KC Royals: What Role Will Danny Duffy Play In 2016

The KC Royals won the World Series in 2015 behind an entire team effort. Certain sacrifices had to be made in order for this team to succeed, one of which involved Danny Duffy being moved to the bullpen.

Danny Duffy has been a fan favorite during his time in a Kansas City Royals uniform, but he struggled in 2015. It was especially disappointing after the impressive campaign Duffy had during 2014.

Yes, Duffy had a brilliant 2014 season, in which he started only 25 games, but ended the regular season with a 2.53 ERA in 149.1 innings pitched. If it weren’t for injuries, Duffy very well could have been one of the starters in the Royals rotation during the postseason that year, but instead he served as a long reliever out of the bullpen.

When 2015 rolled around, Royals fans had Yordano Ventura and Duffy pegged as the number one and two starters in the rotation. Neither guy lived up to that hype though, but Duffy struggled tremendously.

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In the month of May, Duffy pitched only three games and had an ERA of over 13. That’s bad. He later was placed on the DL and was out for several weeks.

Duffy had two impressive performances during the regular season. One was against Detroit in April when he pitched seven innings and only allowed one run. He later pitched eight innings against the White Sox in July. It would have been an eight inning shutout effort for Duffy, but with a 4-0 lead, he came back out for the ninth and gave up a home run to the first batter.

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Those two performances were the two that stood out for Duffy, but he didn’t fare very well for the duration of the season. One of the biggest problems Duffy has is that he can’t pitch very far into games. He doesn’t give the Royals innings, and he’s usually lucky to make it through five innings.

There’s no question that Danny Duffy is loved by Kansas City and by Royals fans, and everyone wants this guy to succeed, whether it be in the rotation or in the bullpen.

In fact, 2014 was the year in which Duffy pitched the most innings, and he was injured for quite some time that year. This year he pitched 136.2 innings in 30 total games (24 starts).

The question for next year is will Danny Duffy be back in the starting rotation or will he remain in the bullpen? The KC Royals don’t have many options for the starting rotation at this moment (Ventura and Edinson Volquez are the only locks) so it’s very possible that Duffy and Kris Medlen both rejoin the rotation in 2016.

On the flip side though, the Royals bullpen is lacking arms as well. Only Wade Davis, Kelvin Herrera, and Luke Hochevar are for sure going to be back in the pen next season. Duffy could be a possible left-handed pitcher out of the bullpen if Dayton Moore decides not to bring back Franklin Morales.

Duffy was a starter for the duration of 2015, but after a string of several poor starts, Ned Yost opted to remove him from the rotation and stick him in the bullpen. His first appearance as a reliever this season came when he pitched four innings and earned a save against the Tigers.

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There’s no question that Danny Duffy is loved by Kansas City and by Royals fans, and everyone wants this guy to succeed, whether it be in the rotation or in the bullpen.

Back in 2012 when he signed his contract, Duffy tweeted, “Bury me a Royal”, which back then was unheard of. The Royals were still bad in 2012 and for a player to say something like that was pretty cool. Duffy has continued to bleed Royal blue throughout the years and it shows. He’s hard on himself when he performs poorly and you could tell not being in the rotation during both postseason runs killed him.

More than likely, I would expect Danny Duffy to be back in the starting rotation for 2016. The Kansas City Royals don’t have many other options and Duffy has proven to be a reliable starter at times.

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Hopefully he can regain that confidence and swag he had during the 2014 season because the Royals will need a dominant starter in the rotation next year.