Kansas City Royals: Foster Griffin will be a heavy contributor in the future

Unfortunately, Foster Griffin won’t be returning to the mound for the Kansas City Royals in 2020.

Kansas City Royals pitcher Foster Griffin announced on Twitter on Saturday that he was recovering from Tommy John surgery and, as a result, won’t be back in action for 12-14 months.

Griffin appeared in just one game this season, as he notes it was on July 27th (his 25th birthday), and he pitched 1.2 innings of work before experiencing discomfort in his elbow. He had been mowing down batters prior to the injury, otherwise he likely would have finished out the inning and honestly might have pitched the next inning as well.

The loss of Griffin is devastating because he’s a talented guy who FINALLY got his big league call-up and to have it end so soon due to injury is a terrible feeling.

There is good news however.

Foster Griffin is still young enough that he can help the Kansas City Royals in their next wave of contention.

While the Royals have a losing record at the moment, they’re only three games under .500 and they’ve been playing a lot better than many of us expected them to. A big reason as to why that is is because the bullpen, of all things, has been spectacular!

Dayton Moore brought in Trevor Rosenthal and Greg Holland this offseason, two former closers who had been experiencing a major downslide in their careers. Both men have come in and pitched admirably for the boys in blue and it’s helped get this bullpen back to prominence. Josh Staumont and Scott Barlow are two names who have impressed as well.

Griffin was being used as a bullpen arm when he was injured and that’s likely where he’ll see most of his playing time upon his return. The Royals rotation is pretty much set with Brad Keller and his 0.00 ERA, Jakob Junis, Danny Duffy, Brady Singer, and Kris Bubic as the five at the moment.

Griffin could be used as either a reliever or maybe even as an opener at some point, but either way, he’s going to be a huge part of the Royals’ return to relevancy in the coming years. This surgery isn’t a setback, as he’ll come back stronger and will be ready to compete this time next year.

The former 28th overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft might have had a short 2020 season, but he’ll soon become a big time pitcher for this organization and he’ll hopefully have a chance to do so in some big time moments in the foreseeable future.