Kansas City Royals: What To Do With Starting Rotation

Other than the offensive slumps, it is clear that the Kansas City Royals weakness lies within the starting rotation.

At the beginning of the season, Chris Young and Kris Medlen proved they deserved no spot in the starting rotation. In place, the Royals brought Dillon Gee and Danny Duffy into the spotlight.

After getting four starts, Gee was shuffled back down to Omaha, and Duffy still needed time to figure out who he wanted to be.

Through all this mayhem, Yordano Ventura’s throwing like a rookie and starting fights with players twice his size.

So, how does this correlate? Well, the Kansas City Royals are six games back from a red-hot Cleveland Indians, as of July 3rd. The rotation has been one of their biggest issues and they need a dependable fifth starter in order to cut that deficit down.

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Edinson Volquez has given the team a solid performance through the first half of the season (minus that one against the Astros… Let’s just forget about that). Someone has to reach 200 innings by the end of the season and Eddy is on pace to do so.

The guy you signed for way too much money (five years and 70 million dollars) in Ian Kennedy has proved that he can go out and get it done, sitting with a 3.96 ERA.

We know Danny Duffy has been lava hot, but this is new for Duffy. This is one of the first years that he has been able to keep everything in order over a long period of starts.

The Kansas City Royals need one more viable arm for this starting rotation.

Yordano Ventura has not been great this year but with Kennedy, Volquez, and Duffy being able to hold it down, the team can afford take a hit when Ventura is trying to figure things out.

With one through four figured out for the time being, that leaves the Royals with one question mark in Chris Young.

Since coming back from injury, Young has started in four games allowing five home runs and eleven earned runs through 16.2 innings. The Princeton Graduate just hasn’t been good this year and even when he is, it’s terrifying to watch because you expect it to end at any moment.

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In simplistic terms, the Kansas City Royals need one more viable arm for this starting rotation.

Chris Young is absolutely better from the bullpen, so he still has value to this team.

July is going to be a huge month for Kansas City in the fact of Medlen’s return and a guy in Mike Minor that could turn your pitching staff around. Minor has not been in a Major League game since 2014 with the Braves, but his career ERA sits at 4.10, which is slightly above Ian Kennedy’s.

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The fact that the Kansas City Royals have been able to stay in contention within the division shows a lot about this starting rotation. The team has no clear ace like years before in a James Shields or a Johnny Cueto, but guys like Danny Duffy and Ian Kennedy have been able to step up in place.

Stay consistent and keep pushing forward because help is coming!