Kansas City Royals Lose Kris Bubic For the Season to Injury

Things have gone from bad to worse for the Kansas City Royals.

Already mired in last place in the American League Central at 4-16, the team has now lost starting pitcher Kris Bubic for the season to Tommy John surgery.

The 40th overall pick in the 2018 MLB draft out of Stanford was out to a good start this year for the Royals, pitching to a 3.94 ERA. Underlying metrics showed he was even better than that and had significant improvements in areas like velocity -- and he had developed a slider.

He struck out 23.5% of batters faced and walked just 2.9% in the early going of the season. He also saw his ground ball rate jump to 52.1% from 44.3% in prior seasons.

Bubic made his debut in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and has a lifetime record of 10-28 with a 4.85 ERA.

This is a brutal development for the Royals, who's focus this season is on prospect development, and Bubic, 25, was part of that, especially with his changes and improvements.

They'll continue to move forward with Brady Singer, Jordan Lyles, Brad Keller and Zack Greinke in the rotation. Ryan Yarbrough, formerly of the Tampa Bay Rays, figures to see a bump in innings as a result of this news as well.