Tony Gonsolin just made perfect first impression in bid for MLB comeback with Royals

The Kansas City Royals epic nine-game win streak may've come to close on Wednesday night, but it wasn't all doom an gloom in the organization. With FanGraphs briefly giving the Royals life earlier this week in the postseason race, part of the focus, even if just a small bit of it, has been on whether or not the Royals can pull off a miracle comeback, similar to the ones the Detroit Tigers achieved in 2024 and the Cleveland Guardians last season.

One area that looks particularly skeptical and could standing their way of achieving this long-shot feat is their starting rotation, which has been riddled with injuries this season. With Cole Ragans, Luinder Avila, Stephen Kolek, Ryan Bergert and Ben Kudrna all out for the season due to elbow surgeries, the Royals have leaned heavily on their quartet of Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, Noah Cameron and Randy Dobnak. They've also been forced to sacrifice their best reliever in Daniel Lynch IV in order to fill out their staff. But this is where Tony Gonsolin could come into play.

After signing with the Royals around two weeks ago, Gonsolin was slated to make his first rehab start with Triple-A Omaha on Wednesday. The former Dodgers All-Star has been out since June of last season recovering from elbow surgery and has made just seven MLB appearances since 2023 because of injury. However, he certainly didn't look rusty in his first outing in some time, as his Strom Chasers debut couldn't have gone better.

In a three scoreless innings of work last night against Iowa, Gonsolin didn't surrender a hit, walked just one and struck out three.

Now, there's still plenty of work Gonsolin still needs to do before his MLB comeback bid becomes a reality. However, it becomes easier to imagine with starts like this and at the very least, outings like this offer the Royals some peace of mind for their pitching depth in 2027 with his club option.

Could Tony Gonsolin make his Royals debut when rosters expand in September?

Whether their serious contenders for the postseason or not, MLB rosters expand from 26 to 28 teams on Sept. 1 and the starting rotation seems like a prime place for them to call upon.

Now, will Gonsolin be ready to roll by Sept. 1? Likely not, as it seems all but a guarantee that the Royals will want to take advanatge of getting him at least a start or two more in Omaha before the MiLB season ends. That being said, come Sept. 20, Omaha's season is over and there will still be games left to played for Kansas City before their regular season comes to an end. A late September Royals debut doesn't seem out of the question.

While Wednesday's showing was a good first impression for sure, the best test for the Royals to see what they have in Gonsolin is getting him back on a big league mound. Nobody should expect him to look like the All-Star force he was in L.A. when he threw to a sterling 2.14 ERA in 24 starts. However, even he is somewhere between his near-5.00 or 5.00 ERA marks from 2024 and '25 and his lights-out 2022 showing, the Royals would certainly welcome that type of production in the lower half of their rotation.

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