Catching Up With Tyler Duffey

[Theodore Tollefson]

"I’m really happy. It's somewhere I thought I had a chance to get on the big league team and make an impact with some young guys here."

Twins Daily's Theo Tollefson caught up with long-time Twins pitcher Tyler Duffey when he was in town last week with the Iowa Cubs. They discussed his off-season, time with the Twins, and his goals with the Chicago Cubs organization this season. 

Image courtesy of Theo Tollefson

ST. PAUL – Tyler Duffey’s tenure with the Minnesota Twins did not end how he hoped it would in 2022. He made his last appearance in a Twins uniform on August 4, and surrendered three runs on four hits and a walk in just 1 2/3 innings against the Toronto Blue Jays. 

The next morning the Twins designated him for assignment and two days later he was granted his release.

“I think last year was just an anomaly so to speak,” said Duffey. “My fly ball rate, 40% of those were home runs, and it was just not sustainable, not really my kind of thing, and it was just unfortunate.”

The man known as The Doof knows he isn’t the only reliever to go through the problems he had with his pitches in 2022. He compared his season last year with old teammate Ryan Pressly’s 2017 season with the Twins when his home run per nine innings rate was at an all-time high. 

“There's no rhyme or reason to it. It just happens. But here we are, fast-forward eight months. I'm pitching in St. Paul, feel good, and throwing strikes, even though my first outing wasn’t great,” Duffey said. 

Duffey spent the remainder of the 2022 minor-league season between the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees Triple-A affiliates. His evaluations for the off-season were finding a team that would give him the best chance to return to the big leagues and rediscovering the success he had as a reliever from 2019-2021. 

The team Duffey ended up signing a minor-league deal with was the Chicago Cubs and now finds himself in their Triple-A affiliate, Iowa Cubs, bullpen. 

“Everything feels great,” Duffey said on his deal with the Cubs organization. “Obviously, that one outing aside, I’m really happy. It's somewhere I thought I had a chance to get on the big league team and make an impact with some young guys here. And it's all been so far so good” 

While returning to the big leagues is a top priority for Duffey, the mentorship role came to him in spring training spending time with pitchers who have only had a brief brush of time in the big leagues. One of those pitchers was Hayden Wesneski, another native of the Houston, Texas, area as Duffey, who has only had six games with the Cubs in 2022. 

“Guys are coming to me sometimes with stuff. You don't realize when you come to a new team, and the most tender guy on their pen probably has only four years of service. So it's just a different animal and to get an opportunity to be around some really good talented players, like Hayden, it's just one of the cool things of getting to a new place,” said Duffey. 

Having the first full series of his season back in Minnesota made for much time for Duffey to catch up with old friends in the other clubhouse. 

“Seeing Randy (Dobnak) and (Bailey) Ober over there. Ryan LaMarre... now I’ve played with him in three different places. The longer you’re around the game the more friends you have, the more acquaintances you make, and things like that. Ultimately, it's playing in sync, that means you're still playing the game. Every day it's about us just trying to play baseball and have fun doing it,” said Duffey. 

Duffey still looks back on his time with the Twins organization fondly as many players do with the team that drafted them. As the season goes on and his numbers continue to improve from a shaky April 6th outing, Duffey has great confidence he'll find himself in the Cubs' bullpen in 2023. 

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[nclahammer]

Always liked Tyler Duffy, a class act, and wish him good luck!

[Nine of twelve]

I was also always glad to see him do well. The issue that sticks in my mind (pun intended) is that the drop-off in his performance seemed correlated to the crackdown by MLB on the use of grip-enhancers by pitchers. Correlation does not equal causation but I'll always wonder if that was the reason.

[Joe A. Preusser]

Imagine all the awesome trade scenarios the folks over at Cubs Daily are coming up with.  

[Seth Stohs]

On 4/12/2023 at 7:31 AM, Joe A. Preusser said:

Imagine all the awesome trade scenarios the folks over at Cubs Daily are coming up with.  

You mean North Side Baseball, right?  https://northsidebaseball.com/ 

[ashbury]

44 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

You mean North Side Baseball, right?  https://northsidebaseball.com/ 

Nobody will ever truly duplicate the formula here at Tw-.... wait, oh.