Festivities, 'HDH' bobbleheads headline big 2014 KC Royals weekend celebration

Kelvin Herrera was the first line of defense

Herrera's early path in the big leagues wasn't smooth; he debuted late in 2011 but later bounced back and forth between Kansas City and Triple-A Omaha. He had a couple of auditions for the closer role and, while he looked great at times, struggled with the long ball and failed to lock down the position.

His turnaround came in 2014, when manager Ned Yost made him the seventh-inning guy in the HDH trio of dominant late-inning relievers assigned to close out wins. Herrera repaid Yost's trust by going 4-3 with a 1.41 ERA and 1.143 WHIP in 70 games. He didn't slow down in the postseason, appearing in 11 games, giving up only three runs and striking out 16 in 13.6 innings, and winning Game 2 of the World Series.

The Royals carried this successful formula over to 2015 until Holland went down with an elbow injury in September. That forced Herrera to the eighth-inning spot, but thanks to Luke Hochevar, who became the primary seventh-inning man, the club skipped scarcely a beat. It didn't even have to change the initials of the back-end of the bullpen, although HHD didn't have quite the same ring as HDH.

Herrera stuck with the eighth inning through the 2016 season, but after Davis was traded to the Cubs, he moved into the closer role in 2017. He wasn't bad there, converting 26 of 31 save opportunities, but his career-worst 4.25 ERA suggests the Royals were at their strongest when he was in the seventh-inning spot.

Wade Davis was as good as it gets in 2014

Unlike Herrera and Holland, Davis didn't come up through the Royals' system, instead being acquired as part of the controversial (at the time) deal that brought James Shields to Kansas City. Widely seen as a throw-in for that trade, Davis eventually had an even bigger impact on Kansas City's success than Shields. At first, however, things didn't look promising.

Davis had started and relieved and for Tampa Bay, but the Royals were intent on starting him. Unfortunately, Davis was middling, at best, as a starter. He went 6-10 and was back in the bullpen by the end of his first Kansas City season.

Like Herrera, though, he found his groove in 2014.

Handling the eighth inning, Davis posted one of the greatest seasons ever by a relief pitcher — he went 9-2 with a 1.00 ERA in 72 innings, set a team record for most strikeouts by a reliever (109), walked only 23, and finished with a 0.847 WHIP. From June 25 to Sept. 16, he didn't give up an earned run; his Sept. 15 ERA was 0.69. And he didn't give up a home run all season. In the postseason, he was 2-0 with 12 strikeouts and only two walks in 12 appearances.

Davis was almost as good in 2015, although he finally allowed a homer. And when forced to take over closer duties following Holland's injury, he didn't bat an eye. His epic performance in Game 6 of the 2015 ALCS, pitching around an extended rain delay, clinched back-to-back World Series berths for Kansas City, and he recorded the last out of the 2015 World Series.

The Royals traded Davis to the Cubs after the 2016 season, and he had a good year on the North Side before moving to Colorado in 2018 and leading the National League in saves. He returned to Kansas City in 2021 for one last hurrah, but it wasn't the same.

Greg Holland put his name in the record books but didn't reach the summit

Holland debuted in Kansas City in 2010 but, like Herrera, his early tenure was rocky. He struggled to find consistency and to carve out a role for himself, but as the Royals became relevant in 2013 for the first time in decades, Holland figured things out. He set a new club record with 47 saves and staked his claim alongside franchise icons Dan Quisenberry and Jeff Montgomery.

The next year, Holland quickly put to rest any fears that his breakout season was a fluke. He saved 46 games, and went 1-3 with a 1.44 ERA and 0.914 WHIP.

And he might have been even better in October. He saved seven games in the postseason, a record he holds with several others. He saved all four of the club's ALCS victories, a feat no AL reliever had achieved since Dennis Eckersley did it for Oakland in 1988, and one no major leaguer had accomplished since John Wetteland saved four in the 1996 World Series.

We'll never know how many saves Holland might have recorded in KC's 2015 run to a championship — the September elbow injury that took him out of action required Tommy John Surgery, so he missed the rest of the regular season and the postseason. Holland was having another excellent year but had to watch from the dugout as the Royals won it all.

Holland missed all of 2016, but bounced back and won the 2017 NL Comeback Player of the Year award with Colorado. He was a bit of a baseball nomad in the following seasons but, like Davis, ended up back in Kansas City. And he pitched well in 2020 before he and Davis both lost steam in 2021.

Unfortunately, Holland and Davis couldn't find the magic a second time, perhaps because they were lacking Herrera. There was a time, though, when together the HDH trio was practically invincible.

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