The Royals have put right-handed reliever John Schreiber on waivers, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Any team that wants him has a 48-hour window to make a claim, and Schreiber can still keep pitching for Kansas City while the process plays out.
Schreiber is the latest player to land in this kind of limbo during a week that has already seen several waiver moves by non-contenders. The Reds placed Eugenio Suárez and TJ Friedl on waivers, and both went unclaimed.
The Mets did the same on Saturday with Luis Robert Jr. Schreiber now joins Robert in that holding pattern.
The 32-year-old is owed roughly $600K for the rest of 2026, which is his final season of team control. That cost is part of why he may draw interest now, since a claiming club would not need to surrender any trade return.
Schreiber’s path to Kansas City started in Detroit and Boston, and his peak came with the Red Sox in 2022. In 65 innings that season, he posted a 2.22 ERA with a 28.8% strikeout rate, a 7.4% walk rate and 22 holds. After a solid but injury-shortened 2023, Boston sent him to the Royals, where he has piled up 23 holds in each of his first two seasons.
The run prevention has been steadier than spectacular in Kansas City. Schreiber has finished every year with the Royals in the upper threes, including a 3.65 ERA over 49 1/3 innings in 2026. He has generated a 45.4% ground-ball rate, one of the best marks of his career, but the swing-and-miss and control numbers have moved the wrong way, with an 18% strikeout rate and an 11% walk rate.
The underlying metrics paint a similar picture. xFIP (4.52), SIERA (4.56), xERA (4.56) and FIP (4.87) all sit well below his actual results, and he has also benefited from a .254 batting average on balls in play. Those warning signs help explain why he went untraded before the Aug. 3 deadline.
If a club claims him now, Schreiber would have to join that team by Sept. 1 to remain postseason-eligible.
Kansas City beat the Guardians on Saturday and has gone 12-1 since Aug. 16, but the club still sits at 62-75, third-worst in the American League. The Royals are 11 games out in the AL Central and 6 1/2 back in the Wild Card race, yet they are still open to moving on from Schreiber with a month left in the season. If he clears waivers and finishes 2026 with the Royals, the expectation is that he would head to free agency over the winter.
In Other News...
Royals Stadium Plan Is Headed For A Decision Kansas City Can't Ignore
Kansas City leaders are bracing for a decision point on the Royals stadium future, with the citys role in the project now moving toward the center of the conversation. The plan calls for a $600 million public commitment toward a $1.9 billion ballpark, and the clock is ticking on what the City Council can do before the current deadline arrives.
The council has to act by August 31, but with no meetings scheduled before then, the path may shift to a citywide vote instead. If that happens, April 2025 has been discussed as a possibility, leaving the project in a holding pattern for now even as demolition and groundbreaking are aimed at 2027 and the new park is hoped to open by March 2030. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Enter 2027 With Pressure Mounting On One Key Decision
The Royals spent much of 2026 trying to dig out of a hole, and for a while it looked like the season might slip away entirely after a 38-59 first half. Instead, Matt Quatraros club steadied itself with a strong run over the second half, a reminder that the on-field product can still be competitive even when the roster around it feels thin. Kansas City had already missed the postseason the year before with an 82-80 finish, so the sense of urgency has only grown as the organization tries to turn progress into something more tangible.
What makes the conversation heading into 2027 so interesting is where the praise and the pressure have landed. Quatraro has earned credit for getting more out of a diminished group, while general manager J.J. Picollo has taken heat for not doing enough to shore up the offense or add pitching depth. The Royals now enter the next stage with one looming decision shaping the mood around the franchise, and plenty of eyes on whether the front office is prepared to match the managers work on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Wild Card Push Suddenly Has A Reason To Feel Real
The Royals keep finding ways to make this late-season surge look less like a hot streak and more like something sturdier. Kansas City beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-0 and has now won 11 of its last 12, a run that has pulled the club into a much better spot in the American League Wild Card race and given the standings a far more interesting look than they had just days ago.
The formula has been simple enough: keep games tight, let the pitching set the tone, and wait for the offense to do just enough late. Against Cleveland, the Royals did exactly that, and the win only deepens the sense that this push has real staying power. The question now is whether they can keep carrying that edge into the next stretch, when the margin for error gets even thinner. [Read more 🡒]