How New Mariner Zach Duke Reinvented Himself

Five years ago, Zach Duke found himself in a sobering situation. The then-30-year-old left-hander had exercised an August 1 opt-out clause — he’d been pitching well for Cincinnati’s Triple-A affiliate — and his next opportunity was seemingly right around the corner. With 200 big-league appearances under his belt, it was only a matter of time until his phone rang and he was fielding offers.

Instead, all he heard was crickets.

“I was on the verge,” Duke admitted this past weekend. “When you make yourself available to every team and none of them want you, that’s a pretty good indicator that the end might be near. To be honest, I thought that might be it.”

After reinventing himself, though, he’s not only still pitching, he’s a wanted man. Earlier today, the Seattle Mariners acquired Duke from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for Chase De Jong and Ryan Costello. His appeal to the pennant contenders is apparent in the numbers. In 45 relief appearances covering 37.1 innings, Duke has a 3.62 ERA, a 58.5% ground-ball rate, and has yet to give up a gopher.

“I needed to figure out something else to make people give me another shot,” Duke said of his 2013 transformation. “What I’d been doing to that point wasn’t of interest anymore, so I reinvented myself as a reliever who throws from multiple arm slots.”

When no other teams came calling, Duke re-signed with the Reds and returned to Triple-A. On his first day back, he approached Ted Power, the club’s pitching coach at the time, and told him that he “wanted to throw some sidearm stuff.” He also wanted an honest answer. If Power didn’t think it was any good, that was fine. He’d either “try something else or go somewhere and bag groceries.”

The experiment passed muster, and it passed it in short order. After throwing “literally one bullpen with sidearm mixed in,” Duke took his dual deliveries into a game. Two weeks later he was back in the big leagues, where he remains to this day.

The veteran lefty feels that throwing from multiple arm angles make him more deceptive, which translates into him being more effective.

“The visual for the hitter is different,” explained Duke. “The No. 1 thing a hitter says is that he wants to find a pitcher’s release point first, and then he can try to pick up the spin on the ball after that. Well, if your release point is changing, it’s harder for the hitter to pick it up.”

Duke had a similar explanation for why his curveball is effective against right-handed hitters when thrown from his sidearm slot.

“Hitters look for a curveball to come up out of the hand,” the southpaw theorized. “They’re used to seeing that trajectory, and from that sidearm angle you don’t necessarily see the ball come up — it just comes out of the hand. They’re trying to track it, and by the time the pitch is to the plate they’ve either given up on it or they’ve committed to a swing and the ball is in a different place by the time the barrel gets to the zone. A lot of opposite-hand breaking balls don’t tend to be as good, but mine has been, and I think that’s why.”

As for Duke himself, he’s not the has-been he once feared he’d become. Far from it. Half a decade after being on the verge of bagging groceries, he’s a reliable bullpen arm with a mixed bag of tricks. Following today’s trade, he’s also a Seattle Mariner… which is a match made in heaven. Team and player are like two peas in pod. Duke’s 513 career regular-season appearances are the most among active pitchers without a playoff appearance, and the Mariners haven’t been in the postseason since 2001. Opportunity is now knocking for both.