KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Royals placed All-Star left-hander Kris Bubic on the 15-day injured list with a rotator cuff strain and outfielder Jac Caglianone on the 10-day IL with a strained left hamstring amid a series of moves before their series finale against Cleveland on Sunday.
The Royals also welcomed outfielder Randal Grichuk, who was acquired on Saturday night in a deal that shipped reliever Andrew Hoffmann to Arizona, and recalled right-handed reliever Jonathan Bowlan from Triple-A Omaha to help the bullpen.
Bubic walked the first four batters he faced and only managed to last 2 2/3 innings against the Guardians on Saturday, when he started the second game of a split doubleheader. He needed 42 pitches to get through the first inning, and he wound up allowing four runs and three hits in his shortest start since Sept. 18, 2022, at Boston.
“He’s getting some further testing and then we’ll talk to the doc here and see what we got,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said.
Bubic said he’s experienced some shoulder soreness for much of the season, but he’s been able to pitch through it at a break-through level. Even with the rocky start Saturday, he has a 2.55 ERA – the fifth-best mark in the American League.
“I mean, you see how he’s performed,” Quatraro said. “Most pitchers when they go out there, they feel something almost every time. The severity of it and his ability to continue to deal with it has been manageable, by his own admission. … And it’s gotten to the point where, you know, he doesn’t, and we don’t feel like it’s best for him to keep fighting through it.”
The Royals rotation has suddenly thinned considerably. Left-hander Cole Ragans remains on the IL with a strained rotator cuff and is not expected back until late August, and right-hander Michael Lorenzen is progressing from his strained left oblique but may need to make a rehab start before he returns to the Royals sometime in August.
The Royals already have had to plug one spot with 45-year-old Rich Hill, who pitched well in his debut for them this past week.
Caglianone, the Royals’ 22-year-old power-hitter, felt tightness in his hamstring while running down a double into the gap in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. Then he felt the twinge again while running to first on a groundout later the inning.
The timing of the injury could have been worse: The Royals had been working on a deal to land Grichuk, who nearly signed with them in the offseason but will now help them primarily against left-handed hitting for the rest of the season.
“You’ve seen our outfield had gotten very heavily left-handed. Something we thought we needed to add was a right-handed bat,” said Quatraro, whose team began the day 51-54 and 4 1/2 games back in the AL wild-card race.
Grichuk was 0 for 2 on Saturday night in Pittsburgh, flying out in the second inning and the fourth, when he was told by the Diamondbacks that he had been traded. He hugged several teammates in the dugout and then headed out, catching a flight first thing Sunday so that he could be in Kansas City in time for the series finale against the Guardians.
He was put in the starting lineup right away, batting sixth and playing right field.
“When they called they said, ‘If you’re willing to be here to play, you know, we want you in the starting lineup,'” Grichuk said, “and yeah, I want to play. That’s kind of my M.O. And so I said, ‘Let’s do it. We’ll make it happen, even if it’s crazy travel.'”
The one hang-up was Grichuk’s number: He’s always worn 15 and that number was taken by backup catcher Luke Maile. But it turns out the two knew each other from their days together in Toronto, so a quick text message smoothed things out. Maile took No. 17 and gave his old buddy No. 15 – “We’ll work something out,” Grichuk said of potential compensation.
“It’s pretty cool that he was able to give it to me,” Grichuk said.
