After missing the playoffs in 2025, the Kansas City Royals are exploring all avenues on how to make it back. Originally, trading away All-Star Cole Ragans seemed to be one of the Royals' options.
However, Kansas City has decided to have a change of heart. When teams have called about a Ragans trade, they have been vehemently shut down, via Buster Olney of ESPN.
“Other teams that have asked about Cole Ragans in any deal say the Royals fully intend to keep the lefty,” Olney wrote.
Ragans is under team control through the 2029 season, which would only increase the haul Kansas City would get in a trade. But at the same time, the right-hander is earning a modest $4.5 million in 2026. For a franchise like the Royals, having a player of Ragans' caliber lead their rotation for the foreseeable future may be more beneficial.
Injuries limited the righty to just 13 starts in 2025 and affected his output. However, Ragans put himself on the map with an All-Star campaign in 2024. Over a career-high 32 games, Ragans pitched to a 3.14 ERA and a 223/67 K/BB ratio. Every rotation in the league would get better if you added that kind of production into it.
That goes for the Royals as well. Things can always change over the course of an offseason. If Kansas City is offered a king's ransom deal they simply can't turn down, then perhaps Ragans will be on the move. But as it stands, that isn't a apart of the Royals' plans. They plan to march into Opening Day with Ragans firmly in their rotation.
