Zach Duke’s arm slot, bullpen transition turned career for better. Mariners hope that continues

Zach Duke arrived in the Seattle Mariners’ clubhouse Tuesday and was added to the club’s active roster one day after he was acquired in a trade with the Minnesota Twins.

He fills the Mariners’ need for a situational lefty in the bullpen with left-handed hitters batting .237 against the 35-year-old former All-Star this season.

His career took a turn for the better when he transitioned from predominately a starting pitcher into a reliever, despite his initial reluctance. He added an additional arm slot to his delivery – meaning he throws from both a sidearm and about three-quarter angle. It was something he took off the advice of talking with hitters he respected.

“It pretty much doubled my pitch arsenal,” Duke said. “It took a four-pitch arsenal that was average to below average to an eight-pitch arsenal which is pretty good.”

The Mariners cleared space for Duke by placing left-hander Roenis Elias on the 10-day disabled list with a left triceps strain, which Mariners manager Scott Servais called a “freak deal” suffered in Anaheim during a workout. He wasn’t available for Monday’s win over the Houston Astros.

Servais said they expect outfielder Cameron Maybin and right-hander Adam Warren to arrive in Seattle on Wednesday after acquiring them in trades from the Marlins and Yankees, respectively.

Duke said he arrived in Seattle by 2:15 a.m. Tuesday morning.

“It’s been a blur,” he said.

But the Mariners coveted him because of how he can complement their other lefty reliever, hard-throwing James Pazos. Duke’s deceptiveness and Pazos’ velocity gives them better matchup options from the left side.

Duke rarely pitches more than three outs in a game anymore, despite his five seasons as a starting pitcher, including reaching the All-Star game with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2009.

“My initial move to long reliever, I wasn’t a huge fan of that, but I quickly became a fan of the bullpen role,” Duke said. “Because that was the only role available to me. If I wanted to continue pitching, I knew that was going to be the route. Thankfully I transitioned to the role pretty quickly. It was pretty smooth from the aspect of it was either do that or go home.”

This story was originally published July 31, 2018 at 5:33 PM.