Royals left-hander Kris Bubic is still not close to rejoining the team. He has been on a rehab assignment but, per the MLB.com injury tracker, was scratched from his next scheduled game. He received a cortisone shot and will be shut down for another seven to ten days before attempting to ramp up again.
It’s been a frustrating stop-and-start season for Bubic. He made nine starts before landing on the 15-day injured list with elbow soreness. He started a rehab assignment with an appearance on June 9th but only lasted an inning and a third and experienced some shoulder soreness after that. He then restarted his rehab assignment with a single-inning appearance on June 24th. That was followed by a two-inning appearance on Saturday but now he is shut down with a shoulder issue again.
A pitcher’s elbow and shoulder are always notable injuries but there are specific echoes for Bubic. Tommy John surgery wiped out most of his 2023 season. He returned in 2024 and pitched in relief. He was back in the rotation last year and generally performed well but didn’t pitch after the month of July due to a rotator cuff strain. Now both the elbow and the shoulder have been hampering him this year.
Around the injuries, Bubic has put up good numbers. Dating back to the start of 2023, he has a 3.04 earned run average 25.5% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 48% ground ball rate. Unfortunately, he has logged only 203 innings over those four campaigns due to all the interruptions.
This latest setback is less than ideal for the Royals in multiple ways. Most directly, it hurts their chances in a season that is quickly slipping away from them. The club came into this season hoping to contend but they are now 35-53, tied with the Rockies for the worst record in the majors. Climbing back into the race is going to be extremely difficult with the injuries piling up. In the rotation, Cole Ragans just underwent surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament, so he’s done for the year. That means the starting group will be down two key members for as long as it takes Bubic to get back into the mix.
There have been other notable injuries as well, with Jonathan India, Maikel Garcia, Carlos Estévez, Vinnie Pasquantino and others currently sidelined. With the club’s record and all those absences, it’s highly likely the club will be selling ahead of the August 3rd trade deadline.
Bubic is an impending free agent and would have been the club’s top rental trade chip if he were healthy and throwing the ball well. Perhaps that could still happen but every setback will chip away at the window of remaining time before the deadline and also reduce his trade value.
This shutdown period will go into the middle of July. Even if he’s healthy at that point, he’ll probably need the rest of the month to ramp up towards game readiness. He could still be traded if he is not activated from the IL. Shane Bieber was traded from the Guardians to the Blue Jays last year while on a rehab assignment, for instance, but the numerous setbacks for Bubic will give other teams pause. For now, the Royals will continue with a rotation of Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Noah Cameron, Stephen Kolek and Luinder Avila while they wait for Bubic to get back into the mix.
Photo courtesy of Denny Medley, Imagn Images
