Pitcher Tyler Duffey, 33, who spent ten years in the Minnesota Twins organization, has had a hectic start to the 2024 season after learning he had melanoma shortly after reporting to Kansas City Royals spring training.
Duffey made his shocking skin cancer diagnosis public on Wednesday. The discovery came as a complete surprise to him when he asked a Royals team doctor to examine an area on his back.
The doctor told him, “I don’t love that one,” Duffey remembered.
Duffey received the results of the biopsy on February 26. After a day, he had surgery on his upper back, which resulted in 40 stitches—and hopefully, no more cancer.
Duffey said on Wednesday, “Here we are, which I’m incredibly grateful for,” adding that he had first asked the doctor if he could postpone the surgery until after the baseball season ended.
Duffey told the gathered journalists, with tears in his eyes, that his mother, who passed away in 2012, suffered from breast cancer, and that his father, who passed away in 2021, had melanoma.
“The most important lesson I learned from it is that getting checked doesn’t cost anything. Other than turning up, there is no effort,” stated Duffey.
“We caught it very early, which is the best blessing of it all and I’m able to play baseball, hopefully in a week or two,” Duffey said. This week has been strange and full of emotions. However, I believe that we are in a good place and that everyone is looking out for me.”
After being selected by the Twins in the fifth round of the 2012 draft out of Rice University, Duffey made 295 appearances with the team between 2015 and 2022. 2019 and 2020 were his greatest seasons with the Twins, with earned-run averages of 2.50 and 1.88, respectively.
The right-hander spent last season bouncing between the Rangers, Yankees, and Cubs after being released by Minnesota in August 2022, but he only appeared in one major league game.
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