Royals News: Steven Cruz rehab assignment, Salvador Perez history, Low-A championship

The halfway mark of the final month of the 2025 season is upon us.

The Kansas City Royals sit 6.0 games back of the AL Wild Card spots with two weeks remaining in the campaign and looked poised to be on the outside looking in when October comes.

But even if that's the case and the Royals are doomed to reach the postseason, that doesn't mean the noteworthy news ends. There are still numerous storylines that the Royals faithful should be following as the season inches closer and closer to it's conclusion.

Royals News: Steven Cruz's productive Triple-A rehab assignment continues

While the injuries in the rotation to the likes of Cole Ragans, Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo may be dominating headlines at the moment, another key Royals arm is working his way towards a comeback.

After starting a rehab assignment last week, reliever Steven Cruz has been putting together quite the comeback effort in Omaha.

In three innings of work across as many outings out of Omaha's bullpen, Cruz has yet to surrender an earned run and has allowed just two hits, walked none and struck out a pair.

Given how strong he's looked, the odds of him making a return sooner rather than later seem strong, which would be a huge boost for whatever long postseason chances the Royals might have left.

Royals News: Salvador Perez continues to climb his way further up Royals all-time leaderboard

Salvador Perez stole headlines this weekend after becoming the eighth primary catcher in MLB history to reach 300 homers and just the 10th active player in the league to reach 1,000 RBI.

And after receiving an ultimate franchise tip of the cap from arguably the greatest Royals player of all-time in Hall-of-Famer George Brett, Perez continued to chase Brett as well as others up both the team's home run and RBI leaderboards on Sunday.

After homering twice on Saturday, Perez didn't skip a beat the following day after belting his 301st career home run, as well as bringing his career RBI total up to 1005 after his five RBI afternoon.

This now places the Royals' captain just 16 homers behind Brett for the franchise lead - who sits at 317 - and now just seven RBI behind Hal McRae for second all-time in Royals history - who sits at 1,012.

With two weeks left in the season, it's all but impossible Perez will belt the 16 homers required to tie Brett, but McRae's 1,012 seems well within reach with how hot he's been in recent games.

Royals News: Columbia Fireflies drop Game 1 of Carolina League Championship Series

After the Columbia Fireflies clinched a spot in the Carolina League Championship Series on Thursday, thanks to some heroics on the mound from teenaged sensation Kendry Chourio, they'd kick off the final chapter of chase for Low-A glory on Sunday.

However, after dropping Game 1, they'll have to buckle down with their backs against the wall if they hope to have a chance to capture some hardware.

The Lynchburg Hillcats, Cleveland's Low-A affiliate, would come out victorious in Game 1 at home by a 6-5 margin.

The Fireflies did their best to find a way back into Sunday's festivities, taking advantage of some errors and fielding decisions from the Lynchburg defense to erase a deficit and send things into extra innings.

But a walk-off RBI-double for the Hillcats though would prove as the knockout blow for the Fireflies who will now head back to Columbia needing to take full advantage of their homefield advantage to get back into this best-of-three series.

Game 2 gets underway on Tuesday at 6:05 CT at Segra Park, with the Royals' sixth overall prospect in David Shields getting the start.