KC Royals: Foster Griffin out after Tommy John surgery

The KC Royals have seen their share of pitching debuts during the 2020 season, but for one prospect, his debut was his last game for a while.

A major league debut is just another part of the KC Royals 2020 season, or so it seems. It’s a good thing to see the Royals embracing some of their young talents and looking towards where they are going to be in the future. Brady Singer and Kris Bubic have started to make their way in the rotation, while pitchers like Tyler Zuber are settling in well in the bullpen.

One pitcher that unfortunately saw his time in the majors run short, though, is Foster Griffin. Griffin only managed to pitch 1.2 innings during a game at the beginning of the season. His short time was not due to a lack of production, though.

Griffin came in during a game where the Royals were already down. Mike Montgomery started off but allowed 5 runs in the first 2 innings. Griffin came into the game to help during the third.

He had a good amount of help from his offense, putting together 9 runs over innings 3-4, but Griffin was able to hold his own on the mound as well.

He managed to pitch 1.2 clean innings, giving up no hits or runs, not walking a batter, and striking out 1. He left the game due to a possibility of injury and was moved to the injured roster shortly after. Unfortunately, this is the only appearance Griffin will make for the Royals this season and very possibly through next season.

Griffin posted a statement on Twitter on August 15th, detailing the extent of the injury.

As he mentioned in his statement, the next 12-14 months for Griffin will be incredibly tough as he works to battle back from surgery and regains his form. It’s unlikely he will be able to see any time during the 2021 season but should have enough time to work through any struggle and find his way back to Kansas City in 2022.

While there is no way of knowing how the season would have gone if Griffin were able to continue pitching during the 2020 season, the fact will remain that his debut was incredibly successful.

Griffin was able to keep the game from getting out of hand in his first major league innings, his offense rallied behind him, and he got his first major league win. His hard work to get through the minors finally paid off, and now the hard work to get through recovery will hopefully lead him back to the mound and find him some more wins with the Royals.

Foster Griffin had one of the many debuts Royals fans have seen this year. While his time was short, it was also productive. Here is to hoping for a quick recovery and a successful future for Griffin.