Royals’ Duffy tired of questions about non-use

Danny Duffy has grown weary of the questions about his arm, only in part because he has not had an opportunity to answer them. More than a month has passed since he walked off the mound after one pitch at Yankee Stadium, long enough for the inflammation in his left shoulder to subside, but not long enough to quell public concerns about his condition.

As the Royals pile up postseason victories and Duffy remains a bystander, the wonder about his lack of use continues to grow. Duffy, a 25-year-old southpaw, last started in the regular season’s penultimate game, a two-inning outing in Chicago against the White Sox in which his mechanics troubled team officials. It may have been his final start of the season.

If that is the case, Duffy insists he does not mind. He says he has not asked manager Ned Yost why, but he has tired of people lamenting his health.

“I can tell you that it’s really starting to get old, hearing that question,” Duffy said after the Royals worked out Sunday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium. “It’s something that people, I guess, need to know, but it doesn’t matter. It’s mind-blowing to me, because we have done so well this postseason. To focus on a lack of pitching from somebody? I’m ready when I’m needed. And I haven’t been needed.”

The Royals carried home with them a 2-0 lead over the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship Series after an unblemished weekend at Camden Yards. They can clinch their first World Series berth in 29 seasons in these next three games at Kauffman Stadium. And they will attempt to do so without receiving a start from Duffy, their best pitcher at times this summer, who now resides in the bullpen.

After James Shields and Yordano Ventura opened the series in Baltimore, Jeremy Guthrie will pitch game three. On Sunday, Yost cemented Jason Vargas as the starter for the fourth game. Meanwhile, Duffy (9-12, 2.53 ERA in the regular season) has been limited to a lone inning of relief in the first game of the American League Division Series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. His absence from the playoff proceedings has been a curious subplot, one Duffy wishes would subside.

“We’re winning with the formula that we’re going out with right now,” Duffy said. “It doesn’t matter if I throw another pitch this postseason, as long as we continue to do what we’re doing. I’m just happy to be here, and to be given the opportunity to be a part of this team.”

He added, “I’m not curious as to why I’m not pitching. It’s not paining me at all. It doesn’t hurt my feelings. It doesn’t matter.”

A little less than two years removed from Tommy John surgery, Duffy maintained all year long he did not want to become this year’s version of Stephen Strasburg, whom the Washington Nationals shut down as a precautionary measure in their 2012 playoff run. Instead, Duffy has become this year’s version of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Shelby Miller, a crucial component of a playoff club shunted into the background in October.

Miller won 15 games for St. Louis with a 3.06 ERA last season, but as the Cardinals charged all the way to the World Series, Miller pitched just one inning. Now Duffy finds himself in a similar position.

Duffy posted a 2.55 ERA in 25 starts, the lowest mark of any member of the rotation. He trailed only Wade Davis in Baseball-Reference.com’s wins above replacement and was considered worth 3.5 WAR, an advanced metric that compares a player to the production of a theoretical minor-league replacement.

On Sept. 6, he left a game against the New York Yankees after throwing just one pitch. The Royals shut him down for two weeks. He returned on Sept. 22 and found himself unable to throw strikes from his windup delivery. Pitching almost exclusively from the stretch, he spun six scoreless innings against the Cleveland Indians.

His final outing was far less encouraging. The White Sox pounded him for four runs in two innings Sept. 27. The timing of this lapse was unfortunate.

Duffy stressed Sunday that his delivery has not troubled him in subsequent bullpen sessions. Even as team officials, publicly and privately, maintain he is healthy, Duffy did concede his September injury hurts his case for deserving a start in October. Not, he continued, when the team employs such veterans as Guthrie and Vargas, who are pictures of good health.

“I had that thing in New York,” he said. “I don’t want to be that guy and go out there and, if God forbid something happened, cash (out) the bullpen after one pitch again.”

Yost veered toward defensiveness when asked about Duffy. He bristled in Anaheim when asked about “shying away“ from using him. He had dubbed Duffy a long reliever for this latest series, but has since painted his position as more fluid. Duffy was warming up Saturday night before the Royals took the lead in the ninth inning of game two against the Orioles, when closer Greg Holland was brought in for the save.

“Just because I said that he was a long guy, I also said that he could be a short guy,” Yost said of Duffy. “He’s a guy that’s going to pitch when we need him to pitch.”

The need has not arisen. Duffy was a valuable member of the bullpen in April, but Yost has displayed confidence in 21-year-old rookie Brandon Finnegan. The team slots the final three innings of the game to Kelvin Herrera, Davis and Holland.

“I don’t feel the need to ask“ when he will pitch again, Duffy said. “Because I know, when they call my name, I’ll be ready. It’s cliche as it gets, but when they call my name, I’ll be ready.”

This story was originally published October 12, 2014 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Royals’ Duffy tired of questions about non-use."