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Breakout Arm Tabbed Opening Day Starter for Kansas City

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The Kansas City Royals officially named Cole Ragans as the team’s Opening Day against the Minnesota Twins on March 28. This will mark Ragan’s first career Opening Day assignment while 2024 will serve as his first full season as a big league starter.

“We felt like we had a lot of good choices,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro told reporters. “But based on what he did here last year and how we feel about him and his future, and the pure stuff, we feel like this is the right decision for us to match up the best we can over the whole series with the Twins.”

Monday’s announcement, while not much of a surprise, continues an incredible story of triumph and perseverance for Ragans.

Royals Name Cole Ragans Opening Day Starter

The Royals acquired Ragans last June from the Texas Rangers for reliever Aroldis Chapman. The trade was meant to flip a veteran for an intriguing young arm with years of team control. While Ragans had upside as a former first-round pick, his time in professional baseball was anything other than encouraging.

The lefty underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2018 and again in 2019 when he tore his left elbow’s graft during the rehab process. The two surgeries caused Ragans to miss the entirety of both 2018 and 2019. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out his 2020 season, meaning Ragans missed three straight seasons of development.

That surely is not how many would recommend starting their professional career. However, Ragans displayed enough fortitude throughout his adversity and eventually made his MLB debut in 2022 with Texas. He did not perform well in nine starts that year and continued to struggle in 17 relief outings in 2023.

Despite the struggles, the Royals still saw enough potential and worked with him in the minors for several weeks. Clearly, the hard work, including adding a slider to his repertoire, paid off.

2023 Breakout in Kansas City

Ragans joined the team two weeks after the trade and made an immediate impact down the stretch. In his 12 Royals starts, Ragans tossed 71 2/3 innings with a 2.64 ERA (168 ERA+), a great 31.1 percent strike out rate and a 9.4 percent walk rate. He excelled with his slider and high 90s fastball that sat in the low 90s with the Rangers. A peak of his season was a 26-inning scoreless streak starting in late August.

Advanced metrics painted Ragans’ breakout success in a positive light. He was one of the hardest throwers in the league (average fastball velocity of 96.8 mph) while inducing whiffs and strikeouts at elite levels. He also limited barrels and hard contact while keeping the ball on the ground at solid rates. These underlying metrics indicate that Ragans’ success was not flukey and should carry over into future seasons.

Now at 26, Ragans will be tasked with starting on Opening Day and leading a revamped Royals rotation to hopefully a postseason appearance. While Opening Day is just one game out of 162, Ragans is not taking the assignment for granted.

“The hard work I’ve put in throughout the years, through the Tommy Johns, through the offseasons,” Ragans said. “This is what I’ve worked for, to be a big league starter, to be a guy the team believes in. That I can help win each and every day. It’s an honor.”

LWOB Opening Day Tracker

Last Word on Baseball is tracking every team’s Opening Day starter so you don’t have to. Check out our tracker here with real-time updates and quick analysis.

Main Photo: © Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

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