The Diamondbacks have been inching more and more towards the sell side of the buy-sell bubble since the All-Star break, and John Gambadoro of 98.7 Arizona Sports suggests that the club has “solidified” as a seller for this summer’s trade deadline after being swept by the Astros earlier this week. Now that the club appears to be more firmly planning to sell in at least some capacity this summer, Gambadoro adds that they’ve received interest from “a few teams” on outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
Gurriel, 31, is in the second-year of his three-year, $42MM contract with the Diamondbacks signed following the club’s run to the World Series in 2023. That sets him apart from the majority of potential trade chips on Arizona’s roster, as pieces like Zac Gallen, Eugenio Suarez, and Josh Naylor are all poised to hit free agency this winter. Gurriel is due $13MM in 2026, and his contract also comes with a $14MM club option for 2027. That option has a $5MM buyout, meaning that Gurriel is guaranteed $18MM in addition to what’s left of his $14MM salary for 2025. That’s not exactly an onerous contract, but it’s still a fairly hefty price to pay for a player who has slashed just .245/.295/.406 with a wRC+ of 93 this year.
Gurriel is also largely confined to left field defensively at this point in his career with pedestrian defensive metrics at the position. Below average offense and defense from a position like left field isn’t exactly an exciting package, but Gurriel has suffered from a career-low .254 BABIP this season and is sporting a career-best strikeout rate of just 13.5%. He’s also posting stronger numbers against southpaws, with a .278/.331/.398 slash line against opposite-handed pitchers this year. Perhaps there are teams in need of outfield help who are intrigued by Gurriel’s contact-oriented bat and see taking on the veteran’s contract as a way to avoid parting with significant prospect capital in a deal for another available outfield option like Harrison Bader or Ramon Laureano.
Specific suitors for Gurriel aren’t known but, speculatively speaking, a team like the Phillies or Royals with a significant need in the outfield could make sense. While Gurriel’s production is rather pedestrian, he would still be a substantial upgrade for Max Kepler (85 wRC+) in Philadelphia or John Rave (74 wRC+) in Kansas City. The possibility of acquiring Gurriel without needing to expend significant capital beyond cash could also be attractive to a Phillies club that needs substantial help in the bullpen or a Royals club that finds themselves on the buy-sell bubble this summer.
Even if a return of note beyond salary relief cannot be had for Gurriel, there’s at least some reason for the Diamondbacks to consider making a deal. Getting Gurriel’s salary off the books could help the club in its efforts to either re-sign or replace players from their large crop of pending free agents, and the controllable trio of Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas, and Jake McCarthy could make it easier for the Diamondbacks to part with an outfield option. Of course, that doesn’t mean a deal is necessarily close or especially likely. While Gambadoro writes that multiple teams have reached out regarding Gurriel, it’s not clear how serious their interest is in the outfielder’s services.
Perhaps interested teams are only willing to deal for Gurriel if the Diamondbacks retain some of his contract, at which point it’s not hard to imagine the Snakes feeling they’re better served holding onto him and hoping that he bounces back enough to either help the team out in 2026 or raise his value on the trade market for the future. One potential compromise could be for Gurriel to be traded as part of a package involving one of Arizona’s other trade pieces, but it’s hard to say if the Diamondbacks would have much appetite for potentially watering down the trade return they could receive for a more valuable asset like Suarez by pairing him with Gurriel.
Interesting. Philly and KC definitely should be looking at him.
Although I know it’s unlikely because they’re in the division with the D-Backs, but the Giants could use Gurriel in a platoon with Yaz, though that would mean Heliot Ramos would need to move to RF, and Ramos is not a strong defender (especially necessary in Oracle’s vast RF).
Astros have said they want a lefty bat but Gurriel would solve their LF issue and allow Altuve to stay at 2B and Dubon to play 3B while Paredes is out. A return to the Jays probably shouldn’t be ruled out either
Sure Jan.
Oh Lawd!
Fire sale in Arizona. Suarez, Gallen, Kelly, Naylor, Beeks, Gurriel, should all be traded.
What happened to Gallen this year? Dude was always nasty against the Crew! Wonder what his cost would be. As a Brewer fan I’d love to see Gallen join the squad. (Yes we have a glut of starting pitching but could save on Miz’s innings and maybe Priester too if he would get fatigued going into September never having pitched that much in a season before at the big league level. Just curious what dbacks fans think Gallen would fetch.
It’s hard to say because it’s not clear how many teams are interested. I would say a prospect somewhere between 12-18 on the ranking list and a lottery ticket on a prospect outside of the top 30.
My thought on Gallen is that he really over thinks his pitches, what I hear while watching his starts the announcers saying he really micro-managing himself between starts and on the mound. He tries to outthink hitters, making them look bad, where they say he gets a 0-2 count and tries to get them to look foolish on an out pitch, instead of just getting the out anyway you can.
I could see Gurriel rocking a Phanatic green hair color. As the article states, he’s a clear LF upgrade, though if the Phillies are going for an outfielder I think they’re better off looking at CF.
Local media and fans are on the sell side. I’m more interested in where the club stands then the so called experts.
According to Hall via AZSports, sellers. As stated in this article as well.
The odds for the D’Backs to make the playoffs are 9% now, so the D’Backs could not possibly be a buyer. They need to get at least a couple players in return that can help them off set this selling mode that can help them in 1 to 3 years.’
Yeah, I had the same thought as well when I read that. He was a NL Gold Glove finalist as recently as last year. He has been a great defender in left field, with some mistakes here and there, but definitely not the defensively limited player he supposedly was in Toronto.
I like Gurriel, but I also like the idea of trading away his contract. There is already a lot of money coming off the books for next year, including:
Jordan Montgomery $22.5M
Eugenio Suarez $15M
Zac Gallen $13.5M
Josh Naylor $10.5M
Merrill Kelly $7M
That’s $68.5M, then add Gurriel’s $13M + $5M buy out for ‘27 = over $80M to spend on pitching this off-season!
You should seek out Jack Sommer’s perspective on how much the team has to spend in 2026. You’re assuming the same level of spending that they are using in 2025 which is an all time high. Plus you are not factoring in the raises due to Arbitration players and the contracts already on the books like Carroll, Marte, Perdomo and Pfaadt.
Say, they maintain the spending spree and those aforementioned $80MM are indeed available, it just gives me the creeps thinking that the Diamondbacks would spend those on pitchers that immediately start to underperform or need TJ once they put on the Sedona red.
Getting Gurriel would do nothing to improve the Phillies and would make defense much worse. He’s a platoon bat and would not replace horrible Kepler and no way they want to be stuck with him next year. He is not better than Otto Kemp. Please get him KC since the team somehow thinks it still has a shot.
Never saw a Lourdes drawing when he was a Jay. Must be a talent he explored while in Arizona.
Does he use a black Sharpie?…or is there colour added?
As A Jay’s fan LGJR is very streaky but when he’s going watch out.