Kansas City Royals place Mike Minor on IL and shift to a five-man pitching rotation
The one veteran who remained in the Kansas City Royals starting rotation landed on the injured list on Wednesday.
The Royals placed left-hander Mike Minor, who has the fourth-most service time of any current Royals player and the only member of the rotation over the age of 24, on the IL with left shoulder impingement syndrome.
Minor had been listed as the scheduled starting pitcher for Wednesday night’s game against the Oakland Athletics at Kauffman Stadium. Instead, right-hander Carlos Hernández took Minor’s place.
Right-hander Scott Blewett has been recalled from Triple-A Omaha. This marks the third time since Aug. 26 that Blewett has been recalled. He hasn’t pitched in a major-league game this season.
Blewett made his major-league debut for the Royals last season during the pandemic-shortened season. He appeared in two games last season and allowed two runs on six hits and one walk in 3.0 innings.
Royals manager Mike Matheny said Minor’s shoulder issue came to his attention on Tuesday. Minor made his most recent start against the Orioles on Sept. 8 in Baltimore. Minor tossed six scoreless innings in that outing, and he didn’t allow a walk.
“He has been having things, like most guys have, throughout the season at different times,” Matheny said. “This one in particular, we found out (Tuesday) that he needed to get this taken care of and it was barking a little bit. We were able to shift around the guys and bump them up a day.”
Minor, 33, leads the Royals pitching staff in innings pitched (158 2/3), starts (28), strikeouts (149) and is tied for the team lead in wins (eight). He has posted a 8-12 record with a 5.05 ERA, a 1.24 WHIP and a 3.63-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Opposing hitters have batted .252 against him this season.
The Royals have used a six-man rotation since the middle of August when Brady Singer returned from the IL after having dealt with shoulder fatigue.
The Royals will still have a five-man rotation without Minor. Hernández replaced Minor as Wednesday’s starter, and left-hander Daniel Lynch will start on Thursday.
The Royals begin a three-game series with the Seattle Mariners on Friday, and right-hander Brady Singer, left-hander Kris Bubic and right-hander Jackson Kowar are scheduled to start in successive days in that series.
“We went into this season understanding there were going to be some demands that would be different coming off of a 60-game season,” Matheny said. “Every guy has had his little turn where we have needed to maybe pump the brakes a little bit.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2021 at 8:12 PM.
