NL West Notes: Dunn, Qualls, Giants, Bradley

The Rockies announced on Wednesday that they’ve placed lefty reliever Mike Dunn on the 10-day disabled list due to back spasms. Filling Dunn’s place on the 25-man roster will be fellow veteran Chad Qualls, who will return to the ’pen after missing the first three weeks of the season due to tightness in his right forearm. Dunn’s subtraction from the relief corps comes as a blow to the Rox, given how excellent he’s been thus far in the first few weeks of a three-year, $19MM deal. Through his first 7 2/3 innings as a member of the Rockies, Dunn has allowed just one run on five hits and two walks with 10 strikeouts. The 38-year-old Qualls, meanwhile, will be looking to rebound after posting a 5.23 ERA in the first season of a two-year deal with the Rox.

More from the NL West…

• The Giants and Brewers have previously had conversations about a Ryan Braun trade, writes Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News in his latest Giants mailbag column, though Baggarly doesn’t envision San Francisco making any notable splashes in the left field department. According to Baggarly, the Brewers sought some salary relief in addition to well-regarded prospects, and the Giants weren’t willing to meet their price. He adds that the Giants would probably be interested in Leonys Martin if he were to become available for free and could be stashed in Triple-A (i.e. if the Mariners release him rather than trade him following his weekend DFA), but a claim of Martin and the remaining $4.2MM on his salary isn’t likely in Baggarly’s eyes. The entire column addresses roster-related topics, including Jae-gyun Hwang’s timeline, Christian Arroyo’s development and potential alignments if Brandon Crawford requires any type of notable absence. I’d recommend that Giants fans and NL West followers give it a full read.
• Although the Diamondbacks didn’t consider Archie Bradley when looking for spot starters to fill Shelby Miller’s spot in the rotation on Wednesday, the organization still views him as a starter in the long run, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports. Bradley has been dominant in 11 1/3 innings of relief work so far, but the decision to keep him in the ’pen was more due the fact that he’s not stretched out than any concerns that he cannot succeed as a starter. “We’ve always held that in the back of our mind that, long-term, (Bradley) was going to impact our rotation,” said GM Mike Hazen. “…Once we made the decision to put him in the bullpen, we knew that we were going to have to figure out sort of a strategy back out of it if we wanted him to start – to do it safely for him.” Right-hander Zack Godley will start for Arizona tonight in Miller’s place, and further word on Miller is expected in the near future.