Royals left-hander will be out for the remainder of the 2025 season after suffering a rotator cuff strain in his most recent outing, reports . The 27-year-old exited his start on Saturday in the third inning, later that somethings not right. He noted that he had been pitching through a stiff shoulder for a good portion of the season, but what he felt on Saturday was worse than stiffne s. The team , and further Tyler Johnson Jersey testing evidently found the injury to be quite serious. Thankfully for the young hurler, he is not expected to need surgery (per ) and hopes to have a normal offseason.The Royals have not yet transferred Bubic to the 60-day IL, but they will presumably do so as soon as they need to open up a spot on their 40-man roster. Most evaluators saw Bubic as a back-end starter in his prospect days, and thats pretty much who he was over his first three seasons, pitching to a 4.89 ERA in 67 games (57 starts) from 2020-22. He then mi sed most of 2023 and a good part of 24 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. When he returned in the latter half of 2024, he looked like a brand-new pitcher. Working out of the bullpen, he produced a 2.67 ERA in 27 games, striking out 32.2% of the batters he faced while walking only 4.1%. His four-seam fastball and changeup, always the bread and butter of his arsenal, looked better than ever, while he turned his slider into a sweeper and enjoyed tremendous succe s with the new breaking pitch. The Royals moved Bubic back into the rotation in 2025, and he didnt mi s a beat. While he wasnt as overpowering as he had been out of the bullpen, he was every bit as succe sful. Through 20 starts, Bubic pitched to a 2.55 ERA in 116 1/3 innings of work. He was named to the AL All-Star team earlier this summer. While his underlying metrics (3.06 xERA, 3.74 SIERA) suggested he wasnt likely to maintain a sub-3.00 ERA all season, there was no denying that Bubic was a breakout star. With Bubic, , , and atop their rotation, the Royals looked like dark horse postseason contenders, even with on the IL and arguably the least productive offense in the American League. By trading for and this , and by a potential trade chip in Lugo, the Royals signalled that they would be buying rather than selling ahead of this Thursdays trade deadline. However, their chances of leapfrogging the four teams ahead of them for a Wild Card berth are significantly lower without Bubic. Kansas City is down to four healthy starting pitchers now, and one of them is 45-year-old . In addition to Ragans and Bubic, and are also on the IL. The Royals have averaged fewer runs per game than any other team in the AL, and its starting to look like they just wont have enough healthy pitching to compensate for their pitiful offense. Caris LeVert Jersey