Royals shut down Seth Lugo for 2025 without "meaningful" impact left

The Kansas City Royals are staring down playoff elimination in the face, with only a singular win from the Houston Astros being able to eliminate the AL Central club from the playoff possibility.

There have been longer odds to win lotteries than Kansas City has to be a Wild Card team, but a sliver of remains. Unfortunately, there is no hope for pitcher Seth Lugo to return from the IL this season, according to manager Matt Quatraro.

Seth Lugo will not pitch for the Kansas City Royals again this year.

Quatraro announced following Sunday's series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays that Lugo will be shut down. The 35-year-old Lugo landed on that 15-day IL with a low back strain back on Sept. 4, and had a bullpen session on Sept. 15 that would have been a key step forward to an MLB return.

Unfortunately, he did not respond well, and the Royals are not going to push it with six games remaining in the season.

“He’s not going to pitch again,” Quatraro said. “It’s not getting better quickly enough to do anything meaningful for him to come out here and force it. So he’s going to be shut down.”

For Lugo, the 2025 campaign was a tale of two seasons. He started strong in the first half, making 17 starts with a 2.67 ERA and .660 OPS allowed across 101 innings.

But the second half was not nearly as kind, with a 7.51 ERA and .947 OPS allowed across only nine starts. The results were poor, and the process and arsenal looked completely different. The timing was inadequate, considering Kansas City extended Lugo ahead of the trade deadline in July.

The struggles can easily be explained away if he is pitching through a lower back issue, but there were plenty of poor outings before he landed on the IL.

Hopefully, a lengthy offseason will give Lugo time to heal and reset ahead of the 2026 season. He is firmly in Kansas City's future plans, considering he is under contract through the 2027 season, with a vesting option for the 2028 season.

ZiPS projects a rebound season for Lugo in 2026, with a 1.5 fWAR and 4.10 ERA across 26 appearances. That would pale in comparison to his 2024 season, where he finished second in AL Cy Young voting, but both those projected metrics would be noted improvements upon his 2025 numbers.