Royals Rumors: Other teams interested in trading for Danny Duffy

Royals Rumors are starting to heat up and it’s been made known that the Royals could be trading beloved players. Danny Duffy is receiving interest from other teams.

Fans weren’t sure what to expect this offseason when it came to the Royals rumors, but they’ve been about as sporadic as possible. Recently it was reported that the Royals could be expecting a big rebuild should the team not retain Eric Hosmer.

A big rebuild means not only losing all of the key free agents, but it could also mean trading away some players who aren’t free agents. One such player is starting pitcher Danny Duffy, who the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees have apparently reached out to the Royals about.

Duffy had an okay year last season, but had two separate stints on the disabled list. The Royals gave him an extension last offseason, which tied him to Kansas City through the 2022 season.

Some might be surprised to hear Duffy’s name being thrown around when it comes to trade bait, but I’m not shocked. Rebuilds usually mean cleaning house and despite the organization adoring Danny Duffy and everything he’s done for this franchise, he’s not invincible. No one is.

Hosmer holds the key in all of this trade talk. If he goes elsewhere, then the Royals are open to trading just about everyone. If Hosmer stays, however, the chances of Duffy remaining a Royal will greatly increase.

Duffy himself does not want to be traded (see tweet below). He even took less money last offseason (or a “hometown discount” as some like to call it) to stay with the Royals organization. Otherwise, Duffy would be yet another free agent on the market this winter and probably wouldn’t be returning to Kansas City.

Seeing teams like the Cubs and Yankees interested in Duffy is huge. The Yankees are obviously going for broke (not literally obviously… this is the Yankees we’re talking about) and they already have the bats to make a World Series run. They just need the pitching now.

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The Cubs, on the other hand, have decent pitching (at least in the rotation), but they’ll more than likely be losing Jake Arrieta this offseason. While Duffy isn’t quite as good as Arrieta, he’d be a decent third or fourth starter in that rotation.

Personally, I don’t want to see Danny Duffy get traded. I know rebuilds sometimes require tough moves like this, but Duffy has meant so much to this team and to the fans. He was preaching the whole “Forever Royal” thing before it was cool to be proud of being a Royal. He’s one of the most loyal guys in all of sports and it’d almost be mean to trade him when he took less money to stay here.

At the end of the day though, baseball is a business. If Dayton Moore thinks trading Danny Duffy is the right decision, then it’s the right decision.