The Royals have cleared out five right-handed pitchers from the 40-man picture, outrighting Alex Lange, Mason Black, Connor Seabold, Alec Marsh and Easton McGee to Triple-A Omaha, according to the MLB.com transactions tracker. Seabold and McGee have already chosen free agency. Marsh and Lange are also eligible to go on the open market and are expected to do the same.
It’s the kind of roster churn that comes fast this time of year. Once the World Series wraps, players who qualify can become free agents, and the injured list disappears too.
That means clubs have to sort through 60-day IL cases, decide who gets added back to the 40-man roster, and make room for Rule 5-eligible players they want to protect. Plenty of fringe arms get squeezed out in the process.
Seabold, who turns 31 in January, came over from the Blue Jays in a June trade. The fit never really clicked.
He gave up five earned runs in five innings before landing on the injured list with a lat strain. He began a rehab assignment in September, but he was still injured when the season ended.
Because he had a previous career outright, he had the right to elect free agency.
McGee, 29 in December, arrived from the Brewers in a July trade and spent the rest of the season bouncing between Triple-A and the majors. In Kansas City, he threw 9 1/3 innings and allowed nine earned runs. He, too, had a prior outright, which gave him the chance to elect free agency.
Lange’s path is a little different, but the result is the same. The Royals signed him as a free agent last November after the Tigers let him go following shoulder surgery that wiped out most of his 2024 and 2025 seasons.
Kansas City hoped for a rebound, but it didn’t happen. He worked 60 innings for the Royals this year and finished with a 6.75 ERA.
With at least three years of service time, he can also elect free agency.
Marsh has been in the organization his entire pro career after Kansas City drafted him in 2019. He gave the Royals 203 1/3 innings with a 4.96 ERA across the 2023 and 2024 seasons, but injuries have kept him off the field since.
Shoulder problems kept him on the injured list through 2025, and he later had labrum surgery in November of that year. He spent all of 2026 rehabbing and has not appeared in an official game in two years.
Like Lange, he has enough service time to become a free agent.
Black is the one who could stick around. Acquired from the Giants in a November trade last year, he moved between Triple-A and the majors this season.
In the big leagues, he logged 31 1/3 innings with a 4.31 ERA, though the underlying numbers were rougher: a 13.4% strikeout rate, a 14.1% walk rate, a .253 batting average on balls in play and an 82.6% strand rate. His 6.48 FIP and 5.82 SIERA point to worse results than the ERA showed.
Unlike the others, Black cannot elect free agency. This is his first career outright, his service time is under three years, and he also does not qualify for seven-year minor league free agency because he has only played five minor league seasons. Kansas City can keep him in a non-roster role and see whether it can help him rediscover the form that made him one of the top ten prospects in the Giants’ system a few years ago.
Back then, in 2022 and 2023, he threw 235 2/3 minor league innings with a 3.48 ERA, a 29.8% strikeout rate and a 9% walk rate. Since then, he has posted a 5.45 ERA in 265 2/3 minor league innings, with a 21.5% strikeout rate and a 10.4% walk rate. His major league ERA now sits at 5.53.
In Other News...
Royals May Need A Bigger Outfield Swing Than Fans Expected
The Royals offseason outfield search may be more aggressive than it first sounded, and Steven Kwan is the kind of player who makes sense on paper. He brings defensive versatility, gives a lineup a steadier left-handed presence, and has the kind of all-around profile that would fit neatly into a Kansas City roster looking for more certainty in the corners and center field. His projected salary also matters, because the Royals have to balance upgrading a clear weak spot with keeping the rest of the payroll flexible.
Kwan is also the sort of name that immediately raises the price, since he would come from a division rival in Cleveland. Any pursuit would likely come with an in-division premium, which is part of why this remains more of a fit-and-fit only conversation than a real transaction at this stage. Still, the fact that he keeps surfacing speaks to how badly the Royals may need to swing bigger than a simple depth move if they want the outfield to look materially different next season. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Suddenly Have A Tough Nate Pearson Decision This Winter
Nate Pearsons arrival gave the Royals a useful arm at a time when they could use one, and for a stretch it looked like Kansas City had found a steady fit for a reliever with a long major league track record. The right-hander, drafted by the Blue Jays in 2017, has spent much of his career working through injuries and bouncing between clubs, but after being designated for assignment by the Astros and dealt to the Royals in 2026, he delivered strong work over his first 20 outings in Kansas City.
The late-season downturn, though, leaves the club with a tougher winter call than it might have expected when it acquired him. Pearson is still arbitration-eligible for one more season, which puts the Royals in the familiar spot of deciding whether to keep a pitcher with upside and risk, or move on before a non-tender deadline turns the question into a formality. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Should Be Watching This Playoff Roster Lesson Closely
The 2024 postseason has offered a useful reminder that modern October baseball still rewards teams that can pair starting pitching with a deep, adaptable bullpen. The Rays and Brewers have both shown how much value there is in having a roster built with flexibility in mind, and they also illustrate another common thread among contenders: a lot of those useful pieces were brought in via trade rather than drafted and developed in-house.
For the Royals, that lesson lands with real relevance. If they want to close the gap on the teams playing deep into October, the path may not be only about waiting for internal growth to take over. It may also mean finding the right opportunities to add starting pitchers and bullpen help, while being willing to use trades more aggressively to shape a roster that can hold up when the games matter most. [Read more 🡒]