Laffey enters his second season with the Somerset Patriots and second in the Atlantic League. The southpaw carried a 1-1 record with a 2.82 ERA over four starts with the Patriots last year, including five shutout innings with seven strikeouts in his first start of the year. He struck out 19 batters over 22 innings before his contract was purchased by the Arizona Diamondbacks organization on May 15. He went 5-3 over 21 appearances (13 starts) with Triple-A Reno to finish his 2017 season.

The Ridgeley, West Virginia resident has eight years of service in the big leagues, including four seasons with the Cleveland Indians (2007-10), half of a season split between the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees (2011) and time with the Toronto Blue Jays (2012-13), New York Mets (2013) and Colorado Rockies (2015). Over 156 games in the majors (68 starts), Laffey recorded 26 wins with a 4.44 ERA in 494.1 innings of work.

Laffey has pitched exclusively in the majors, Triple-A level or with the Patriots over the last seven seasons. In 2016, Laffey went 6-6 with a 3.82 ERA over 29 games (14 starts) with Triple-A Syracuse in the Washington Nationals organization. The year prior, he went 5-4 over 27 games (12 starts) with Triple-A Albuquerque before earning a promotion to the majors with the Rockies. Laffey carries a 47-38 record over 157 games (114 starts) at the Triple-A level.