Getty
Cole Ragans of the Kansas City Royals.
Last season, the Kansas City Royals took a huge leap forward, and while they finished the year at 82-80, good for third place in the American League Central, they put the division on notice behind MVP candidate Bobby Witt Jr. and a great pitching staff.
Unfortunately, they’ve struggled to replicate that success early in 2026, as they are currently 33-46, placing them last in the AL Central, but with plenty of season to go, they have the chance to turn things around. The main reason for those struggles has been the injury issues, but to date they’ve struggled to field a healthy team, with the Royals getting some more bad news as they look to turn things around with the All-Star break looming.
GettyCole Ragans of the Kansas City Royals.
To turn things around however, the team need plenty to go their way and to have some good luck on the injury front, but on Tuesday, they confirmed some bad news on star lefty Cole Ragans, who is now reportedly set to undergo surgery. During his latest media availability, Manager Matt Quatraro revealed that Ragans, who has not started a game for the Royals since May 6th is likely to undergo surgery to deal with his elbow injury.
“We anticipate it being a surgical procedure,” Quatraro said. “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.”
#Royals Matt Quatraro said LHP Cole Ragans is likely to undergo a surgical procedure for his elbow injury.
“We anticipate it being a surgical procedure. 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.”
While Ragans hasn’t been at his best this season, he’s been a consistent force for Kansas City in recent years, making his lone career All-Star Game appearance to date back in 2024 with the Royals.
Unfortunately for Kansas City, the Ragans injury is just the latest in a string of ridiculously bad injury luck in 2026, with Witt, Maikel Garcia, Kris Bubic, Jonathan India and Vinnie Pasquantino all missing significant time and currently being on the Injured List. With the Ragans injury and confirmed surgery, the team are down to Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo as proven big league performers, and given that Ragans is likely to undergo surgery, it may be the last we’ve seen of him in 2026.
Although he’s been out for over a month, this confirmation of the severity of Ragans injury is more bad news for the Royals, and with the AL Central being surprisingly successful in 2026, this may be the end of their post-season hopes. Before the injury, Ragans appeared to have regressed as well, as he was 1-4 with a 4.84 ERA across eight starts despite striking out a very impressive 45 hitters in 35.1 innings of work.
Ultimately, unless Ragans were to get healthy immediately and find that 2024 form, there’s not much that he could have done for the 2026 Kansas City Royals, but at 28-years-old, it’s never good news to see that a player will need surgery, with the team likely to reveal his recovery timeline in the days and weeks to come.
Nathan Smith Nathan Smith is a writer with Heavy Sports covering the NHL and MLB. He brings a decade of experience covering sports in North America for digital platforms such as PFSN, Athlon Sports and FanSided. More about Nathan Smith
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