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.

I’m not fond of that one,” Duffey remembered the physician informing him.

Duffey received the results of the biopsy on February 26. He had 40 stitches after an operation on his upper back one day later, and ideally, no more cancer.

Duffey said on Wednesday, “Here we are, which I’m extremely glad 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.

“The nicest benefit of it all is that we detected it extremely early, and I can play baseball, perhaps in a week or two,” Duffey said. “This week has been strange and emotional in many ways. 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..