Diamondbacks left-hander Andrew Saalfrank underwent shoulder surgery this morning and will miss the entire 2026 season, reports Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. The team has not yet announced the injury or provided further details but should do so in the near future. Presumably, Saalfrank sustained an injury late in his offseason program. Whatever the case, his subtraction from the bullpen is a tough break for a D-backs club that was already facing plenty of questions about its relief corps and has been working to bring some arms into the fold.
Saalfrank, 28, pitched 29 big league innings this past season and notched a pristine 1.24 earned run average in that time. That mark seems ripe for regression, as it was propped up by a .217 average on balls in play and 87% strand rate — neither of which seemed sustainable. Saalfrank fanned only 16.8% of his opponents, although his 12.2% swinging-strike rate suggests there could be more punchouts in the tank.
The left-handed Saalfrank issued walks at a respectable 8.8% clip and induced grounders at a solid 44.7% rate. Even if another sub-2.00 ERA wasn’t going to be in the cards, he still looked the part of a viable middle reliever at least — though Arizona used him in plenty of high-leverage spots last year after losing Justin Martinez and A.J. Puk to season-ending elbow surgeries.
Saalfrank has pitched 40 1/3 innings in the majors across the past three seasons, working to a 1.79 ERA in that time despite worse-than-average strikeout and walk rates of 15.4% and 11.1%, respectively. He works primarily off a sinker that sits just over 89 mph and a curveball that sits just shy of 80 mph.
Saalfrank would likely have more big league innings under his belt were it not for a yearlong ban he received from June 2024 to June 2025, after the league found that he bet on major league games during his time as a prospect in the D-backs’ system from 2020-21. Saalfrank bet a total of $445 and did not place any bets on D-backs games specifically, but his actions still violated the league’s stated policies and resulted in a lengthy punishment.
With Saalfrank out for the season, the D-backs’ options late in games thin even further. They’ll hope for summer returns from Martinez and Puk, but they’re obvious 60-day IL candidates when camp formally opens. Arizona’s top options in the ’pen right now include Ryan Thompson, Kevin Ginkel and trade acquisition Kade Strowd. They’ll be banking on some in-house arms stepping up and claiming key roles, but losing another arm that looked locked into a spot in manager Torey Lovullo’s bullpen could spur the front office to act with greater urgency to bring in another reliever of some note, whether via free agency or trade.
Terrible to hear.
Oooof. I believe he was going to have the 9th while Martinez was recovering too right?
So much for watching my favorite player this year… I guess I’ll just have to watch Tim Hill.
Fellow lefty reliever enjoyer
Could see them take a shot at JoJo Romero after this. Top lefty would be Brandyn Garcia until Puk comes back.
This is why you have to get players! Already. Luckily this happened when we can still do something before the season
Send the Pirates Jordan Lawlar and we’ll send you some of our bullpen arms.
Lawlar for Dennis Santana
Actually I’d like to change my suggestion since Lawlar seems to have struggled more mightily than I thought. Still interested though.
Lawler and Britt for Santana
or
Lawler for Nicholas and Sisk
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a team get so decimated by injuries the way the D-Backs have over the past year. They had a good team on paper last season and probably would’ve made the playoffs if not for all the injuries.
I live out here and I can tell you, it’s been incredible to watch. It seems like every day there’s another injury to their pitching staff. The fact that they were competitive and stayed on the fringes of the race last year was really something.