Royals Rotation Decision Looms With Medlens Expected Return

With Dillon Gee and Danny Duffy pitching well, what will the Royals do when Medlen and Young return?

Early in this 2016 MLB season, the KC Royals starting rotation has already had its share of injuries. Initially, the starting Rotation included Edison Volquez, Ian Kennedy, Yordano Ventura, Kris Medlen, and Chris Young.

So far Volquez has looked as good as he did in 2015, and so far Kennedy has been the pitcher that Dayton Moore and Ned Yost hoped he would be. Ventura has had some walk issues but otherwise has been just ok.

However, the other 2/5 of the rotation including Chris Young and Kris Medlen have been mostly

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bad. Young is sporting a 6.68 ERA and has been giving up home runs at an extremely high rate with a HR/9 of 3.62.  Medlen has an even higher 7.77 ERA and his problem has been issuing free passes with a BB/9 of 7.40 according to

fangraphs

Both Young and Medlen have been on the DL since the Royals trip to New York where both of them were rough up  a bit including an outing where Chris Young gave up five home runs.

The Royals answer for one of the injured starters has been moving Dillon Gee into the starting rotation. Gee’s last appearance was a nice 4-1 win on the road against the White Sox.

The other spot has been filled by a low pitch count Danny Duffy where his last outing was ended around 65 pitches in a 2-1 victory in Chicago.

It appears as of now that Dillon Gee has pitched his way into a spot in the starting rotation. Gee has looked

It appears as of now that Dillon Gee has pitched his way into a spot in the starting rotation

good in his starts against Atlanta and Chicago plus a nice 5.1 innings of relief in New York.  But who will be replaced?

My initial instinct is that Dillon Gee replaces Chris Young.  Young at his best isn’t really capable of pitching more than 130-140 innings in a season anyway, and five innings appears to be the limit for Young in any one game regardless of his pitch count.

We all know what kind of weapon Young can be out of the bullpen so that is where I would like to see Young remain unless needed in an emergency start.

Then there is the other spot where Duffy has looked very good in both of his short starts. I think

the Royals should try Duffy as a stater one more time. Duffy has so much up side that it is absolutely worth another shot.

A rotation featuring Kennedy, Volquez, and a consistent Ventura and Duffy would match-up well against any team in a 5 or 7 game series.

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While it appears Young may be on the DL for a while, it is still worth thinking about his place on pitching staff when he returns.

We have all seen what can happen to Duffy when he tries to nibble too much, gets erratic, and then gets shelled.  But we have also seen what a relaxed and focused Duffy can do.  The upside is just too high on Duffy not to give him at least 1 more shot.