Ned Yost is not about to name his final two starters for the 2016 season.
While Yordano Ventura, Edinson Volquez and Ian Kennedy will start the season as the top three pitchers for the Royals the remaining two spots are up for grabs. Kris Medlen, Chris Young and Danny Duffy will all go to spring training trying to win those two spots but one of these pitchers will begin the season in the bullpen.
All three of these pitchers saw time in both the rotation and the bullpen during the 2015 season.
When Chris Young signed a two-year extension with the Royals this offseason it was assumed he would open the season in the rotation. Meanwhile Medlen pitched well at the end of the season for the Royals in the rotation before moving to the bullpen during the post season.
The most likely person to begin the season in the bullpen figures to be Duffy and Yost’s comments to the Kansas City Star seemed to echo that.
“We’ll see,” Yost said. “Again, I’ve got a lot of confidence in Chris Young; I’ve got a lot of confidence in Kris Medlen. Danny Duffy is a guy, as we saw last year, he could be very valuable out of the pen. He could be very valuable as a starter, too.”
Yost also said at Saturday’s FanFest that the Royals could opt for a platoon in right field with Jarrod Dyson and Paulo Orlando splitting time. Such an arrangement would place the left handed hitting Dyson in the lineup the majority of the time.
