Kansas City selected the contract of veteran infielder Josh Rojas from Triple-A Omaha on Wednesday, June 4, 2026, and cleared the roster path by moving Jonathan India to the 60-day injured list and placing Stephen Kolek on the family medical emergency list.
The move gives the Royals another left-side and middle-infield option at a time when they can use one. Rojas, 31, has played parts of seven big league seasons and has more than five years of major league service between Arizona, Seattle and Chicago. He can handle second base and third base, and Kansas City has been searching for steadier production at second after its players there combined to a.201/.271/.363 line this season.
Rojas spent the 2026 season with Omaha, Kansas City’s top minor league affiliate, and put up a.246/.309/.433 line in 189 plate appearances. His month-to-month shape was better than the full-season line suggests: he struck out just 12.9% of the time over the past month, and five of his six home runs in 2026 came in his past 20 games. That is part of why the Royals are willing to look again, even after his recent major league results were poor and even though he hit.211/.288/.313 in nearly 700 plate appearances across 2024 and 2025.
The roster opening mattered as much as the performance. India’s shoulder surgery in April ended his season, and Kolek’s placement on the family medical emergency list removed another active player from the mix. Michael Massey has taken most of the second-base work so far, while Jonathan India and Nick Loftin combined for 106 plate appearances there before India went down. Isaac Collins and Tyler Tolbert also logged one plate appearance each at second. For now, Rojas, Massey and Loftin are the likeliest group to share the job, with Rojas also able to spell Maikel Garcia at third base.
The next question is not whether Rojas can get into the lineup. It is how long he stays there. He is about two months shy of six years of service time and would be eligible for free agency at season’s end if he remains with the Royals the rest of the way, which gives Kansas City a decision point that will come sooner rather than later.
