July 8: Arizona officially selected Diaz’s contract on Monday afternoon. The D-Backs optioned lefty reliever Joe Jacques to Triple-A in a corresponding active roster move. They already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster after releasing Tucker Barnhart, so that is now at capacity.
July 5: The Diamondbacks are “likely” to promote pitching prospect Yilber Diaz for his MLB debut next week, according to Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. The right-hander would get the ball to start Monday night’s series opener against the Braves. Diaz is not on the 40-man roster, but the Diamondbacks currently have an open spot on the 40-man, so they would not need to make a corresponding move to select his contract.
Diaz made his professional debut for the D-backs organization in 2021. After pitching to a 4.17 ERA and 3.66 FIP in 14 starts at Double-A between 2023 and ’24, he earned a promotion to Triple-A this June. In four starts with the Reno Aces, he has a 3.27 ERA with 28 strikeouts in 22 innings of work. On the season, he has an impressive 33.2% strikeout rate in 15 outings between Double and Triple-A. The 23-year-old is averaging just over five innings per start.
Diaz is currently ranked as the #16 prospect in the Diamondbacks system, according to MLB Pipeline. Baseball America and Keith Law of the Athletic both had him at #15 on their preseason lists. Eric Longenhagen and Travis Ice of FanGraphs were a little higher on Diaz, ranking him #6 and expressing more faith in both of his breaking balls (a slider and curve) to be potential plus pitches. Ultimately, however, all four sources agreed that the righty’s future is most likely in the bullpen. He throws a mid-90s fastball that can touch the high-90s; if his velocity were to tick up out of the ’pen, he could be a flame-throwing relief weapon.
Yet, for now, Diaz remains a starting pitcher, and he will take on the biggest test of his starting career on Monday. The Braves offense has struggled for much of the season, especially against right-handed pitching. Regardless, they’re going to be a far tougher opponent than a Triple-A club, and Diaz has hardly even faced much Triple-A opposition.
Although the rookie might benefit from a bit more seasoning in the minors, the Diamondbacks are a little desperate for starting pitching after Jordan Montgomery landed on the injured list last week. Rookie Cristian Mena made his MLB debut in Montgomery’s place on Wednesday, but the results were poor. He lasted only three innings, giving up four earned runs on four hits, three walks, and two home runs. Mena struck out just two of the 15 batters he faced, and he has already been optioned back to Triple-A. The only other healthy starting pitcher on Arizona’s 40-man roster who isn’t already in the rotation is Tommy Henry, who has a 7.04 ERA in 38 1/3 MLB innings this season.
If you look beyond the box score you would know that Mena’s results in his spot start were not poor. Against the Dodgers he did give four runs in the first inning facing the likes of Ohtani, Freeman, and Will Smith. Then he went two more innings not giving up another hit. Considering he is 21 and was previously one of the youngest pitchers in AAA, those results are pretty good.
For a team with high expectations, they have been giving way too many innings to young and developing pitchers.
This comment is confusing to me. Do you think it’s something they’re doing instead of giving innings to veteran, established starting pitching?
Gallen was out for a month
Kelly has been out for most of the season
Rodriguez has been out all year
Montgomery is STRUGGLING and now hurt
Pfaadt has made every start
There’s five guys that aren’t young and developing (except pfaadt but he’s earned a spot in the rotation).
Maybe they should consider having some veteran infielders pitch instead?
What Source said. We have 2 starting rotations: the main rotation piecemeal with young pitchers and the other rotation in the tub. The team with “high expectations” is doing pretty damn good all things considered. Imagine if we had veteran starters over the whole season…
Agreed. The DBacks have been really silly keeping Gallen, Kelly, ERod and Montgomery on the IL with fake injuries so they can have tryouts for their young guys. Not sure what their front office is thinking. *rolls eyes*
The Dbacks match up as well as any team with the Tigers for a Flaherty trade (unless he is actually hurt, then no one will maych up with them). The Tigers need bats, a young C prospect and a young SS prospect. Barrosa(OF), Cerda (C) and Torin (SS) all look like the type of hitter that the Tigers target. He could slot in for ex-Tiger Rodriguez and give the Snakes a strong top 3 for the playoffs.
The problem is that we already have our ideal rotation on the books, they just can’t be healthy at the same time. If all of the 5 planned starters get healthy and we add Flaherty, who gets the boot?
Is Erod coming back? If so that might nix that idea. Although I saw one article suggesting they look for a replacement for Montgomery since he’s pitching so poorly.
They cannot put someone else in instead of Montgomery. The guy is on a 25MM contract and will certainly opt in after this disastrous season. Gallen, Kelly, Rodriguez and Montgomery will be in next year’s rotation with Pfaadt.
Diamondbacks could look for another starter but the question of what to do when they are all healthy is legit, and they will be at some point this season, whether in August or September.
I can see how that would be an issue and then you are left with who to send to the pen. It’s always a balancing act.
He must be getting bored with all that waiting. Is he at least catching up on Netflix shows?
With the Braves in their sights, it’s a high-stakes debut for the young hurler.
Kid pitched his ass off tonight! 6IP 1 ER
And Sewald blows another. He should never close again.
Third gut punch in a week. That was brutal… again.
He has the worst stuff of any closer in baseball. It amazes me whenever he actually gets an out.