"Are you gonna do some phantom DL crap?" - When Danny Duffy refused to take a break from the game amid pitching woes

Veteran left-hander Danny Duffy once refused to go on the IL despite sustaining a dip in form back in 2018 when he was playing with the Kansas City Royals. The former World Series winner was suffering pitching woes and then-Royals manager, Ned Yost, said that he had some plans to bring out Duffy's best.

During a 2018 regular season game against the New York Yankees, Duffy gave up five runs in four innings as the Royals lost 8-3. At that time, Duffy had the lowest ERA of all pitchers in the major leagues with at least seven starts, standing at 6.88.

During 51 innings in the 2018 season, Duffy allowed 63 hits, and opponents were hitting 0.296 off of him. In ten games, he only had one excellent start. Duffy expressed his dissatisfaction after the loss to the New York Yankees, which was understandable as he was struggling with his form.

"Sometimes you're not special at something," Duffy said. "Right now, I'm not special at pitching. What are you going to do? Run from it with some phantom DL [garbage]? I'm not going on the DL. I feel great."

2018 MLB season went from bad to worse for Royals southpaw Danny Duffy

Danny Duffy left a regular-season game against the Cleveland Guardians in September 2018 with a diagnosis of left shoulder impingement. Yost declared that it didn't make sense to address the condition and keep him on the mound that season as that would have further deteriorated his health.

Danny Duffy reached the career milestone of 1,000 strikeouts with the Kansas City Royals

For Duffy, who was in the second year of a five-year, $65 million contract with the Royals, 2018 had been a difficult season. His velocity had fluctuated and his early struggles had raised the possibility that he wasn't healthy at the time.

Danny Duffy was sidelined for the remainder of the 2018 season due to ailments and inconsistencies that have dogged him for the majority of his career.

Before suffering the injury in 2018, Duffy, who underwent Tommy John surgery in 2012, had been placed on the injured list three times in the previous two seasons. In the 2017 offseason, he underwent surgery to remove loose substances from his elbow.

The 35-year-old is now at the Texas Rangers on a minor league contract.