Royals suffer another setback as promising rookie standout goes down injured

Kansas City Royals pitcher Ryan Bergert has been a revelation since arriving from the San Diego Padres, a steadying force for a rotation otherwise held together by duct tape and postseason dreams.

The rookie’s poise and production quickly earned him a spot in the conversation about the Royals’ long-term core, and expectations for 2026 are already sky-high. Unfortunately, it looks like Bergert won’t get the storybook ending to his rookie campaign, as Kansas City’s season winds down on a sour note.

Royals pitcher Ryan Bergert's 2025 season could come to a premature, unceremonious end.

MLB.com’s Anne Rogers reported on X that Bergert experienced forearm tightness during a Wednesday bullpen session, a setback that will almost certainly land him on the 15-day IL.

With so few games left on the schedule, that move would effectively shut down his 2025 campaign. The news cast a shadow over Kansas City’s 7-5 win against the Seattle Mariners, a reminder that even in victory, the team’s rotation questions linger.

Thankfully, Kansas City already has a contingency in place with right-hander Michael Lorenzen. The veteran shifted to the bullpen ahead of Wednesday’s game to help ease Cole Ragans back, with the two expected to piggyback for a starter’s workload.

Lorenzen hasn’t been particularly sharp in recent rotation turns, but with Bergert sidelined, he’s now the next man up to fill that void.

Bergert, along with fellow right-hander Stephen Kolek, joined Kansas City at the trade deadline in the deal that sent catcher Freddy Fermin to San Diego.

Since then, Bergert has logged 40.2 innings across eight starts with a 4.43 ERA and 3.76 FIP—numbers that look even better once you remove his lone clunker, an eight-run meltdown against Cleveland. Outside of that outing, he’s been remarkably steady for a rookie then cutting his teeth in a playoff race.

Drafted in the sixth round by the Padres in 2021 out of West Virginia, Bergert was already finding his footing as a starter before the Royals gave him a bigger stage to prove it.

Kolek and Bergert have already made the Fermin trade look like a win for Kansas City in 2025, with the real payoff still to come. Both arms are under team control through their prime years and should factor heavily into the 2026 rotation race.

Bergert was lined up for another start or two to solidify his case heading into the winter, but the forearm tightness cuts that short—leaving the Royals encouraged by his body of work but now monitoring how this setback shapes the start of his offseason.