Kansas City Royals: Danny Duffy returning to rotation on Sunday?

Kansas City Royals southpaw Danny Duffy threw a simulated game on Tuesday. Could he return to the rotation on Sunday in Cleveland?

Kansas City Royals homegrown lefty, Danny Duffy, sustained a hamstring injury and last pitched against the Minnesota Twins on August 3. It was one of the worst outings of his career allowing 8 earned runs on 8 hits, 4 home runs in just 4.2 innings of work.

Duffy, 30, stated that the hamstring injury was not the reason for his poor performance. He indicated that he actually injured it the following day running sprints in Boston.

"“We were running sprints — it was my day to run — in the outfield, and [I] felt something and pulled up,” Duffy said Tuesday. “It’s pretty matter-of-fact. I just went over to the training staff and told him, ‘Hey, I think I’ve either got a really bad cramp, or I’ve pulled my hamstring.’ That’s what happened. It’s pretty frustrating.” – MLB"

Either way, Duffy has missed most of August but he threw 65 pitches in a simulated game on Tuesday. Royals manager Ned Yost indicated that Duffy could potentially throw another abbreviated simulated game just to make sure everything is fine, but all signs point to him starting on Sunday in Cleveland.

The matchups right now have Jakob Junis kicking off the series with the Indians and Glenn Sparkman pitching game two. Sunday’s starter on MLB.com says “TBD” which makes me believe that if all goes well in the next few days, Duffy will return to the rotation against Shane Bieber.

Duffy is having one of his worst years with a 5-6 record and a 4.93 ERA and is on pace to throw the lowest number of innings since 2013 when he started just 5 games. He is under contract through the 2021 season so he will need to find some stability.

Good news is that he’ll likely have a chance to right the ship on Sunday afternoon to finish up the Cleveland series with his first home start since the injury potentially against the Orioles on Friday, August 30.