Royals manager Matt Quatraro says that left-hander Cole Ragans will likely require some kind of surgery on his elbow. “We anticipate it being a surgical procedure,” Quatraro said, per Jaylon T. Thompson of the Kansas City Star. “We don’t know, as of right now, what it means. He’s got to see another doctor as well, but we anticipate it being surgical.” Ragans is already on the 60-day injured list.
The lack of detail in that update mean a wide variety of possibilities are still on the table. Elbow surgery can, on the low end, mean an absence of just a few weeks. For an extreme example, Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal recently underwent surgery to remove a loose body from his elbow. He was only on the injured list for about six weeks. The other end of the spectrum would be Tommy John surgery, which usually requires 14 months or more of recovery time.
Regardless, it’s an unfortunate update for Ragans. He first landed on the IL a week into May with an elbow impingement. A couple of weeks later, he made one rehab appearance, but that was shut down due to elbow stiffness. Ten days ago, Quatraro said that Ragans woke up not feeling well and would be sent for more testing. Though there still aren’t a lot of details available, it seems the testing is pointing towards surgical intervention.
It’s the latest blow in a Royals season that appears to be going off the rails. They came into the campaign as a potential contender on the strength of their rotation, which included Ragans, Kris Bubic, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Noah Cameron. Injuries have split up that group. In addition to Ragans, Bubic has been out over a month due to elbow soreness. Bubic made a rehab appearance a couple of weeks ago but experienced some shoulder discomfort and hasn’t yet restarted his rehab assignment.
The bullpen has also taken a few hits, with Carlos Estévez, Nick Mears and James McArthur all currently on the IL. On the position player side of things, Maikel Garcia landed on the shelf earlier today, joining Jonathan India, Vinnie Pasquantino and Kyle Isbel. Though he’s not on the IL, Bobby Witt Jr. hasn’t been in the lineup for several days due to a knee sprain.
Thanks to all those issues, the Royals are 33-46 on the year. They are technically only 6.5 games back of a playoff spot in a weak American League field, but it is going to be difficult to make gains with so many key contributors on the injured list.
Photo courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff, Imagn Images
