The Royals announced that they have avoided arbitration with right-hander Kyle Wright and also signed new deals with lefties Evan Sisk and Noah Cameron. Wright’s deal is for $1.8MM, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. The salaries for Sisk and Cameron haven’t been reported but they are pre-arb players and likely set to make something near the $760K league minimum.
Wright’s $1.8MM salary is the same he made in 2024. He missed the entire season while recovering from a shoulder surgery he underwent in October of 2023, still with Atlanta at that time. It was known that he wasn’t going to be a factor this year but the Royals traded for him anyway in a long-play move.
Under the arbitration system, a player’s salary almost never goes down, so the Royals had likely planned on something like this. Wright can be retained through 2026, so they have effectively committed $3.6MM over a two-year period to get his services in 2025, with a chance at keeping him around another year as well.
There’s risk coming off a notable surgery and lost season but Wright will be a bargain at those price points if he can get back to his 2022 form. That year, he tossed 180 1/3 innings across 30 starts for Atlanta. He allowed 3.19 earned runs per nine with a 23.2% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 55.6% ground ball rate. His shoulder problems limited him to a 6.97 ERA in 31 innings in 2023 before the surgery wiped out the entire 2024 campaign.
The Royals had a strong rotation this year but just traded Brady Singer to the Reds to get Jonathan India and Joey Wiemer. They currently have Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha in three rotation spots. Assuming Wright is healthy and back in form, he’ll be a strong candidate for a back-end spot. His competition will likely come from Kris Bubic and Alec Marsh. Bubic missed most of 2023 due to Tommy John surgery but returned this year and posted strong numbers out of the bullpen. Marsh had a solid 4.53 ERA at the back of the rotation in 2024, logging 129 innings.
