The Kansas City Royals and veteran right-handed starting pitcher Seth Lugo are closing in on a multi-year contract extension, ESPN reports. The deal is expected to pay about $46 million total for 2026 and 2027, with a vesting option for 2028, according to the New York Post.
Lugo, 35, has this season pitched to a 2.95 ERA/141 ERA+ with a 99 strikeouts and 32 unintentional walks in 113 innings. This comes on the heels of a 2024 campaign for Kansas City in which Lugo put up a career-best WAR of 5.4 and finished runner-up to Tarik Skubal of the Tigers in the American League Cy Young vote. For his career, Lugo has an ERA+ of 123 and a WAR of 19.1 across parts of 10 major-league seasons. His lone All-Star selection came last year, his first with the Royals.
At 52-54 on the year and solidly out of playoff position in the AL, the Royals were presumed to be trade-deadline sellers leading up to July 31. As such, Lugo, who would have become a free agent at season’s end assuming he turned down his $15 million player option for 2026, was the subject of much trade speculation. Not long ago, CBS Sports ranked Lugo as the No. 5 deadline trade candidate for this year. Now, though, he’s primed to be removed from the trading block and further tighten up what figured to already be a thin market for rotation help. As well, Lugo will no longer be a part of the 2025-26 free-agent class. Not unlike the current trade market, the upcoming offseason was light on front-end rotation help, and the loss of Lugo nudges matters further in that direction.
For the Royals, they keep in the fold a quality frontline starting pitcher as they no doubt hope to rebound back into contention in 2026 and beyond. In addition to Lugo, two other members of the Kansas City rotation — Cole Ragans and Michael Wacha — are locked up through at least 2027.
“We’re a much better team with Seth Lugo here than not here,” Royals president J.J. Picollo told reporters Friday, via the Kansas City Star. “Whether that’s just ’25 or ’26, if you move a guy like Seth Lugo, you better be really sure that you’re getting something back that makes this team significantly better. You take a guy like that out of your rotation, you’re not the same team.”
From the Royals’ standpoint, there is risk in committing to a pitcher into his late 30s, even one who has been as successful as Lugo has been on their watch. Speaking of which, Lugo this season has seen his fastball velocity, FIP, walk rate, and whiff rate all get significantly worse. The Royals, though, are betting that he’ll be able to stave off deep decline for the life of the deal.
As for Thursday’s trade deadline, starting pitchers including the Pirates’ Mitch Keller, Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara and Edwin Cabrera, Diamondbacks’ Merrill Kelly, and Zac Gallen are among those expected to be available.