The Royals placed starter Seth Lugo on the seven-day concussion injured list this evening. Righty Eli Morgan is up from Triple-A Omaha to provide an extra bullpen arm for the time being.
It was a scary scene on Wednesday when Lugo was struck in the face by a comebacker hit by Brandon Nimmo. The ball came off the bat at 106.6 mph and hit him on the right side of his forehead. Nimmo, a former teammate of Lugo’s with the Mets, was equally concerned as the players on the Kansas City side and raced out to the mound to check on the veteran righty as soon as time was called.
Lugo immediately had a welt on his forehead but thankfully avoided the worst. He was able to leave the game under his own power. Manager Matt Quatraro said this afternoon that Lugo felt worse on Friday than he had yesterday (link via Drew Davison of MLB.com). He’s still dealing with headaches and increased head pressure. The seven-day IL is available whether a player has been formally diagnosed with a concussion or has concussion-like symptoms.
The Royals are now down three-fifths of their preferred rotation. Cole Ragans and Kris Bubic have both been out for a month with elbow issues. Bubic made a rehab start on Tuesday but reported some shoulder discomfort after that appearance, Quatraro told the K.C. beat. He’ll go for further testing this weekend before the Royals determine next steps.
Michael Wacha started yesterday’s series finale against Texas. The Royals will run Luinder Avila, Noah Cameron and Stephen Kolek for their weekend set with the Astros. They’ll either need a bullpen game or a new fifth starter on Monday for the beginning of a series in Washington. No one in the MLB bullpen has been built up to a rotation workload.
Mitch Spence, who has an ERA pushing 7.00 in the minors, is their only healthy depth starter on the 40-man roster. He’s starting for Omaha tonight, so the Royals clearly aren’t viewing him as a candidate for Monday. Their non-roster starters in the minors (e.g. Aaron Sanchez, Ryan Ramsey, Ben Sears, Henry Williams) have all struggled as well.
