Duffey's all-but-certain rotation spot allows him to revive changeup

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The last changeup Tyler Duffey threw in a regular season game took awhile to come down. It was the pitch that Jose Bautista nearly hit into the center-field restaurant at Rogers Centre for a grand slam in Duffey's major-league debut.

Undeterred, Duffey is experimenting with reviving that pitch this spring, at the urging of pitching coach Neil Allen. And the Twins are willing to overlook some occasional rough innings while he tries it out.

"He's working on his changeup, and part of the reason he's doing that is the vote of confidence he got at the beginning" of training camp, assistant general Rob Antony said Friday. There is no need, the Twins assured the second-year righthander, to think, " 'I need to go all fastball and curveball and get everybody out because I've got to make the team.' OK, look, we know what [he] can do. He's trying to improve as a pitcher, and you're going to get hit, you're going to give up runs. We're not too concerned about that."

Unless he falls apart, Antony and Paul Molitor said, Duffey will be the Twins' fourth starter. "It's his job to lose," Antony said, "though he could still lose it."

That last part is what spurs Duffey.

"If you let it go to your head, you can not take it as seriously, so I'm going to go out and battle. Pitch my game. Get ground balls when I need them," Duffey said. "Hopefully if I can keep that rolling, I can solidify a spot, but we've got a few weeks left."

And he's got a pitch to sharpen up.

"It's a pitch I think will help him," Molitor said. "He's trying to build trust in it."

Duffey threw a changeup with roughly 10-15 percent of his pitches during his start against the Red Sox on Friday, he said, and they helped the curveball specialist escape a three-hit first inning with only one run allowed. He tried one against Hanley Ramirez with two runners on base, and Boston's first baseman looked at strike three; then he used it on a 3-1 pitch to Travis Shaw and got him to pop out to end the inning.

"Obviously I don't want that to be the scouting report, so every time I do it it may not end so well," Duffey said. "But I felt confident, it came out great, and I was like, 'I can use that. I think it'll be a good one for me."