The Royals added a low-cost arm to their bullpen mix on Monday, agreeing to a minor league contract with left-handed reliever Aaron Bummer, according to the New York Post’s Jon Heyman.
Bummer arrives after a rough stretch that started with the Atlanta Braves, who released him in May after he gave up 13 earned runs in 15.1 innings. The Chicago Cubs then gave him a look on a minor league deal, but that stint ended quickly after he threw just six combined innings between the Arizona Complex League and Triple-A Iowa.
The results have been trending the wrong way for a while. Bummer’s numbers have declined since his standout 2019 season with the Chicago White Sox, when he posted a 216 ERA+ with 60 strikeouts in 67.2 innings.
Even so, there’s little downside for Kansas City here. As Darragh McDonald of MLB Trade Rumors noted, “For the Royals, there’s no real risk in sending Bummer to Omaha to see what happens. He is making $9.5MM this year, but Atlanta is on the hook for that after releasing him.”
McDonald added, “If the Royals decide to call him up, they would only have to pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what Atlanta pays.”
Bummer’s fastball averaged just 90.5 mph with Atlanta, though he did still get ground balls at a 46.2% clip. With the Royals not firmly out of the postseason race, the club is taking a shot on a pitcher who has struggled, but doesn’t cost them much to find out if there’s anything left.
In Other News...
Royals Finally Have A Few Surprise Answers Fans Did Not Expect
Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez have carried the familiar weight in Kansas City this season, but the more interesting part of the Royals 2026 story has come from the margins. With the club unlikely to push into the postseason, the focus has shifted to whether the supporting cast can give the front office something real to work with, and Michael Massey and Nick Loftin have both done more than simply fill space.
Masseys rebound has made him look like a useful everyday piece again, while Loftin has quietly turned into one of the more intriguing depth answers on the roster. The Royals still have bigger questions than the ones these two can solve, but performances like these matter because they hint at a cleaner path forward, even if the larger season is headed toward an unsatisfying finish. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Fans Have Been Waiting For A Start Like This
Kendry Chourios move to the Royals high Class A club has already given the organization a glimpse of why the arm has generated so much attention. In an 11-0 win over the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, he and Emmanuel Reyes combined on a no-hitter, with Chourio setting the tone by missing bats from the start and Reyes taking over in relief to finish the job. It was the kind of outing that can change the feel around a young pitcher fast, especially when the stuff is playing at that level.
Reyes had never worked out of the bullpen before, but he handled the final four innings without allowing a baserunner and picked up his first career save. For Kansas City, the bigger takeaway may be how Chourio has stacked strong outings on top of one another since a rough first start at the level, turning his promotion into something much more than a developmental checkpoint. The challenge now is whether he can keep carrying that momentum as the competition gets more demanding. [Read more 🡒]