What Kansas City Royals GM Dayton Moore said about trading away Danny Duffy
Veteran left-hander Danny Duffy had been part of the Kansas City Royals nearly as long as general manager Dayton Moore had been running their baseball operations department.
They shared in the disappointment of a World Series loss as well as the celebration of the franchise’s first World Series championship in 30 years.
On Thursday, Moore traded Duffy, the longest-tenured member of the club, to the Los Angeles Dodgers ahead of Friday’s MLB trade deadline. The Royals also sent along an undisclosed amount of money to the Dodgers offset some of the remaining salary owed to Duffy. In exchange, the Royals will receive a player to be named later from the Dodgers.
“Well, it’s never easy,” Moore said of trading Duffy. “We truly love Danny. We’ve all been through a lot together. Thankful for his parents for trusting us out of the draft in 2007. We went through a lot throughout the minor leagues together. Lot of coaches, lot of scouts, lot of front office people. Many teammates along the way. There’s just a lot of great memories to celebrate. Those are forever part of our memory bank. And we’ll cherish them.
“We’ll look forward to new chapters as well. This is a new, exciting chapter for Danny, as he gets the opportunity to pitch on the West Coast for the Dodgers. Of course, there’s still the rehab process that he’s going to have to continue to go through, and hopefully that’ll work out great for him and the Dodgers. That’s what we expect, and that’s what we wish for.”
A native of Lompoc, California, Duffy is on the injured list because of a left flexor strain, and Moore said earlier this week that they’d hoped he’d be able to return to pitching within three to four weeks.
Duffy, 32, spent nearly half his life as a member of the Royals organization. A third-round draft pick in the same 2007 draft class that brought former third baseman Mike Moustakas and reliever Greg Holland into the organization, Duffy debuted in the majors three months before franchise cornerstone catcher Salvador Perez.
Duffy earned a record of 68-68 in 234 career appearances (204 starts), and he pitched 1,172 1/3 innings with 1,048 strikeouts and a 3.95 ERA.
Earlier this season, Duffy surpassed the career milestones of 1,000 strikeouts and moved into sixth place on the franchise’s strikeout list. The only pitchers in club history with more strikeouts are Kevin Appier (1,458), Mark Gubicza (1,366), Dennis Leonard (1,323), Bret Saberhagen (1,093) and Paul Splittorff (1,057).
Duffy ranks behind Splittorff for the most strikeouts by a left-hander in club history.
Duffy reached 10 years of major-league service time on June 26, which gave him trade veto rights as a player with at least 10 years of service time and five consecutive years with one club.
Moore said his initial discussions with Duffy about the potential of him being traded took place prior to the MLB All-Star break before Duffy’s second IL stint of the season.
“When he went on the IL, it put everything on pause,” Moore said. “So there wasn’t anything we could do. But there were a couple of teams still willing to look to do a deal with Danny. Obviously, the return, the potential return, had changed greatly because he’s on the IL. that’s just part of the game. That happens, unfortunately.
“But we still felt that the return was value enough for us to do what was right for the organization and also do what was right for Danny. I do know that he had a desire to pitch for the Dodgers and be in a pennant race and potentially win a World Series. That was appealing to him.”
Moore reiterated his stance from earlier in the week that the club would be more likely to look for trades involving players in the final year of their contracts, as was the case with Duffy.
Moore said the Royals would remain “open” and listen on potential deals, but he was pretty frank about his reluctance to trade players from the major-league club with years remaining on their contracts, even those who might garner interest from other clubs.
“I don’t want to trade Mikey Minor,” Moore said. “I don’t want to trade Whit Merrifield. I don’t want to trade Carlos Santana.”
Ups and downs together
Duffy’s long history with the organization includes a brief retirement while in the minor leagues. He returned and was part of championship teams in the minors and pitched in the memorable postseason runs for the Royals in 2014 and 2015.
He turned down the opportunity to hit free agency and signed a five-year $65 million extension to stay with the club following the 2016 season.
He’s been with the franchise through tragedies such as the deaths of Yordano Ventura and former owner David Glass.
Duffy and the Royals made it through a very public misstep in August 2017, when Duffy was cited for DUI and received probation for being asleep behind the wheel of his vehicle in the drive-thru lane of a Burger King restaurant in Overland Park.
Duffy has been open about his struggles with anxiety and depression.
The Royals have leaned on him in recent years as a veteran presence as they’ve gone through a rebuilding mode at the major-league level.
“Well, our relationship is very strong,” Moore said of raising the topic of a trade with Duffy. “It’s always been very transparent. We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs together personally, professionally. I’ve confided in Danny in the past with things, he’s confided in me with personal things in the past as well. So our relationship is very strong. It’ll remain very strong. And so they’re very easy conversations.
“You talk to Danny like he’s a family member, because he is. We’ve been together, as you mentioned, for a long time. Danny would certainly never do anything to hurt the organization, and if he felt we could execute a deal that brought us some value and also was beneficial to him, he was certainly willing to oblige us and do what was necessary.”
This story was originally published July 29, 2021 at 9:18 PM.
