{"id":629378,"date":"2026-03-18T03:57:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T03:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/629378\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T03:57:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T03:57:37","slug":"royals-name-cole-ragans-as-opening-day-starter-for-3rd-consecutive-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/629378\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals name Cole Ragans as opening day starter for 3rd consecutive season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 Cole Ragans will be on the mound once again as the Kansas City Royals begin their 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Ragans was named the Royals opening day starter for the third consecutive season when they take on the Atlanta Braves on March 27.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/fox4kc.com\/sports\/royals\/?ipid=wdaf_recirc_royals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Welcome to the City: More Kansas City Royals news on FOX4;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Welcome to the City&quot;}\"> Welcome to the City: More Kansas City Royals news on FOX4 <\/a><\/p>\n<p>He is the sixth Royals pitcher in franchise history to have three or more consecutive opening day starts.<\/p>\n<p>Since being traded from the Texas Rangers in 2022, Ragans has been one of the best pitchers in the American League.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, he was named an all-star for the first time in his career. His play earned him a three-year, $13.25 million contract extension with the Royals in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>In three seasons with the Royals, Ragans is 19-14 in 57 starts and a 3.32 ERA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/vinnie-pasquantino-becomes-first-player-020331777.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Vinnie Pasquantino becomes first player ever to hit 3 home runs in WBC; helps US advance;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Vinnie Pasquantino becomes first player ever to hit 3 home runs in WBC&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Vinnie Pasquantino becomes first player ever to hit 3 home runs in WBC; helps US advance <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>He dealt with an injury-plagued 2025 season that included a rotator cuff strain that placed him on the 60-day injured list.<\/p>\n<p>The Royals come into the 2026 season with high expectations. The 28-year-old will headline what is expected to be one of the best starting rotations in baseball that includes Seth Lugo, Noah Cameron and Kris Bubic.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fox4kc.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 Cole Ragans will be on the mound once again as the Kansas City Royals&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[46,5,230,936,2123,55,2596,2595,309,4,1357,252,2002,69,2122],"class_list":["post-629378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kansas-city-royals","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-baseball","tag-cole-ragans","tag-kansas","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-kansascity","tag-kansascityroyals","tag-kris-bubic","tag-mlb","tag-noah-cameron","tag-royals","tag-seth-lugo","tag-texas-rangers","tag-the-royals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116248172710690057","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}