Kansas City Royals News: Royals release Asa Lacy

Lacy, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2020 Draft, came to the Kansas City organization as a highly touted left-handed pitcher from Texas A&M who, on stuff alone, showed the potential of a frontline starter. The Royals gave him a $6.67 million signing bonus, a franchise record for a drafted pitcher. He was ranked as high as No. 30 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospects list in 2021, his first full season in professional baseball.

But Lacy never found the command to allow him to take a step forward in his early seasons, and then injuries took over, including a lat/shoulder injury in 2021, a back injury in ‘22 and ‘23 and two Tommy John surgeries — one in the offseason after the ‘23 season and one in ‘25. He’s still rehabbing from the second one. Jaylon Thompson writes about Jonathan India hitting the Injured List. The Royals are hopeful India isn’t sidelined long-term. For now, he will meet with team doctors to determine the severity of the injury. “It’s a chronic shoulder issue that he’s had,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “You know, it just wasn’t getting better this year. He aggravated it a few times on dives. And it’s loose. It’s something he’s gonna have to get checked out and see if we can help him get through it.” Sam McDowell writes about in these dark times. (Woof) The 1914 World Series champion sat 14 games under .500 in early July. The Braves — and this is so long ago that they played their home games in — were baseball’s laughingstock, 11 straight losing seasons and barreling toward another before they suddenly and stunningly won 68 of their final 87 games to earn a spot in the World Series. Caleb Moody at Kings of Kauffman about ’s role as he was called up to take India’s spot. As someone who can play all around the infield and the corner outfield, there’s no shortage of places Loftin could make his mark in this lineup. In fact, as it stands right now, there’s plenty of places he can occupy that the Royals don’t fair well in in comparison to the rest of the league.