The Kansas City Royals entered Thursday's MLB trade deadline with an extremely bleak starting pitching situation. With ace Cole Ragans having been on the the injured list since the beginning of June, the Royals had also added both Michael Lorenzen and Kris Bubic to the shelf since the All-Star break - with Bubic reportedly being out for the rest of the season, as per Anne Rogers of MLB.com.
However, J.J. Picollo and the front office got to work on Thursday to fill the holes and bridge the gap until the respective returns of Ragans and Lorenzen.