Thursday, June 19

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ARLINGTON -- Two weeks after Cole Ragans felt the shoulder soreness that has him currently on the 15-day injured list, the Royals lefty has an idea of when and how he might be able to get back on the field.

While in Texas this week, Ragans received a second opinion on his diagnosis, which is standard practice for players. The evaluation showed what the Royals originally thought: Ragans is dealing with a rotator cuff strain, but it isn’t severe enough to require more than rest and recovery.

After not having thrown for more than a week now, Ragans will continue to be shut down for three more weeks. He’ll be re-evaluated at the beginning of July. If that scan goes well, Ragans will begin his throwing progression.

So, Ragans’ return certainly isn’t imminent. The Royals won’t be looking at getting their ace back into the rotation until well after the All-Star break.

But all things considered, it’s pretty good news.

“Could be a lot worse,” Ragans said. “Obviously, I don’t want to be on the IL. I want to be out there helping this team and these guys. But it could be a lot worse.”

Ragans has now been on the IL twice this year. He skipped a start at the end of April with a left groin strain, which lingered into May and caused a 20-day IL stint. After his first start off the IL on June 5 against the Cardinals, Ragans felt discomfort in his shoulder.

He’s been on the IL for the rotator cuff strain since June 11 (retroactive to June 8).

A year after finishing fourth in American League Cy Young voting, Ragans has a 5.18 ERA across 10 starts (48 2/3 innings) this season. The 27-year-old wants nothing more than to get back on the mound, find better results and help the Royals win.

But he doesn’t want to rush it, and now he has an idea of what the next steps are in his recovery.

“I think it gives us more of an idea of what I can do to set a plan,” Ragans said. “It gives you little things to look forward to through it. It still sucks. I want to be out there. I haven’t had the best year so far, so I’m itching to get back out there. But you also can’t rush something like this. It could be a heck of a lot worse. I’m trying to take it day by day. That’s our motto here, which feeds right into it. I’m going to be the biggest cheerleader in the dugout and try to help these guys any way I can.”

An injury like this is something the Royals didn’t have to deal with last season, but it makes the emergence of rookie Noah Cameron even more important, along with what the Royals hope is continued health from Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Kris Bubic and Michael Lorenzen.

“We know we’re going to need depth,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “And we’ll probably be challenged again with depth at some point. But to have Noah here -- we were in a spot where we didn’t know which way we were going to go, whether it was a five- or six-man rotation [before Ragans got hurt]. To have it be as seamless as it was, that’s good for us.”

Vinnie Pasquantino has never been caught when attempting to steal a bag.

OK, so he’s only attempted three times in his career. That didn’t stop him from being proud of his stolen base against the Rangers on Tuesday, one that didn’t even prompt a throw from Texas catcher Jonah Heim. With Salvador Perez at the plate against Rangers righty Jack Leiter, it was a well-timed swipe from Pasquantino, who scored from second shortly after on Perez’s double.

Pasquantino gave a lot of the credit to first base coach Damon Hollins for the awareness and preparation of the situation.

“For a guy like me, it’s few and far between, but there are opportunities to do it,” Pasquantino said. “And he does a good job of picking out those opportunities of knowing. We had an idea last night that it might be the night. Typically pitchers are slower to home plate when I’m at first, especially when Sal’s up, because they’re so focused on him, and I’m usually not going anywhere.”

Jac Caglianone got to reunite with one of his college buddies this week with the Royals visiting Texas. Two years before Caglianone became a Royal, he watched his Florida teammate Wyatt Langford become the No. 4 overall pick in 2023 by the Rangers.

Caglianone and Langford followed similar paths, at least in terms of quickness to the big leagues. Langford made his debut on Opening Day in 2024, nine months after he was drafted; Caglianone’s came on June 3 in St. Louis, 11 months after the Draft.

The pair became close at Florida, where Langford was a year older. During his freshman year, Caglianone was determined not to be beat to the weight room. If the workout started at 6:15 a.m., Caglianone was there at 5:30 a.m. The only person to ever beat Caglianone to the weight room would be Langford.

The competition pushed Caglianone, and he learned a lot from Langford just by observation.

“Wyatt’s not somebody who’s going to lead with his voice, he’s going to lead by example,” Caglianone said. “And that kind of rubbed off on me. But if he talked, he was fired up, and you better have made sure you were listening.”

When Caglianone made his debut against the Cardinals earlier this month, he texted Langford after each of the games.

“I was like, ‘Dude, I don’t know what to do. I’ve hit balls hard, but these guys are good,’” Caglianone said. “He said, ‘Yeah, that’s part of it. But you’ll figure it out. You’re fine. As long as you keep hitting the ball well, it’ll be OK.’”

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