Kansas City Royals Have Options for Fifth Starter in 2017

Most KC Royals fans knew heading into the 2016 season that starting pitching would be a toss-up. 2017 should provide much more optimism though, and for good reason.

If Danny Duffy, Yordano Ventura, and Ian Kennedy can continue to perform like they have down the stretch this season, then this Royals rotation could be downright scary in 2017. They’ve had a year to work together and gel, and that will only help them next season.

They’ll still have a great bullpen and a lot of the same guys in their lineup, so it’s safe to say that 2017 will be the last year in this window for the Royals to win a championship.

While I’d most like to see Matt Strahm win that fifth starter spot, I could actually see this team extend a qualifying offer to one Edinson Volquez. Volquez has struggled this year, but the guy was nails in 2015 and helped get a World Series trophy back to Kansas City for the first time in three decades.

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It won’t be an easy decision for Dayton Moore to make regarding who gets to be in the rotation, but with limited free agency options this offseason, look for it to be a guy in house already.

What do you think, Royals nation? Who should be the fifth starter in next year’s rotation?