Kansas City Royals: Who will be the 2019 Opening Day starter?

Though many are predicting Danny Duffy will be the Opening Day starter for the Kansas City Royals in 2019, reprising his 2017 and 2018 role, Ned Yost is not ready to announce it.

When the Kansas City Royals won the World Series in 2015, Ned Yost did not announce that Yordano Ventura would be starting on the mound Opening Day until late March. This year, he won’t have the luxury of waiting too long, considering this will be the earliest Opening Day in MLB history.

The MLB season is set to start on March 28, edging the previous earliest start date of March 29. But, even with Opening Day looming just over a month away, Yost is not ready to make his announcement quite yet.

According to an article by Jeffrey Flanagan, Danny Duffy is fine with Yost taking his time to make the decision. He said:

"“I mean it’s an honor and a responsibility. But we’ve got five dudes, if not more, who are capable of doing it. After you do your first one, yeah, it was exciting. Anyone can take that with pride.”"

Duffy started on Opening Day for the Kansas City Royals in both 2017 and 2018.

Though many think that even though Duffy did not have his best season as far as statistics are concerned in 2018, he will be named the Opening Day starter, it is not a lock. There are several other candidates.

Brad Keller, Ian Kennedy, and Jakob Junis, are all viable candidates for the job as well. There has not even been a single inning of Spring Training baseball played, so there is still plenty of time to make a decision and an announcement.

The way players perform in Spring Training may indicate who is the best man for the job for Yost. Regardless of who is on the mound on March 28, it will still signify the beginning of new, wonderful season of baseball, and that is more than enough to be excited about.