Late season luck turns bad for 4 former KC Royals

The luck of another former KC Royals player has been pretty bad this year.

Three years ago this December and seeking the kind of repair work Kansas City so often offers broken pitchers, former St. Louis star reliever Trevor Rosenthal signed a minor league contract with the Royals. The deal reunited him with KC manager Mike Matheny, the Cards’ skipper for whom he saved 45 games in 2014 and 48 in 2015.

Despite arriving in Kansas City after three straight subpar seasons and a 2018 campaign lost to a UCL injury, Rosenthal quickly became the club’s closer during the 2020 pandemic-shortened season and led the Royals with seven saves before a trade deadline deal took him to San Diego. He didn’t give up an unearned run and saved four more games for the Padres.

His 1-0, 1.90 ERA season made him such a hot offseason commodity that he secured a one-year, $11 million contract with Oakland.

But he underwent thoracic outlet syndrome surgery and never pitched for the A’s. The Giants took a chance on Rosenthal by signing him several weeks ago but, with him on the Injured List with a hamstring problem, traded him to Milwaukee just two weeks later.

Now it looks like gambling on Rosenthal’s health may not pay off for the Brewers this season. He’s developed a teres major problem that, per Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer Curt Hogg, may not allow him to return to the majors this year.

Rosenthal hasn’t thrown a big league pitch since 2020, which makes this latest news even more disheartening.

Four former Royals aren’t having good luck as the season winds down.