Danny Duffy is odd man out in Royals’ rotation

For stretches this season, Danny Duffy was the Royals’ most dominant starting pitcher. After years of showing promise, he blossomed into a rotation stalwart, recording a 2.53 ERA in 149 1/3 innings.

But for the moment, the young left-hander was not part of the starting rotation plans as the club began the American League Division Series against the Los Angeles Angels.

In the hours before the start of game one, Royals manager Ned Yost said Duffy was slotted for a relief role while right-hander Jeremy Guthrie will likely start game four on Monday in Kansas City, if the series gets that far.

“Right now we’re going to use Danny as a long guy in our pen,” Yost said. “We’ve set it up so that till after the off day we’ll look at our pitching, but right now we like Danny coming out of the pen.”

Based on a season’s worth of numbers, the decision is mildly curious and raises some questions about Duffy’s health. After a shoulder scare during a start in New York on Sept. 6, Duffy missed more than two weeks before returning against Cleveland on Sept. 22. He scattered six hits over six scoreless innings against the Indians before being knocked around for two homers and four runs in a 5-4 loss to the White Sox on Sept. 27, his final outing of the season.

Yost and Duffy have been adamant that there are no lingering concerns with the shoulder. But Thursday afternoon, Yost chafed at the idea that the Royals were shying away from Duffy in favor of game-one starter Jason Vargas or Guthrie. For now, Yost has mapped out rookie Yordano Ventura to start game two on Friday, while James Shields will be on normal rest for game three on Sunday in Kansas City.

“That’s the decision we made,” Yost said. “I’m not shying away from Danny Duffy. We just felt we wanted to go with the veteran Jason Vargas, who pitches better on the road, and we’re going to go with the power of Ventura tomorrow, and then James Shields, that is his normal day.”

On Thursday, Yost described Duffy as the “long man,” the emergency option should a starter falter in the early innings. He could also be used in a late-inning role.

“We could use him early, if we run into problems,” Yost said, “and he can hopefully hold the fort until we can get to our seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-inning guys (and) allow us to get back in the ballgame if something happens.”

As Duffy moves into relief, Guthrie now projects as the probable starter for game four, which would take place on Monday at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals like Guthrie’s recent performance at Kauffman Stadium, and he potentially matches up with the Angels’ slew of right-handed power hitters.

For the most part, Guthrie’s home-road splits are similar; he is 6-6 with a 4.25 ERA in 16 starts at Kauffman Stadium this season; he is 7-5 with a 4.01 ERA on the road. Vargas, though, entered Thursday’s start with a 2.73 ERA in 14 road starts.

“We looked, again, the records on the road, and the records at home, and we liked Vargy on the road, and we definitely liked Jeremy Guthrie at home,” Yost said. “But we’ll just continue to play it out here and go from there to see what happens.”

This story was originally published October 2, 2014 at 10:40 PM with the headline "Danny Duffy is odd man out in Royals’ rotation."