KC Royals’ surplus of ex-Padres pitchers could open door to reunion

Kansas City’s 2025 felt like two seasons spliced together: a team that never quite had its front-line arms on the field at the same time, and a front office that quietly kept piling up rotation options anyway. The headliners barely shared the stage, Cole Ragans managed only 13 starts and Kris Bubic lost the second half to injury, yet the Royals still finished the year looking suspiciously like a club with more starting pitchers than openings. That combination of unmet potential and real depth tends to point in one direction when winter arrives: use the surplus to fix the lineup, and it’s exactly the kind of situation the San Diego Padres can exploit if a reunion is on the table.

If you’re the Padres, the situation in the Kansas City clubhouse is interesting. Two familiar names anchor the Royals’ present and complicate their future. Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, key 2023 contributors in San Diego before the Padres declined their options, both chose Kansas City in free agency. Add in two more Padres-adjacent arms, Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek, who went to K.C. at the 2025 deadline in the Freddy Fermin trade, and you’ve got a clean pipeline between these franchises. The result is a Royals staff with enough candidates to listen on pitching, and a Padres club that knows these arms, their routines, and how they’d slot into a plan on Day 1.

Royals depth on the mound could reopen Padres talks with familiar arms

The rotation math in K.C. tells the story. Assuming health, the 2026 starting five spots appear to be largely spoken for: Ragans and Bubic as lefty pillars, Lugo and Wacha as veteran right-handers, and rookie southpaw Noah Cameron as the favorite for the fifth spot. Behind that group lives a second tier of viable starters on affordable deals — Bergert, Kolek, Bailey Falter, and Kyle Wright, who give the Royals something most teams covet in October and monetize in November: credible, back-of-the-roster innings that can headline or sweeten a trade for offense.

The market context nudges Kansas City toward action. RosterResource pegs the 2026 payroll projection around $129 million. Simply picking up Salvador Perez’s club option would push them past last year’s number, and ownership appears reluctant to do that. Could non-tenders for pricier, less-productive arbitration cases like Jonathan India or reliever James McArthur loosen the belt a notch? Sure. But the cleanest cap relief is still moving a starting pitcher for a controllable bat, particularly one who hasn’t fully established himself but is ready for everyday reps.

We’ve already seen the template. Last winter’s Brady Singer–for–Jonathan India framework didn’t pan out as drawn. India scuffled while Singer churned out a respectable 32-start season in Cincinnati, but the intent was correct: deal from rotation excess to raise the contact and thump in the lineup. Run it back with a better match this time and the Royals could shop from multiple shelves. A Cameron graduation makes someone like Falter or Wright expendable. Dangle a cost-controlled flier like Bergert or Kolek and you’re talking about a swap for an equally controllable position player who needs a change of scenery. If K.C. really wanted to chase a bigger bat, they could even listen on Bubic, whose left-handed stability would draw a crowd.

So where do the Padres come in? With need, familiarity, and fit. San Diego’s path to upgrading its 2026 run prevention could include a back-end stabilizer who keeps the bullpen clean and the schedule honest. Lugo or Wacha would be expensive (and prying them loose might require Kansas City to target an impact hitter in return), but the reunion logic is obvious: both succeeded in San Diego, both are plug-and-play in Petco, and both would reduce variance for a team chasing October. If the price tag on the vets proves too steep, lower-cost reunions with Bergert or Kolek make sense as depth-plus-upside plays, arms the Padres already evaluated internally and could develop into multi-inning swingmen or spot starters while preserving resources for a bigger offensive add.

The Royals’ incentives align with that conversation. They need runs more than they need a seventh or eighth starter, and they’re navigating a tight payroll picture that rewards creativity. The Padres, meanwhile, know the inventory and the personalities, which speeds up trade talks and cuts down on guesswork. 

None of this guarantees a deal, but it does create a rare, tidy overlap: a pitching-rich club motivated to shop, and a contender with a clear use case for exactly the pitchers Kansas City has in surplus. If there’s a door to a reunion, this winter is when it’s most likely to crack open.