KANSAS CITY -- Royals pitcher Alec Marsh, sidelined since the start of spring with right shoulder soreness, suffered a ¡°minor setback¡± in his rehab down in Arizona earlier this week, manager Matt Quatraro said on Saturday.
Marsh felt soreness in his shoulder occurring again while warming up for his second inning on Thursday during an outing in extended spring training, where he¡¯s continued his progression after the team broke camp there last month.
The 26-year-old righty will be shut down for 7-to-10 days before the Royals re-evaluate him and decide the next steps. Hopefully, rest is all Marsh needs and he can get back to his build-up fairly quickly.
¡°Same shoulder he was dealing with before, so we¡¯re just going to try to be cautious,¡± Quatraro said.
Marsh entered Spring Training dealing with a right shoulder injury that he felt during his offseason throwing program. He faced hitters for the first time on March 9 and had built up to Minor League game action by the time the Major League team was leaving to begin the season. Marsh stayed in Arizona to continue building innings until the setback this week.
Ideally, Marsh would have been built up to multiple innings in extended spring training before the Royals sent him on a rehab assignment to one of their affiliates, and they were targeting late April or early May for a potential return for him. This setback makes that timeline a little more unclear.
The Royals envision Marsh helping out their pitching staff in some capacity in 2025 after pitching in their rotation for a majority of ¡®24. He posted a 4.53 ERA across 26 games (25 starts) for the Royals last year in his first full season in the Majors.
Minor League trade
The Royals made a minor trade Saturday morning, acquiring infielder/outfielder Nick Gordon from the Orioles and sending cash considerations.
Gordon was with the Orioles¡¯ Triple-A team and will head to Triple-A Omaha for the Royals. The organization wanted a bit more depth, especially with someone who can move around the field like Gordon, after Tyler Tolbert joined the Royals in Kansas City for his big league debut this week, replacing the injured Dairon Blanco.
With Blanco out for an indeterminate amount of time as he recovers from right Achilles tendinopathy -- an injury for which he received a PRP injection on Friday -- the Royals wanted to protect themselves in Triple-A with the versatility that Gordon brings as an infielder and outfielder.
Gordon, 29, has a .274/.328/.384 slash line across parts of 10 seasons in the Minor Leagues. The son of Tom Gordon, who pitched for the Royals from 1988-95, Nick was drafted fifth overall by the Twins in the 2014 Draft. He made his big league debut for Minnesota in 2021 and slashed .250/.293/.392 over 752 plate appearances for the Twins between the 2021-23 seasons before playing with the Marlins in 2024. With them in the Majors, he hit .227/.258/.369 in 260 plate appearances.