezuela, the Royals added him to their 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft, but this will be his first time on the active roster of the big league club.
He has largely been a starter in his minor league career but has been working shorter stints lately. He landed on the minor league IL in late May due to a shoulder impingement, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. He only began a rehab assignment a couple of weeks back. He has made four appearances in that recent span, working on a starter’s schedule but not having eclipsed three innings in any of those outings. He could perhaps make his major league debut in a long relief capacity.
On the season as a whole, he has tossed 50 1/3 innings with a 4.47 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate, 10.4% walk rate and 45.7% ground ball rate. Baseball America currently ranks him as the #23 prospect in the system, noting that he could have a future as a back-end starter, though an eventual move to relief role is also a long-term possibility.
Photo courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff, Imagn Images