Royals Rumblings - News for July 9, 2025
The Royals just clinched their first series victory at home in two months. TWO MONTHS.
MLB.com’s Anne Rogers gives fans a peek behind the curtain of the Kansas City Royals promoting utilityman Cam Devanney to the 26-man roster on Tuesday.
When Devanney emerged from the shower, he had five missed calls. Upon quickly calling Jirschele back, Devanney learned he was headed to the big leagues. Suddenly, a nice and relaxing night turned into a rush of emotions.
“Just a rush because it was late at night, I was getting ready for bed, and then my whole day flipped upside down,” Devanney said. “Definitely crazy. My girlfriend, Shannon, was there, so we had a moment, and I got to call my parents and some family and friends. That was exhausting but a lot of fun.”
Rogers also did not mince words when it came to naming Kansas City’s biggest need ahead of the MLB trade deadline.
Any sort of offense would be an upgrade for the Royals, who are hoping not to squander a really good pitching staff with an offense that has struggled to score runs all season. The outfield makes the most sense positionally for an upgrade, especially with Royals outfielders ranking as the worst offensive group in MLB. But some versatility with their current roster allows the Royals a little more flexibility if there’s a fit elsewhere on the field.
David Lesky reacted to Monday night’s “easy win” against the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates.
Has the offense corrected itself? I think that’s hard to say still. They’ve scored four or more runs four times in seven games so far in July. That means they’ve scored fewer than that three times. But that’s also a much better percentage than before the start of July when they’d scored four or more runs 32 times out of 85 games. What I do think they’re doing is making better decisions at the plate. It’s only seven games and, again, three of them were decidedly not great offensive outings, but their chase rate in July is middle of the pack instead of bottom of the pack. Maybe more importantly, they’re actually doing damage on the pitches they should do damage on.
The bats were the headline, but Craig Brown looks at how dominant Noah Cameron was on the mound Monday night.
Starter Noah Cameron was fantastic on Monday. Fantastic. He had pitched into the seventh inning in each of his first five major league starts. Against the Pirates was the first time he completed the seventh inning. For good measure, the 109 pitches Cameron threw was also the most he had delivered this year. All of those pitches were sharp. In a lineup that was stacked entirely with right-handed batters, Cameron worked four-seam, change and cutter for the most part. He dumped a couple of curves and sliders to keep the opposition on their toes, but it was that changeup that did the most damage.
Royals Data Dugout examines what made Kris Bubic such a clear-cut All-Star selection.
It’s interesting to see projection systems skew bearish for the rest of the season. Perhaps Bubic hits an innings wall (he’s already at 103 after totaling 66 in 2024 while working his way back from Tommy John surgery) but I’d think the Royals would shift him back to the bullpen or utilize their lefty in a hybrid role before allowing him to completely wear down. ZiPS projects just 50 innings and a 3.65 ERA. Others, like Steamer and OOPSY, have him closer to 65-70 innings but with a 3.72 ERA and 3.98, respectively. It’s possible the first half is the best we’ll see from Bubic, but considering his 3.02 xERA and 2.78 FIP, it’s not as if he’s completely outpitching the peripherals. Barring a total collapse, he’ll be a worthy extension candidate in the offseason with one year of team control remaining for 2026 — but that’s a topic we’ll get into further once the season wraps.
Could Kansas be more focused on pulling the Royals across the state line than the Kansas City Chiefs? Some legislators believe so.
On Monday, Kansas extended a deadline to keep negotiating with the Chiefs and the Royals. However, some lawmakers hinted negotiators are focused more on the Royals than the Chiefs. “It appears there’s some instructions to try to get something done with the Royals first before you deal with the Chiefs; that’s unacceptable,” said Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, a Republican from Andover.
Hear from Royals scouting director Brian Bridges on what makes this coming MLB draft so tough, via Rogers.
Bridges and the Royals’ amateur scouting department have been meeting to finish filling out their big board, but there’s a lot of unknowns due to the uncertainty at the top of the Draft. The Royals are connected to a variety of players as they prepare for all the different routes they could take based on how things fall ahead of them on Sunday. “It’s as wide open as I’ve ever seen,” Bridges said. “You haven’t heard anything about who’s probably going No. 1. [The Nationals] probably have it narrowed down to a couple of players. And then No. 2 [the Angels] have to get their list, which is probably about three or four guys. There’s really no one locked in on anybody yet. But when there’s not a clear-cut, ‘This is the No. 1 pick,’ it makes it a bit harder.”
Caleb Moody for Just Baseball ponders Seth Lugo’s trade ace status at the coming deadline.
As we’ve established already as well, out of the top “available” ace options, not only does Lugo seem as though he’s available, but the quality has been nothing if not ace level in 2025. There’s little-to-no questions about Lugo at this point, other than whether or not the Royals will make him available. If they do, though, there’s no denying he has what it takes to be the cream of the crop this trade season.
The Athletic’s latest power rankings has Kansas City in the bottom 10, with no room for error heading into the All-Star break.
Much like the Twins, the margin for error in Kansas City is non-existent. At 5 games back of the AL’s third and final Wild Card spot, the Royals will need to start stacking up wins and fast. Going 4-3 against the Diamondbacks and Mariners over the last week is a step in that direction, but the team will need to take advantage of six games against the Pirates and Marlins, plus another six at home against the Guardians and Braves, to push those playoff odds closer to reality.
ESPN has a trade idea that sends outfielder Byron Buxton to the Royals?
Offer No. 3: Kansas City Royals offer LHP Cole Ragans and LHP David Shields
The New York Mets will reportedly get a big pitching boost this coming weekend with the return of ace Kodai Senga to the mound. Senga has been elite for the Mets when healthy, posting a 7-3 record with a 1.47 ERA in 73.2 innings this season.
A Mets-Lugo reunion seems plausible, but Rising Apple’s Tim Boyle has a sensible reason why it won’t happen.
In the past, Lugo expressed dissatisfaction about his usage as a reliever during his New York tenure. It’s a big reason why he wasn’t expected to sign with the Mets after a brief stint with the San Diego Padres. A trade is different. And with him becoming a proven starter, the Mets would have no reason but to keep him in the rotation to continue his dominance. The question of how badly the Mets even need another starting pitcher versus a bad and some bullpen arms is something to consider as well. There are only so many resources we should expect them to sell this summer. Lugo will be a costly one.
After the Royals released him on July 1, the Mets signed pitcher Junior Fernández to a minor league contract.
The Chicago White Sox reinstated outfielder Luis Robert Jr. from the 10-day IL.
The New York Yankees moved infielder Jazz Chisholm back to second base after a lengthy stint at the hot corner.
The Mets placed outfielder Starling Marte on the IL and activated Jesse Winker.
Hear from the interim general manager and skipper for the Washington Nationals after the club cleaned house this weekend.
San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado recorded his 2,000th career hit on Monday.
CBS Sports’ Matt Snyder looks at how the MLB and NFL drafts are not in the same realm.
Maligned San Francisco Giants slugger Rafael Devers reportedly skipped first base lessons with former Gold Glover winner Will Clark, according to Clark himself.
FanGraphs’ Michael Rosen looks at how different Detroit Tigers outfielder Riley Greene is in the batted-ball department in 2025.
Toronto Blue Jays outfielder George Springer is looking like his old self at his old age.
New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown talked about how his latest challenge was accepting the club’s vacant post.
After another worst-to-first story in 2024, the Big 12 will not have a preseason media poll for the 2025 football season.
The initial reviews for James Gunn’s Superman leave little room for consensus. But the positives seem to hold over the negatives following the review embargo lifting.
How the falling birth rate in America came to be and why it matters.
Jelly Roll and T-Pain go together like cinnamon rolls and chili on this cover of Should’ve Been a Cowboy.