Kansas City Royals Christmas List For 2017

For Danny Duffy And Eric Hosmer:

The stamina to repeat three months of 2016 performance over the entire 2017 season. Yes, I know I’m asking for TWO presents for Eric Hosmer. But, hey, some players could use more help than others. From May 15 to August 21, Danny Duffy utterly dominated hitters with a 2.61 ERA in 19 starts. He struck out 126 in 120.2 innings while the KC Royals won 16 of those 19 games.

Kansas City Royals

If Duffy could repeat that over a full season, he’d be a Cy Young candidate.

Eric Hosmer slashed .299/.355/.476 with 13 home runs and 49 RBIs in the first half of 2016. He crashed to .225/.296/.380 with 12 home runs and 55 RBIs after the All-Star break. Enough said. Both Hosmer and Duffy are in the walk years of their contract, and could use a nice send-off to capture value in free-agency.

Oh, yeah. And big contract years could help the Kansas City Royals win a title.

I don’t know about anyone else, but if Hosmer and Duffy could help the KC Royals add another championship flag in 2017, I could live with losing both of them next winter. I wouldn’t be happy, but a another World Series would be well worth it.

For Jorge Soler And Cheslor Cuthbert:

Regular playing time. I know it looks like both players will already get that gift in 2017. But, hey, who wants to take chances? All kinds of bad things can happen in the baseball universe. Injuries. PEDs Suspension. Sudden insanity striking Dayton Moore and Ned Yost causing them to bring back Jeff Francoeur and Yuniesky Betancourt.

Soler needs regular at bats to meet his potential both in the field and at the plate. His 70 grade power, and range that should become at least average with improved routes need reps to manifest themselves. Meanwhile, Cheslor Cuthbert could use some DH time to build upon a hopeful rookie year at the plate without worrying about his suspect defense.