The Kansas City Royals’ pitching staff faced a plethora of injuries in 2025. One of the most notable instances came in their bullpen with one of their high leverage trio members, Hunter Harvey.

After barely pitching in 2024 with the Royals, following his arrival ahead of that season’s trade deadline from the Washington Nationals, due to a nagging back ailment, Harvey only managed to appear in 10.2 innings in 2025.

This meant, despite all the fanfare of how he was supposed to help shape a formidable backend trio in Kansas City’s ‘pen alongside Carlos Estévez and Lucas Erceg, all that Harvey had to his name as a Royal was 16.1 innings of work.

But in those 16.1 innings, specifically in his 10.2 innings in 2025, Harvey looked great. So, when news broke on Saturday that he’d signed with the Chicago Cubs for the 2026 season, there seemed to be an overwhelming sense that his time with the Royals never even got the chance to even really get started.

Hunter Harvey never got the chance to shine with the Royals

As mentioned earlier, when Harvey did take the mound for Kansas City in relief in 2025, he looked every bit like the top-tier high leverage arm that Royals fans had hoped he’d be for more than just 10.2 innings, making him a decent reunion candidate in free agency this winter.

Before going down with a with a right teres major strain in the earlier stages of April, Harvey tossed to a perfect 0.00 ERA with a 0.19 WHIP, .059 BAA and 11.81 K/9. Then, upon his return in July and into August, in his second 5.1 inning installment to his season, the 31-year-old kept his perfect ERA intact and paired it with a 1.13 WHIP and .238 BAA before his season ended due to a right adductor strain.

This meant that his season stat line sat at a 0.00 ERA, 0.66 WHIP, .158 BAA, 9.28 K/9 and 0.84 BB/9. Not too shabby to say the least, if you can look past the poor injury record.

But that’s just the thing, it’s hard to look past an injury record like his. In a year-and-a-half in Kansas City he only managed to put together a body of work that many relievers could confidently post in under two months.

Royals fans are now left with a pretty substantial “what if” situation here. What if Harvey’s back had held up enough to be part of the 2024 postseason bullpen? What if Harvey’s injuries didn’t force the Royals to cycle through a rotating cast of set-up men in 2025?

Who knows what the future will bring, but at least for now, “what ifs” are all Royals fans will have to go off of when they look back at the Hunter Harvey era in Kansas City.

And that’s unfortunate.