As the Diamondbacks continue to look for first base help, the club has shown interest in Carlos Santana, MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo reports. John Gambadoro of 98.7FM Arizona Sports adds more detail, saying that Santana is just one of multiple first basemen the Snakes are exploring, and no deal appears to be close.
A veteran of 16 MLB seasons, Santana has a reputation as a clubhouse leader, which Gambadoro says adds extra appeal for the D’Backs on top of Santana’s contributions on the field. Santana is a strong defensive first baseman who finally won his first career Gold Glove in 2024, and that same season saw him hit .238/.328/.420 with 23 homers over 594 plate appearances for the Twins.
That solid 113 wRC+ campaign was followed, however, by an 82 wRC+ performance over 474 PA with the Guardians and Cubs in 2025. Santana inked a one-year, $12MM free agent contract to return to his old stomping grounds, but this third stint in Cleveland didn’t work out, as Santana was released in late August. The Cubs signed Santana as bench depth heading into the playoff stretch, but he had just two hits over 19 PA in a Chicago uniform and wasn’t part of the postseason roster.
Over 474 total PA in 2025, Santana hit .219/.308/.325, with his OBP and slugging percentage each representing new career lows. His 11% walk rate was still very good and he avoided strikeouts at an above-average rate, yet the near-total evaporation of Santana’s power was hard to ignore, especially for a player in his age-39 season.
The switch-hitting Santana had a big dropoff against left-handed pitching, which was noteworthy since Santana has been much more productive hitting from the right side of the plate than the left side in recent years. Since the left-handed hitting Pavin Smith would be Santana’s platoon partner in Arizona, Santana would almost exclusively be facing southpaws, which might help him get back on track.
The D’Backs are the first team publicly linked to Santana’s market this winter, which isn’t surprising as he enters his age-40 season looking for a bounce-back performance. Santana previously rebounded from down years in 2020-21 to deliver more respectable numbers in 2022-23, but the question is naturally how much longer than the first baseman keep avoiding Father Time. Beyond his career track record, Santana’s strong glove does give him some advantage over other first basemen still on the market, which might help him with a team like Arizona that only needs a part-time first base bat.
Santana the guitarist?
Legend has it, that Carlos Santana gave Tony LaRussa a necklace in October 2011
as a diehard dbacks fan hall said they were in the red last year with money. That on top of dodgers being so money heavy makes teams skeptical with spending money. dbacks are going to let there young guys play this year and hope something happens. they will not spend. Its a shame cause there are big names out there that are affordable.
Like Paul Goldschmidt, he makes alot of sense. Mashes lefties, veteran, good club house guy, great defense but will be more expensive.
Santana seemed kinda cooked last year
I was looking at his offensive production and Goldy came to mind. If he has a similar season It moves the needle forward.
Why not Nolan A at 1b? Let Lawler play 3B.
That also works, but Nolan is a world class 3rd baseman, or at least was
Just get an organist like every other team.
Goldschmidt makes too much sense for them, although likely to be much pricier.
I don’t care what he does on the diamond. Nothing will ever top his duet with Rob Thomas.
I would boycott this team if they signed Carlos Santana over Goldschmidt. What disgrace that would be.
That will teach them.
Goldy wants more playing time than the dbacks can give him.
If that’s the truth they’re delusional about their chances this year. They already complained about losing money last season due to the injuries, bringing back Goldschmidt on a 1 year and giving him 80% of the world load in 2026 would make them back some money. Goldy is still an above average defensive 1B, Pavin is average at best. What he doesn’t make up at the plate he makes up for at 1B.
Carlos has always had lot of playing time.
Wore out all his LPs & CDs
Yeah Carlos Santana is a bandaid and not a very good one at that. They’re better off just giving it to Locklear/Pavin then.
I could see Santana signing for the $5 million he got from Minnesota two years ago. Goldschmidt probably wants something close to what he got with the Yankees last winter, which probably prices him out of Arizona
When reached for comment, Carlos said “Oye como va!”
He seems like a guy that Preller would target. He’s old, but the pads could use his pop imo
Smooth.