Kansas City Royals: Danny Duffy finally looking solid on the mound

By Leigh Oleszczak | Jun 23, 2018

HOUSTON, TX - JUNE 22: Danny Duffy #41 of the Kansas City Royals pitches in the first inning against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on June 22, 2018 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images) /

The Kansas City Royals expected a lot out of Danny Duffy when they gave him an extension in 2016. He’s starting to live up to his contract over the past few weeks, which is good for many reasons.

Kansas City Royals fans love Danny Duffy, but most would agree that he’d be no higher than a number two starter on most other teams. On the Royals though, Duffy is the ace, but he hasn’t always pitched like it. He has looked more of that role lately and that’s exactly what the Royals need right now.

After a sluggish start to the season, Duffy has been phenomenal in the last few weeks. While he had a bad game against the Astros last week, he made up for it by pitching six scoreless frames against them those same Astros a week later.

After a May 19th start against the Yankees where he surrendered five runs in just four innings of work, Duffy’s ERA was as high as 6.88. It looked like the Royals had put too much faith in their “ace” and that the extension was going to be looked at as a mistake. Now, however, Duffy is starting to show signs of what made the organization give him that role.

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We already touched on his electric start against Houston on Friday, but prior to that he had pitched seven scoreless innings against the Athletics, which was arguably his best outing of the season. He even got his third win of the season for that brilliant performance.

Duffy pitching well is good for the Royals for the obvious reasons, but it also boosts his trade value. While I don’t see teams willing to give up much for Duffy this year, perhaps if he can continue to pitch decently for the second half of the 2018 season, some teams would inquire about him for 2019 or at least this time next year at the deadline.

Kansas City Royals fans LOVE Danny Duffy and it’s difficult watching a bad start by the Duffman. Now it’s looking more and more like Duffy has found his groove and that’s a great sign for the Royals. It’d be cool if Duffy was still around for when this team starts to compete again in a few years and if this last month or so is any indication of what’s to come with Duffy, perhaps the guy can put together a nice season after all.

The Royals have some nice young talent in the rotation with Jakob Junis and Brad Keller, so it’d be nice to have Duffy around to help mentor those two guys. Duffy credited a lot of why he was so good to James Shields back in 2013 and 2014 and maybe now it’s Duffy’s turn to give back to the team and mentor some of the younger guys who will help the next wave of Royals baseball win championships.

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