The Royals are back home looking for a reset after a rough stretch that left the second half feeling a lot less electric than it started. An inactive trade deadline didn’t help, and neither did consecutive series losses to the Twins and the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies loss was the ugly one - a sweep at the hands of one of baseball’s worst clubs, with Kansas City getting outscored 23-8.
Now the Royals get a six-game homestand, beginning with three against Minnesota.
The pitching matchups set the tone right away. Game one features Randy Dobnak, who has been the Royals’ sharpest starter since returning to the Majors, against Joe Ryan. Game two sends Noah Cameron to the mound opposite Dean Kremer, and game three brings Michael Wacha against Bailey Ober.
Dobnak’s comeback has been as good as the Royals could have hoped for. Since being traded for on June 17, he has posted a 1.04 ERA over 26 innings and picked up his first win in more than five years in his last outing against his former team.
That start was his best as a Royal: seven innings, four hits, no runs, one walk, and four strikeouts, a season high. He’ll try to keep that roll going in the opener, this time against the Twins.
Cameron, meanwhile, has looked like a different pitcher since he started calling his own pitches. In two outings since that shift, he’s thrown 15 scoreless innings, allowed only two hits, walked five, and struck out 15 against the Tigers and Twins.
His last start against Minnesota was nearly a no-hitter into the seventh before the Royals bullpen let it slip away. The new approach gets another test here, and Kansas City will be hoping for the same kind of command again.
Minnesota didn’t make a huge splash at the deadline either, but it did add some arms. Dean Kremer, along with relievers AJ Minter and Jeff Hoffman, came in to bolster the staff. Kremer gets the ball in game two, and he’s been tough on the Royals in his career: five starts, a 2.96 ERA, and a WHIP right around 1.000.
That said, a few Royals hitters have seen him well. Salvador Perez owns a .970 OPS against Kremer, with a double and a homer.
Michael Massey has done even more damage, carrying a 1.429 OPS with two doubles. Josh Rojas has also been a problem for Kremer, posting a 1.467 OPS with two hits and two walks.
Minter hasn’t seen much of Kansas City, but he hasn’t given up a run in three innings against the Royals. Hoffman has faced them seven times and has a 1.29 ERA with two saves.
Perez has been one of the bright spots in the lineup since the All-Star break after a rough first half. In 16 games, he’s hit .250/.338/.567 with a .905 OPS and a 144 wRC+.
He has 15 hits in that span, and eight of them have gone for extra bases: five homers, two doubles, and a triple. In the last series against the Twins, he went 4-for-13 and picked up his first triple of the season, and his first since 2022.
Bobby Witt Jr. is also expected to return to the lineup this series.
In Other News...
Royals Bullpen Problems Just Forced A Move Fans Saw Coming
Kansas Citys bullpen had been shaky enough that a change felt inevitable, and the latest move reflected just how little margin the Royals have left in the late innings. Left-handed reliever Matt Strahm, in the middle of a rough second stint with the club, had been hit hard by home runs and struggled to hold up in high-leverage spots, which made his 7.32 ERA in 41 appearances hard to overlook for a team trying to stay afloat.
The roster shuffle opened the door for Jose Cuas, who was brought up from Triple-A Omaha as the Royals reworked the 40-man picture and bought themselves a short window to decide the next step. For Strahm, the coming week now becomes a waiting game, with Kansas City weighing whether another club sees enough to trade for him or whether he clears waivers and moves on from a frustrating stretch that never found much traction. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Left Fans With One Bigger Deadline Frustration
The Royals did make a handful of moves around the trade deadline, including the departures of Lane Thomas and Kris Bubic, and they added a cluster of arms to bolster pitching depth. Lucas Braun, Carter Holton, Nolan Hoffman, Carlos Duran and Nate Pearson all came in as part of that effort, giving Kansas City more inventory to work with as it tries to patch together a deeper staff for the stretch run.
Still, the bigger frustration for fans was what did not happen. John Schreiber and Starling Marte stayed put even though they were widely viewed as the kind of rental pieces contenders often move, leaving the Royals with fewer obvious deadline wins than expected. The result is a familiar one for a team still trying to climb back into serious contention: some useful additions, a few outgoing pieces, and the sense that the most meaningful roster work may have to wait for the offseason. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Just Made Their Deadline Priorities Impossible To Ignore
The Royals did not exactly disguise their thinking at the deadline. By holding onto Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo despite outside interest, Kansas City made it clear that controllable starting pitching still mattered more than a quick reset, especially with both arms under team control through 2027 and carrying team options for 2028. In a season where the rotation has been one of the clubs more stable pieces, that kind of long view says plenty about how the front office is trying to balance present needs with future value.
Even so, the move that really defined the deadline was aimed elsewhere, because the bullpen has been the more pressing problem. Kansas City has been dealing with injuries and a relief group that has simply not held up well enough, so the focus now shifts to whether the additions the club did make can help steady those late innings. The deadline left the Royals with a clearer sense of what they believe in, but also an even clearer reminder of what still has to be fixed. [Read more 🡒]