SAN FRANCISCO — Hours before the 2014 trade deadline, Matt Duffy was pulled off a 7 a.m. Double-A bus from Richmond to Altoona. He didn’t get the call to the big leagues until 4:30 that afternoon, and throughout the day, Duffy had one thought running through his head.
“I thought I was getting traded that whole time,” he once said as he told the story of that hectic day.
Instead he became a surprise contributor down the stretch, and the next spring he forced his way onto the Opening Day roster. By late May, he was the everyday starter at third base.