Bad news today for the Royals as Danny Duffy, one of the team's top pitching prospects, has apparently decided to an indefinite leave from baseball, the team has confirmed. Details are sparse right now, though this isn't not believed to be related to his current elbow injury.
The team's only comment was a brief statement made by assistant GM JJ Picollo: "Danny informed us yesterday that his desire is to leave baseball at this time to reassess his life priorities. Should Danny decide in the future to return to the game, we will be happy at that time to discuss the possibility."
Duffy was a third round pick by the Royals in the 2007 draft. Since then he's pitched very well in the low levels of the Royals' system, racking up a 19-10 record with a 2.49 ERA. His peripherals matched up nicely, too. In High-A Wilmington in 2009, Duffy struck out nearly a batter an inning and his strikeout/walk ratio was better than 3:1. As a result, Baseball America had ranked him as the team's eighth best prospect for 2010, while John Sickels ranked him fifth.
There's a bit of confusion about what exactly Duffy's intents are here; one newspaper account (linked above) characterizes this as Duffy "quitting" baseball, while most of the material released by the team is calling it a "leave". Duffy's still a very young kid (he turned 21 last December), so it's possible that he's just looking for time to clear his head a bit. Without much in the way of details, though, there's no point in speculating until Duffy or the Royals give us more information.
Royals' Prospect Danny Duffy Taking Leave From Baseball
Mar 24, 2010 – 9:29 PM
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