Royals get long-awaited return of key high-leverage reliever, DFA versatile veteran

Amid the chaos of the upcoming trade deadline, with rumors flying about how the Kansas City Royals might improve their current roster in the coming days, they received an internal upgrade on Friday ahead of a crucial series against their AL Central rivals and fellow Wild Card competitors in the Cleveland Guardians.

The Royals announced Friday that Hunter Harvey would finally be making his return to the rotation after an over three-month spell on the injured list.

While Jonathan Bowlan was the active roster casualty for Harvey's arrival, the more noteworthy corresponding move was Cavan Biggio being designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster.

Hunter Harvey makes his long-awaited return to Royals bullpen

It's been a difficult journey for Harvey as Royal since being acquired by the team ahead of last year's trade deadline.

He only managed to get 5.2 innings of work under his belt after the trade in 2024 before hitting the shelf for the rest of the year with back tightness.

Then, upon finally gracing the mound again in 2025, he'd get just 5.1 innings of work in before a right teres major strain landed him on the 15-day IL in early April. It would then be series of set backs during the recovery process before his final rehab assignment finally took, providing the good news on Friday.

When he was on the mound for that brief period to start the season, he was excellent. In those six outings he posted a perfect 0.00 ERA along with a 0.19 WHIP and .059 BAA.

He'll provide much needed late-inning support for both Lucas Erceg and their All-Star closer in Carlos Estévez.

His arrival does mean that Jonathan Bowlan once again finds himself on the way back to Omaha. The 28-year-old has thrown to a 4.64 ERA, 1.27 WHIP and .225 BAA in 21.1 innings of work at the big league level.

Cavan Biggio is DFA'd to make room for Harvey's return

To make room for Harvey on the 40-man roster, the Royals were forced to cut someone, and that someone surprisingly happened to be veteran utility man Cavan Biggio.

If you were to just look at his major league numbers this wouldn't present itself as a surprise, as the 30-year-old was extremely disappointing to start the 2025 season. In 83 plate appearances across 37 games, he slashed just .174/.296/.246 with a 58 wRC+ and -0.2 fWAR.

But since his demotion to the minors, Biggio has looked strong in Omaha. In 41 games with the Storm Chasers, he was .285/.375/.464 with four homers, 23 RBI and a 120 wRC+.

While he hasn't proven his worth at the major league level in sometime, there were certainly other names on the 40-man roster that seemed like more obvious choices to get the axe. Joey Wiemer is the prime example that comes to mind, as he has just one MLB season to his name back in 2023 with Milwaukee - where he only posted a 77 wRC+ - and has been awful in Triple-A this season with a .185/.296/.324 slash line and 65 wRC+. Not to mention, Biggio provides positional versatility to Wiemer's strict outfield role.

What's next for Biggio remains to be seen, as while theoretically there's the possibility he accepts an outright assignment to Omaha if he clears waivers, odds are he'll likely opt for free agency in hopes of landing another major league opportunity elsewhere.