Royals Danny Duffy: Safe to drop him in fantasy leagues?

Danny Duffy is currently on the DL for the Royals, but things got a whole lot worse this week when he was busted for a DUI. Is it time for fantasy owners to drop him?

Coming into the season, fantasy owners and the Royals alike, were banking on Danny Duffy to be an ace. It has been an up and down season for the Royals and Duffy a like, but no one could have predicted things would have taken the turn they did this week. Duffy was charged with a DUI, and his future outlook for this season is murky at best.

What should fantasy owners do?

Duffy had a career best season in 2016, and many owners were targeting him as a breakout candidate this season. He currently owns an 8 W/3.78/1.25 WHIP/116 K line over 21 starts this in 2017, a slight back step from his stellar campaign a year ago. While he has not continued his breakout, he has served as a serviceable SP3.

His inconsistency this year, 2.81 ERA in April/4.17 ERA in May/3.20 ERA in June/5.48 ERA in Aug., was the main storyline of his season, until now. Even though he has struggled in Aug., his last start against the Rockies was great. Yet, after the outing, he headed to the DL with a low-grade pronator strain in his left elbow.

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While the injury seems like it would not sideline him for long and owners would have him for the stretch run, the DUI incident puts all that in question.

There was some hope that the Royals and Dayton Moore would offer insight into Duffy’s future plans, but things took a weird turn during the press conference.

The whole incident for Duffy is not only embarrassing and dangerous but also triggers thoughts of the unfortunate death of Yordano Ventura as well. Duffy’s arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 19, a week before the end of the MLB regular season.

If Duffy does miss the one start that the team predicts while on the DL, he would return sometime next week. MLB has no DUI suspension policy in place, but individual teams can do so. The Royals did place Alberto Callaspo on the DL in 2008 for his DUI, so the team is not afraid to make sure players get help.

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For fantasy owners the decision is easy; drop Duffy. There are too many outside factors going on that muddy his rest of season outlook. The elbow ailment and now the looming DUI distraction will surely make things hard for him down the stretch when fantasy owners need him the most.