{"id":706177,"date":"2026-05-23T00:57:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T00:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/706177\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T00:57:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T00:57:40","slug":"royals-cole-ragans-nears-return-with-a-triple-a-rehab-start-after-elbow-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/706177\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals&#8217; Cole Ragans nears return with a Triple-A rehab start after elbow injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 Kansas City Royals left-hander Cole Ragans is expected to make a rehab start at Triple-A Omaha on Saturday as he works his way back from an elbow injury, the team announced on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The plan is to have him throw four or five innings, or 60 to 65 pitches.<\/p>\n<p>Ragans was placed on the 15-day injured list on May 8 with what the team described as a left elbow impingement.<\/p>\n<p>He was pulled from a game against Cleveland on May 6 after throwing 58 pitches in three scoreless innings because of left triceps and elbow soreness.<\/p>\n<p>Ragans is 1-4 with a 4.84 ERA this season. <\/p>\n<p>Ragans had Tommy John surgery in March 2018 while in the Texas minor league system, then tore the grafted ligament during his rehabilitation and had a second Tommy John in May 2019. He returned to the major leagues in August 2022.<\/p>\n<p>He was traded to Kansas City in August 2023 and became a first-time All-Star in 2024, going 11-9 with a 3.14 ERA in 32 starts. He was sidelined between June 5 and Sept. 17 last year because of a strained left rotator cuff.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Cole Ragans throws during the...\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"770\" height=\"433.125\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779497860_420_image.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Cole Ragans throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians, Wednesday, May 6, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. Credit: AP\/Charlie Riedel<\/p>\n<p>The team also said that reliever Carlos Est\u00e9vez has a right rotator cuff strain after he experienced shoulder discomfort during a rehab appearance on Wednesday and will be shut down for three weeks. Est\u00e9vez remains on the 15-day IL.<\/p>\n<p>The Royals also recalled infielder Tyler Tolbert from Triple-A Omaha and designated catcher Elias D\u00edaz for assignment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 Kansas City Royals left-hander Cole Ragans is expected to make a rehab start at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[5,1648,936,2123,55,2596,2595,4,252,2524],"class_list":["post-706177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kansas-city-royals","tag-baseball","tag-health","tag-kansas","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-kansascity","tag-kansascityroyals","tag-mlb","tag-royals","tag-wires-bot"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116621177580768228","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706177","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=706177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}