Duran earns first career win in impressive Royals debut

This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers’ Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

KANSAS CITY – The first thing you’ll notice about Carlos Duran is how tall he is, listed at 6-foot-7 and towering over most of his new teammates in the Royals' clubhouse.

It’s a big body with a big arm attached to it, and the Royals hope his big stuff will translate to the big league level. Duran is the newest addition to the Kansas City bullpen, called up Tuesday in place of Lucas Erceg on the active roster. Erceg needs a reset in Triple-A amid a season of struggles, and the Royals want to see what they have in Duran, the 25-year-old right-hander they acquired in the Trade Deadline deal that sent Kris Bubic to the Dodgers earlier this month.

So far, so good after Duran’s scoreless ninth inning Tuesday turned into his first career win when the Royals walked off the A’s at Kauffman Stadium. He also recorded his first career strikeout when Donovan Walton swung through a slider. After the game, Duran’s new teammates gave him the obligatory first-win shower, tossing him in a cart and showering him with, well …

“Todo,” Duran said. “Everything.”

Not too bad of a first impression for anyone.

“I love his personality, his energy,” pitching coach Brian Sweeney said. “Talking to [Triple-A pitching coaches] Dane [Johnson] and [David] Lundquist in Triple-A, he’s quickly become a favorite person there, just because of the energy he brings, which is great for any environment. To see the arm, the power, the way the slider moves – the slider’s for real. And then it’s like, ‘OK, what’s it going to take for him to be a dominant reliever at the Major League level?’”

Duran only made three appearances in Triple-A Omaha after being acquired, so the Royals were more just getting to know him over the past two weeks. But they have some ideas they think could help Duran, starting with the most obvious answer to Sweeney’s question about what it will take to make Duran into a dominant reliever.

He has to get into and stay in the strike zone.

Duran struck a lot of batters out in the Minor Leagues this year with a 30.8% strikeout rate, but that also came with a 13.9% walk rate. That walk rate was improved from the 18.7% clip he posted in 2025, so the hope is it continues to trend downward.

“It’s just about staying close to the zone,” Duran said pregame through interpreter Luis Perez. “The mentality and focus of commanding the zone.”

Duran threw a quick side session in front of the Royals’ big league pitching coaches on Tuesday, and they were already emphasizing the strike-throwing mentality by using a visual that has helped some of their other pitchers this year. Above the plate is a strike zone box constructed out of string. The goal is to throw as many pitches as possible in the zone. It’s a visual that Randy Dobnak likes to use in his bullpens, and it’s helped Noah Cameron recently. The Royals had Duran use it, too.

“See that? This is your friend,” Sweeney said about the box. “We want to give him the best chance to succeed, and that’s by being in the strike zone.”

The Royals also have some ideas about how to help Duran’s four-seam fastball, which averages around 96 mph with flashes of the upper 90s but could benefit from more vertical break. His sinker generated soft contact Tuesday, helping him against lefties. His calling card is his slider, which generates a ton of whiffs.

And his big frame clearly helps him on the mound, too.

“He does come at you with rear-ends and elbows, so there’s a little bit of funk there,” Sweeney said of Duran’s delivery. “The sinker is for real. The slider is for real. Pretty nasty.”

The obvious comparison for Duran is his new teammate and fellow Dominican Republic native, Steven Cruz, who came to the Royals in 2023 with big stuff, but also command issues. The Royals helped Cruz iron those issues out, and although they can creep in at times, he’s now getting high-leverage opportunities in Kansas City’s ‘pen.

There’s still a lot to learn about Duran, but he could follow a similar path.

“I was very excited [about the trade] because I knew I was going to get the opportunity to come pitch in the big leagues,” Duran said.

“Everybody here has been extremely helpful. They’re always trying to help me. We’re already getting along.”