Kansas City Royals: The Royals Have a Logjam at First Base

Lucas Duda

The Royals signed Lucas Duda to a one-year, $3.5 million deal during the offseason. He had spent the last eight years playing first base for the New York Mets and Tampa Bay Rays. After being unsure of how first base would be filled, signing Duda gave the Royals a definite option at first.

Duda is not the greatest offensive player, posting a career .242/.340/.457 but does provide the team with some consistent power. Over the last four years, Duda has hit 94 home runs and 95 doubles.

Unfortunately, he also strikes out. A lot. During the same four year span, he struck out a total of 444 times. With great power, typically great strikeout numbers follow.

He has had a solid Spring Training. It has been his best Spring Training of his career, seeing him slash a .387/.486/.645 with a 1.132 OPS. During those 12 games, he has struck out just four times compared to walking six times. Obviously, the likelihood of that continuing is highly unlikely, but it is nice to see still.

One thing all fans should brace themselves for is the fact that Duda most likely won’t finish the year with the Royals. Come July, the probability of the Royals trading Duda for a piece to help them rebuild is extremely high.

Duda is just a temporary fix. How long that temporary fix is will be determined come July. I would not recommend buying a Duda jersey though if you are looking to find a new one.

Lucas Duda

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