Today the Royals announced that they agreed to a new contract with Cole Ragans through the 2027 season worth a little north of 13 million dollars. The Royals acquired Ragans in a trade with the Rangers for Aroldis Chapman at the 2023 trade deadline. Since making the addition, Ragans has shown great improvement and has earned his way into being the Royals ace at the top of the rotation. The team elected to lock Ragans into a contract for the next three years after his dominant season in 2024 where he finished 4th in AL Cy Young voting and 2nd in the AL in strikeouts.

Ragans was once a first-round pick for the Rangers in 2016 and worked his way through the organization until he made his first major league appearance in 2022. He struggled to crack the Rangers rotation, and he was dealt to the Royals in exchange for bullpen help. Ragans turned a corner in Kansas City in a variety of ways where he saw vast improvements across the board. The team made some significant changes to the approach for Ragans and helped him take a massive step in his development.

Between 2022 and 2023, Ragans saw major improvements in his fastball which ticked up 4 MPH and saw a significant increase in spin. The team also added a slider to mix for Ragans which has been incredibly effective for him and helped him be a more effective strikeout pitcher. These improvements transformed Ragans’ game from trying to force soft contact, to making him a very effective strikeout pitcher who can force swing and miss consistently.

The concern with Ragans is his injury history, as he has had to go through Tommy John surgery twice and there is some concern about his elbow’s stability for the future. But so far Ragans has shown no signs of slowing down and his elite production gave the team no choice but to lock him down for the next few seasons in Kansas City. If Ragans can stay healthy, he has proven to be one of the best starting pitchers in all of baseball with elite swing and miss stuff. Ragans is the first true ACE the Royals have had in some time, and the team hopes he will continue his success in Kansas City over the next three years.