The Diamondbacks announced a series of roster moves today. Right-handers Kevin Ginkel and Bryce Jarvis have been recalled from Triple-A Reno and the club has also selected the contract of right-hander Tayler Scott. To open spots for those three, righty Jeff Brigham has been optioned to Reno while righties Justin Martínez and Christian Montes De Oca have both been placed on the 15-day injured list. Martínez has a sprained right ulnar collateral ligament while Montes De Oca has right elbow inflammation. To open a 40-man spot for Scott, righty Cristian Mena has been transferred to the 60-day IL.
The news on Martínez is ominous. The righty called the training staff to the mound during last night’s appearance. It was later relayed to reporters that he was experiencing elbow tightness. A sprain, by definition, involves some stretching or tearing of the ligament. Per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, manager Torey Lovullo says Martínez is now set for a second opinion on his injury.
Whenever a pitcher’s elbow is injured, it raises alarm bells about a possible surgery and those concerns certainly appear to be warranted here. It should be pointed out that not all sprains necessarily lead to a operation. To pick one recent example, Mason Miller was diagnosed with a mild UCL sprain in May of 2023 and ultimately did not head to the surgeon’s table. However, it took him four months to get back on the mound, as he wasn’t reinstated from the IL until September of that year.
It may take a few more days to determine the prognosis with Martínez but it seems like it will be an unfortunate development regardless. The righty seemed to break out as one of the best relievers in the sport last year. He tossed 72 2/3 innings for the Diamondbacks with a 2.48 earned run average. His 11.7% walk rate was certainly high but he struck out 29.5% of opponents and got grounders on 58.9% of balls in play.
The Diamondbacks believed in that breakout enough to lock up Martínez for the long term. He and the club agreed to a five-year extension in March that guarantees him $18MM, with two club options as well. Unfortunately, the first season of that deal has been a bit of a bust so far. Martínez already missed about three weeks due to some shoulder inflammation and is now back on the IL again with an even scarier diagnosis. He has only been able to throw 15 1/3 innings with a 4.11 ERA this year.
Martínez and A.J. Puk were supposed to be the two big weapons in the Arizona bullpen this year. Puk made just eight appearances before landing on the IL in mid-April due to elbow inflammation. He was later diagnosed with a flexor strain and transferred to the 60-day IL. His return timeline is unclear. Now it seems possible the Snakes may have to proceed without either of those hurlers for a while. They also put Kendall Graveman on the 15-day IL yesterday due to a hip impingement.
It’s the latest punch in what has been a bruising season for the Diamondbacks. They have lost starters Corbin Burnes and Jordan Montgomery to Tommy John surgery. Their bullpen has taken a number of hits. Some of their healthy pitchers have been underperforming. Though the Snakes came into the season with high hopes, they are now fourth in the National League West and 5.5 games back in the Wild Card race, a less than ideal time to be hemorrhaging key players.
If Martínez does have a serious injury, there would be one silver lining for the Diamondbacks in the long term. His extension has a conditional club option for 2032, valued at just $3MM. That would be triggered if he requires surgery or missed a certain number of days on the IL during the course of the deal.
While the club awaits for information there, they have to proceed with the business of the games on the schedule. They have added a number of arms to the active roster, which includes adding Scott to the 40-man. The 33-year-old Scott elected free agency last month after being designated for assignment by the Astros, which led to a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks.
He seemed to have a nice late-bloomer breakout with Houston last year, posting a 2.23 ERA over 68 2/3 innings. He struck out 25.2% of batters faced, though also gave out walks at a 12.4% pace. There was likely a bit of luck in that ERA, as his .230 batting average on balls in play and 84.9% strand rate were both to the fortunate side. ERA estimators like his 4.13 FIP and 4.04 SIERA pointed to some regression though still suggested he could be a capable big league arm.
The pendulum swing ended up being quite strong. He posted a 5.40 ERA through 16 2/3 innings to start this year. His .313 BABIP and 65.2% strand rate went to the other side of average as his strikeout rate fell to 20.5% and his walk rate climbed to 15.4%.
Since he’s out of options, that got him bumped off the roster and to free agency. Since landing with the D’Backs, he has thrown 3 1/3 scoreless innings for Reno. He may have a tenuous grasp on a roster spot, given his out-of-options status, but he, Ginkel and Jarvis will give the club three fresh arms after they used eight different pitchers to get through yesterday’s 11-inning game against the Mariners.
As for Mena, he just landed on the IL a few days ago with a shoulder strain. Lovullo said his absence would be measured in “weeks, not days.” Given today’s IL transfer, he will be ineligible for reinstatement until early August.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Snake bit.
Arguably the 3 best pitchers on the team all down with UCL injuries. When it rains it pours.
I hope you’re not including Jordan Montgomery in that list of “the 3 best pitchers on the team”, but I fear you are.
aj puk ?
Jordan Montgomery, stick a pin in him. He is done. His career probably over as well.
A couple years ago the Rockies had four of their five starting pitchers AND three of their four best pitching prospects all go down with season ending injuries, mostly TJ, in a single like 3 week period (the three prospects were all in the same weekend). Stuff happens.
Believe me, I’m NO Dodger lover, but their pitching has been hit much harder than the Dbacks pitching. Of course the Dodgers sign pitchers with shaky injury histories and veterans at the end of their careers, so they deliberately sign twice as many as they need to get through the season.
Dodgers have twice as many pitchers
Dodgers will get Alcantra if he has a few good starts.
Burn baby burn
The Diamondbacks should just call off the rest of the season before the team plane goes down or something. This team is cursed.
This, of course, is a fine example of hyperbole!
I believe it was intentional!
Hey sleepy Joe!
Another one out with TJ most likely.
They cannot have much left in AAA that they can recall.
Yilber Diaz, the Dbacks top pitching prospect, has yet to be called up this year. I don’t know if he’s hurt, struggling or the team wants him to continue building up his innings in Reno as a SP. Diaz has a nasty slider and 95-97 mph fastball that would probably tick up to 97-99, if used in relief. Again, I don’t know his status/availability.
About Diaz, I heard that he was having a wild streak, the D’Back management had sent him down to their Scottsdale instructional league from Reno where he could get a lot more a one-on-one coaching to find out what the problem in his release is causing the wildness. That was about a month ago.
Thank you. I see now that Diaz was assigned back to Reno today. He has spent the past 3-4 weeks in the Arizona Complex League as you noted.
The familiar names at AAA Reno are Drey Jameson (on 7-day injured list), Kyle Nelson and Andrew Saalfrank, who was a key bullpen arm in the 2023 run to the WS, but was suspended last year and this year for 80 games, and is building back up since his recent reinstatement.
I think they are viewing Jameson more as a reliever for the time being, especially since he just came back from TJS himself.
It is clearly not the Diamondbacks year this year. It’s looking more likely by the day that they will be sellers at the trade deadline.