Cole Ragans has struggled in his recent outings.
The Kansas City Royals lost to the Atlanta Braves 6-0 on Friday in their first game of the season. Royals ace Cole Ragans had an up and down outing, allowing four runs across four innings of work. He did strike out five hitters, however.
It's too early to overreact to one regular season start of course, but Ragans has struggled in recent action overall. The southpaw appeared in five games during spring training and recorded a lackluster 7.31 ERA. He did record 23 strikeouts, but his overall performance was underwhelming.
In 2025, Ragans struggled with injury trouble. He made only 13 starts as a result. In those outings he did not find much success, though. Ragans turned in a 4.67 ERA in 61.2 innings of work.
The last time Ragans was consistently successful was 2024. He finished fourth in American League Cy Young voting during the '24 campaign after pitching to a 3.14 ERA across 23 starts to go along with 186.1 innings on the mound.
Can Ragans return to that form soon?
Cole Ragans Trying to Find All-Star Form
Ragans still has the potential to be a star. Potential and actual results are different things, though. Ragans is trying to find his previous All-Star caliber form at the moment.
He still has the strikeout pitch working. Even in his up and down Opening Day start, Ragans still had five strikeouts. His 23 spring training strikeouts led the Royals.
Perhaps Ragans would benefit from less strikeouts and more all-around soft contact. In 2025, his 38.1 strikeout percentage was a career-high. However, his 39.4 hard-hit percentage was also a career-worst mark. His walk percentage was lower in 2025 than in 2024, but one has to wonder if throwing more pitches out of the zone could lead to a better chase percentage and improved results.
Whether it is that or something else, Ragans clearly needs to make a change. His impressive strikeout numbers will not mean too much if he is not consistently giving his ball club opportunities to win games.
In Ragans' defense, the Royals did not give him any run support on Friday against the Braves. Kansas City's lineup will have his back in future contests. The question is if Ragans will be able to step up as well.
It is far too early to panic, but Cole Ragans needs to prove he can still be a true ace in MLB this season.