Kansas City Royals’ Wade Davis Needs MRI
By Ron Juckett
Fearing the worst, the Kansas City Royals are sending closer Wade Davis home Sunday for an MRI on his injured right forearm.
Wade Davis, the Kansas City Royals’ lights-out closer, will undergo an MRI Sunday to examine a possible new injury in his pitching forearm. After missing the first two weeks of July with a trip to the disabled list, Davis and the team are preparing for the worst.
On a magical run since replacing Greg Holland last year as the closer, Davis has 38 saves and converted 21 of 23 chances this year. In 33.2 innings, he fanned 32 while allowing 22 hits. The two-time All-Star converted from a starter to the bullpen in 2014 and has not looked back.
The Royals are not having a great 2016. After two consecutive American League pennants and their first championship in 30 years, the inevitable fatigue and injuries are catching up. At 49-54, they sit in fourth place in the AL Central, 11 games behind the front-running Cleveland Indians and 7.5 games out of the second Wild Card.
Until Saturday, Davis was mentioned as possibly shopped around as other teams grabbed needed players to complete their championship run. Instead, it appears his season is done with surgery on the way depending on what doctors find in the MRI. As far as his future with the Royals goes, they hold a $10 million option for next year or could make him a free agent for $2.5 million.
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For Davis, the conversion to a reliever saved his career. The Tampa Bay Rays converted him first in 2012 after two years in the rotation. That year in 54 games, his ERA dropped from 4.45 to 2.43 and he nearly struck out as many batters from the pen as he did as a starter. In 70 innings, he whiffed 87 compared to the 105 fanned in 184 in 2011.
Traded with James Shields to Kansas City in return for Wil Myers and others in December 2012, the Royals turned him back into a starter with horrible results. His ERA ballooned to 5.32 and his WHIP jumped from 1.095 to 1.677. After that, his move to the pen was permanent. When given the chance to replace the injured Holland last year, he became a local legend posting an ERA of 0.94. His Adjusted ERA+ was 448 or four hundred percent better than league average.
This year he became human. Pitching around his discomfort, the ERA climbed to 1.50 while the walk rate jumped from 2.7-per-9 to 4.0. Once fanning 13.6-per-9 two years ago, the rate this year dipped to 8.6. He still got the job done, but the wear and tear of throwing hard caught up.
For the Royals, Kelvin Herrera has electric stuff and will have time to win the role. Joakim Soria closed for the Royals for four seasons from 2008-2011 and could do so again. Soria’s numbers are not as strong as Herrera’s, however, as Soria’s 4.09 ERA pales in comparison to Herrera’s 1.58.
Facing an uncertain future, if Davis needs Tommy John surgery he will miss the rest of 2016 and most of 2017. At 30, the road back is longer.