Danny Duffy takes full accountability for his abysmal start to the year, Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star writes, but the Royals lefty is still searching for answers after struggling to a 6.51 ERA in 47 innings. As Mellinger explores in an excellent piece, Duffy’s very awareness of the need to improve and dedication to doing so may well be playing into his on-field difficulties. “[W]hen you don’t run from the truth, you’re going to be able to sleep at night,” says Duffy. “And I’m sleeping just fine. When I’m awake, that’s when I’m stressing. So I try to be truthful, man. I try to be honest.” A productive Duffy, whose contract includes $46MM in guaranteed money over the next three years, may well have been a hotly pursued trade piece this summer. Instead, the Royals will likely need to get him on track before considering any potential trade scenarios.
Here’s more from the American League’s central division:
- The White Sox are going through some predictable growing pains, but as Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune writes, righty Reynaldo Lopez has certainly been effective to this point. Lopez carries a 2.44 ERA through 44 1/3 innings, which is a nice development for a 24-year-old hurler who has long shown promise — but who has also faced questions as to whether he’d ultimately end up in a bullpen role. Of course, it’s worth withholding judgment on his long-term outlook. While Lopez may well end up being the South Siders’ All-Star representative, his good results have not been supported by the underlying numbers. Lopez has been exceedingly fortunate on batted balls (.372 xwOBA vs. .280 wOBA; .202 BABIP) and has not excelled in terms of strikeouts (6.3 K/9), walks (3.9 BB/9), home runs (1.22 HR/9) or groundballs (30.0%). Perhaps he’ll find a way to continue capitalizing on his talent, but it seems Lopez will need to make adjustments to maintain anything approaching his current output.
- While the Indians are continuing to lead an uninspiring AL Central division, that doesn’t mean it has been all sunbeams in Cleveland. The organization surely anticipated more than a .500 start through forty games after topping one hundred wins in 2017. But the results largely reflect what has to this point been a fairly middling performance from the roster overall. Zack Meisel of The Athletic (subscription link) takes a look at the big picture, diagnosing the bullpen as one key overarching concern. It’s tough to disagree with that fact given the putrid overall performance from the Indians’ relief unit to date. Adding some arms seems a mid-season given, but Meisel also notes that the club has a similar issue on the position-player side, with a group of top-end stars that has not been supported to this point by the reserves. All said, there seem to be quite a few areas ripe for improvement over the summer, which is obviously not preferable but does leave the club with many potential avenues to seek value.
the Indians don’t have the depth in the bullpen that they once did, plus Kipnis is a liability in the lineup
Despite the fact he has 9 HR and 20 RBI, Encarnacion has been feast or famine with a BA around .200, and when you look at recent games where they’ve scored 9 or more runs, he had nothing to do with it. CLE failed on 2 fronts last winter, and those problems haven’t solved themselves (they never do). The FO tried but failed to trade Kipnis. They’re on the hook for around $30M for him through 2019, and they’re not going to bench him. He’s been a drag on the lineup for a couple years now, and it’s pretty clear they’re stuck with him for the duration which not only weakens the lineup but prevents them from using that $30M on productive additions. CLE also lost significant bullpen pieces that they did not replace – didn’t even try from what I could see. Allen and Miller will be gone after this year, so unless the FO starts to rebuild that pen now, it’s only gonna get worse if you can imagine that.
Guyer is also a liability. They should switch one Brandon for another—Barnes for Guyer.
I don’t care who they replace him with, I just want Guyer gone. He and McAllister are dead weight.
Agreed…then Guyer goes and hits a Grand Slam.
Tomlin can go too, another gopher ball. Sadly, I’m hoping he gets shelled so badly tonight he never takes the bump in an Indians uniform. So just my luck Guyer bought some time and Tomlin will put up a decent outing and buy some time as well…then struggle though his next 7 agonizing starts.
And another Tomlin gopher ball as well as Otero pitching BP.
Drop McAllister, Tomlin, Otero and Guyer.
Not only is Duffy killing the Royals on the field…he’s going to kill them in July when he wont bring back even a so so lottery ticket. Duffy made a big stink last winter when his name was brought up frequently in trade talk. His “bury me a Royal” was out there in twitter land constantly. That and his DUI probably didnt endear to him to the Royals FO.
For a fan base that has had its share of hard times, Duffy’s “bury me a Royal” comment has made him a fan favorite and the front office was and has been quite supportive following his DUI. Frankly, your argument is weak at best. But regardless, his trade value can only go up. Either get nothing or hold on to him and hope for a rebound. The White Sox did well holding onto Sale and Quintana until they had peak value and excellent returns because the contracts allowed them to hold their cards close. Royals are capable of doing the same right now.
The Indians are lucky that they are playing in the worst division in baseball and the only real competition they have is the Twins who have been hit hard by injuries. It’s only a quarter of the way through the season but you have to wonder what could of been if the Mets hadn’t pulled the plug on the reported Kipnis trade at the ast minute. Would of brought back a reliever and dumped most of the salary. Wouldn’t of been looking at as many budget relievers for sure. I still have faith they will upgrade at the deadline and hope it’s enough but I’m going to be realistic because they don’t have a ton of resources to trade that they are willing to move.
At this point, the Tribe just needs to find a bad contract trade partner for Kipnis. The talent is gone and he really doesn’t even seem to try anymore.
Bryan Shaw’s contract in Colorado matches well with Kip or maybe they could take back Ellsbury and about $30 million from the Yankees?
I’d probably do either of those at this point, move Jose to second, and bring up Yandy Diaz to play third. It basically boils down to whether Diaz would be better than Kipnis, and right now, he would be. He’s too good for Columbus.
That said, I doubt the Rockies would be willing to cut bait on Shaw so early (plus they have a great infield), and while the Yankees don’t have much use for Ellsbury, they have even less use for Kipnis.
Cleveland better win now because that team will not be together in 2019. Like the Royals last year to this year. A lot of Free Agents they will not even try to keep.
Miller and Allen are huge loses, but what others?
Lopez has been very fortunate with a .202 BABIP while Volstad has been very unfortunate with a .400 BABIP. Each will regress back to normal