Seth Lugo’s recent woes stand out, but here’s the real issue for the Royals
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Royals extended Seth Lugo before deadline, betting on his long-term value.
- Lugo allowed 15 runs in 3 starts post-extension, raising concern over form.
- Season-long issues—errors, base running, clutch hitting—continue to cost wins.
With the trade deadline looming just over two weeks ago, the Royals made a bold and creative move.
Instead of trading star pitcher Seth Lugo, who could have become a free agent after the season and would have commanded a substantial return, they effectively doubled down on the 2024 American League Cy Young runner-up.
In signing him to a lucrative extension, they at once bolstered their fading postseason chances this season and made him a pillar of their next few seasons.
It was a terrific move, actually, that energized a clubhouse and further reassured a fan base, because it further demonstrated how this Royals ownership group and front office regime are in sync — especially about investing in the present and future of a franchise that too often lacked that alignment in the past.
Trouble is, sometimes you do just the right thing for all the best reasons and it doesn’t play out like it should.
At least not right away in this case because of what might reasonably be considered a blip that just happens to come at a pivotal time.
In a more fair world, Lugo still would be thriving and the Royals would be a couple games better in the win column and not churning to stay in the AL Wild-Card race with a 60-61 record entering the weekend.
Instead, Lugo abruptly has gone from a 2.95 ERA before the extension to giving up 15 runs in 12.2 innings for a 10.66 ERA in his three starts since the trade deadline.
The latest confounding performance was on Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium, where he gave up five runs in the first inning and seven overall (six earned) in an 8-7 loss to Washington.
Between that and his last time out in particular, yielding seven runs in four innings against the Twins, it’s hard not to speculate that something is ailing Lugo — who was placed on the 15-day injured list in May with a strained right middle finger.
But after the game Wednesday, Lugo said he had “completely turned the corner” on that and that he feels good.
“Just need to execute better,” said Lugo, who walked four and gave up a first-inning grand slam and called the outing “pretty bad.”
To be clear, though, there are a lot of reasons the Royals lost this game to a bad Nationals team (48-72) that it should have swept.
Yes, Lugo was the most visible and puzzling part of it.
Really, though, this was about season-long themes. Like a glitch in the field, in this case a rare error by Bobby Witt Jr. that enabled an unearned run.
And an apparent baserunning gaffe, in this instance by John Rave. Manager Matt Quatraro defended Rave, saying he had to guard against being doubled off on Witt’s line single to right. But what seemed to be late recognition left Kyle Isbel stranded at third when he might well have scored.
Oh, and going 4 for 17 with runners in scoring position.
Any loss is a team loss, and maybe no one put it more aptly than Vinnie Pasquantino — who had four RBIs (and nine in two days) but thought more about the runners he stranded.
“Kind of starts with me,” he said. “Like, I had multiple opportunities with guys at third and less than two outs and didn’t come through. And that’s my job.
“So not being able to come through there, like, it’s probably the difference in the game.”
Add it all up and those sorts of differences in too many games are the difference between being in the thick of playoff contention and hovering uncomfortably off the scent.
While they took two out of three from the Nationals, the defeat also was their second in four days (each featuring another recent mini-trend of 30-save closer Carlos Estevez taking the loss) that felt like a giveaway.
Just when they can least afford to be so charitable.
They’re “running out of season,” as general manager J.J. Picollo put it on Monday.
For all that, the Royals still have ample time and the means to make up the ground — which was 4.5 games behind the third and final wild-card spot as of Wednesday afternoon.
After months of flailing offensively, they’ve found life at the plate: As of Wednesday, for instance, they’d scored five or more runs in 14 of their 24 games since the All-Star Break.
For the most part, they’ve managed what has lurked as a debilitating sequence of injuries to starting pitchers (Cole Ragans, Kris Bubic and Michael Lorenzen).
And they also seem to have prospered by acquiring the veteran leadership of Randal Grichuk, Mike Yastrzemski and Adam Frazier to fill what Picollo acknowledged Monday had been a void.
Based on conversations and observations of body language and reactions to losing, he said, it became “pretty apparent” six or seven weeks into the season that the Royals needed the stabilizing influence they hadn’t anticipated would be lacking among a still-young cast of position players that seemed to come of age last year.
Those new arrivals, Picollo said, have given the Royals “a shot in the arm.”
But it’s still a shot in the dark whether they can reach the postseason for a second straight year and just the fourth time since 1985.
The schedule says it’s still in their grasp. Or at least that they still have some say in it.
Starting Friday, with a three-game series against the White Sox, nine of their final 41 games are against the two worst teams in the American League. And starting next week, with a four-game set against the Rangers, they’ve got seven games left against the two teams directly in front of them for that final playoff slot.
The margin for error, though, is dwindling by the day.
Barring something we don’t know, everything about Lugo’s history as a starter these last few years tells you he’s going to be part of the potential solution in the weeks to come.
The bigger concern is whether the rest of this team gets around to being what we thought it was before the season — and what the franchise wants to be known for.
“When we think about Royals baseball, it’s pitching, defense, smart base running, situational hitting,” Picollo said. “And when we do those things, we can overcome other things.”
When they don’t, they can’t make up for an uncharacteristic slump from one of their most reliable performers.
This story was originally published August 14, 2025 at 5:30 AM.