Royals left-hander Kris Bubic setback extends rehab timeline after cortisone shot

Kris Bubic’s attempt to move closer to a return for the Kansas City Royals has hit another speed bump. The left-handed starter, already in a rehab assignment, was scratched from his next scheduled game after shoulder soreness surfaced in the recovery process, according to MLB Trade Rumors’ review of the injury tracking updates.

MLB Trade Rumors reported that Bubic received a cortisone shot as part of the medical response and that he will be shut down for another seven to ten days before the team attempts to ramp him back up again. That means the rehab clock restarts, and Kansas City’s timeline for getting a full workload from one of its veteran pieces of the rotation remains uncertain.

The Royals’ difficulty is not only that Bubic is unavailable, but that the kind of pitching recovery he is undergoing typically requires repeated build-and-assess steps. After a pause, clubs look for tolerance to throwing volume and how the shoulder responds during the next progression, then determine whether a new rehab outing is safe. If soreness returns during that ramp-up phase, the setback can extend beyond the initial shutdown window.

Additional reporting out of the Kansas City area and from described Bubic being removed from a rehab start with left-shoulder soreness, reinforcing that the issue was significant enough to alter plans immediately rather than simply work around it. Fantasy-oriented industry updates also aligned with the medical sequence, describing a cortisone injection following the scratch.

Bubic’s absence has broader roster implications for Kansas City because rotation depth is often tested when a starter is in limbo. In the short term, the Royals can cover innings with bullpen usage and spot starts, but extended gaps typically increase the load on other pitchers and raise the chance that additional arms require managed workloads later.

For Bubic, the next key step is straightforward: he has to progress through the post-injection shut down and then attempt another ramp-up phase. The most important question to watch is whether shoulder soreness stays controlled as he increases throwing intensity, which would report that the recovery is trending in the right direction.

For the Royals, the baseball watch now shifts to how the organization balances short-term coverage with long-term health. A restart in the rehab process could come in stages, but the ultimate determinant will be whether Bubic can complete his build-up without another adjustment. Until then, Kansas City’s pitching plans will likely remain in flux.