Diamondbacks first baseman Pavin Smith will undergo surgery to remove loose bodies from his injured left elbow, reports the team’s radio broadcaster Chris Garagiola. The team already transferred Smith to the 60-day injured list this afternoon when they needed a 40-man roster spot for third catcher Aramis Garcia.
That IL move ruled Smith out through the end of May. It’s unclear if he’ll be ready to return at that point. The initial diagnosis had merely been inflammation. Smith’s elbow had been a nagging issue throughout Spring Training. He had a cortisone shot when he went on the injured list at the end of March, but that apparently wasn’t enough to treat the issue.
Tyler Locklear is also recovering from offseason surgeries on his elbow and shoulder. That pressed Carlos Santana into everyday first base work, for which he’s ill suited in his age-40 season. Santana himself went down with an adductor strain a little over a week ago.
Utility infielder Ildemaro Vargas has been pressed into the primary job at a position he’d barely played in his career. To his credit, Vargas has begun the season on an absolute tear, but he’s a lifetime .253/.294/.365 hitter in more than 1300 plate appearances. This clearly isn’t an ideal setup. Luken Baker and rookie Jose Fernandez are also in the mix, though the D-Backs have needed Fernandez for primary DH work.
Although the position player injuries are piling up, the Snakes did provide some promising news on the health front this week. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. will begin a rehab assignment with Double-A Amarillo tomorrow, the minor league team announced. Position players can spend up to 20 days on a rehab stint. Barring setbacks, Gurriel will be back with the MLB club within the next two to three weeks.
It’s a quick turnaround for a player who tore the ACL in his right knee in September. That required surgery and initially came with a 9-10 month recovery timeline that seemed it’d sideline him until close to the All-Star Break. Gurriel instead looks like he’ll be back around the end of April. The D-Backs figure to mix in a decent amount of DH time in addition to his work in left field. They can use help at both positions considering Jordan Lawlar will be out into June with a broken wrist. Tim Tawa and Jorge Barrosa are splitting the left field reps for the time being.
Despite injuries – Gabby, Santana, Smith, Locklear, Guerriel, Lawler – and under performance – Marte, Perdomo, Arrenado, Thomas – the Dbacks offense is doing just enough thanks to Vargas, Fernandez, Carroll, Barrosa and Del Castillo. The defense and SP have been solid. The BP, without Martinez, Puk and Saalfrank, has been hit or miss. Add it all up and the Dbacks, despite a brutal schedule, are two games over .500 on the season and 5-3 so far on a nine game road trip to NY, Philly and Baltimore.
Has anyone played a tougher first few weeks of the 2026 season? So far it’s been the Doyers, Tigers, Braves, Mets, Phillies and Orioles. Next for the Dbacks, they come home to play Toronto before finally playing the White Sox.
You can probably lump the Jays in with the White Sox behind that ‘finally’. Chicago has the worst run differential in the majors, but the Jays are second worst.
The Jays only have 2 reliably effective starters right now and based on schedule, the Dbacks will only face one (Gausman) in the last game of the series. All the other starters have been various shades of not good to really not good, so the middling bullpen has already been overtaxed.
There’s a good chance for winning at least 4 of the 6 games between Tor/Chi.
Pavin is injured? Here is my shocked face…
What does that mean? To remove loose bodies from his injured elbow? Does he have bone spurs floating around or something,?