Proper-hander Seth Lugo and the Kansas City Royals are finalizing a two-year, $46 million contract extension, sources informed ESPN, taking top-of-the-line potential commerce candidates off the market days earlier than the July 31 deadline and reaffirming Kansas Metropolis’s intentions to pursue a playoff spot in a wide-open American League.
The deal pays Lugo $20 million a season plus a $3 million signing bonus and features a vesting possibility for a 3rd season for $20 million or a $17 million membership possibility with a $3 million buyout, sources mentioned.
Lugo, 35, completed second in AL Cy Younger voting final season and has adopted with a equally glorious 2025, posting a 2.95 ERA over 113 innings. He was anticipated to say no a $15 million participant possibility for 2026 and attain free company, however Lugo expressed a need to remain in Kansas Metropolis and negotiated the extension to stay in one among baseball’s high rotations.
The emergence of Lugo was a key to Kansas Metropolis’s stunning postseason run in 2024. A June swoon through which the Royals went 8-18 this yr seemed to resign them to offloading potential free brokers on the deadline, however they’ve gone 13-8 in July and, at 52-54, are 4 video games behind Seattle and Texas for the ultimate wild-card spot within the AL.
Kansas Metropolis indicated its intentions to push towards a playoff spot when it acquired outfielder Randal Grichuk from Arizona on Friday for reliever Andrew Hoffmann. The Royals will accomplish that with a battered pitching employees. All-Star left-hander Kris Bubic hit the injured checklist with a rotator cuff pressure on Sunday, whereas ace Cole Ragans is likewise on the shelf with a shoulder damage, although he has began throwing and will quickly progress to bullpen periods. Proper-hander Michael Lorenzen is nearing a return from an indirect pressure and left-handed reliever Daniel Lynch IV is on a rehabilitation project, providing hope that the Royals’ pitching employees may very well be at full power for the stretch run.
Lugo will stay on the coronary heart of it. After making his debut with the New York Mets at 26 years previous, Lugo emerged as a strong reliever over his 5 years with the staff. He signed with San Diego in 2023 and transitioned to the rotation, going 8-7 with a 3.57 ERA and impressing Kansas Metropolis sufficient to warrant a three-year, $45 million contract.
With the widest array of pitches in baseball — Lugo throws two sorts of fastballs, three sliders, two curveballs, a changeup, a splitter and a cutter — he threw a career-high 206⅔ innings in his first season with the Royals, posting a 3.00 ERA.
Whereas Lugo’s peripheral numbers this yr have advised he is in line for a regression, his ERA ranks tenth within the AL and he has stabilized a employees that, when wholesome, is among the many finest within the main leagues with Lugo, Ragans, Bubic, Lorenzen, Michael Wacha and rookie Noah Cameron.