Diamondbacks Rumors

NL Notes: Senzel, D-backs, Rockies, Giants

By Connor Byrne | February 28, 2020 at 12:58am CDT

Reds outfielder Nick Senzel could begin appearing in spring training games next week, per Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Senzel has been working back from the shoulder surgery he underwent last September, and though the Reds believe he’s versatile enough to handle all three outfield positions, they’re only going to play him in center until he’s fully healed, according to manager David Bell. “I know he could do it but allowing him to focus on one spot may be more important than any of our other outfielders just because they all have so much more experience out there than he does,” Bell said of Senzel, a former infield prospect who spent his rookie season in center. The 24-year-old’s one of several outfielders for the Reds, who also count Nick Castellanos, Jesse Winker, Shogo Akiyama and Aristides Aquino among their options in the grass.

West Notes: Shark, Lamb, Peacock

By Connor Byrne | February 26, 2020 at 11:23pm CDT

Let’s check in on a trio of teams from the game’s West divisions…

Giants right-hander Jeff Samardzija looks like a potential trade candidate for the club, considering they’re unlikely to contend in 2020 and he’s in the final year of his contract. Samardzija told John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle that he hopes to remain with the Giants, though. “The way I look at it, you look to put yourself and the team in the best situation going forward,” he said. “Obviously, the best situation for us going forward would be in the playoff hunt, add talent at the (deadline) and make a run for it in the fall. That’s our No. 1 goal.” Shark added that he has “a lot of respect for this organization and what they’ve done for me, and I’ll give them everything I can as long as I’m here in their jersey.” Signed to a five-year, $90MM contract before the 2016 season, Samarzidja’s production has been up and down as a Giant. He prevented runs at a very good clip last year (3.52 ERA over 181 1/3 innings), but he also posted a career-worst 91.9 mph average fastball velocity and a below-average 4.59 FIP.
Diamondbacks corner infielder Jake Lamb hasn’t enjoyed a strong season since 2017, but the shoulder and quad injuries he dealt with from 2018-19 likely contributed to his woes. Lamb’s not giving himself a pass for his recent struggles, telling Zach Buchanan of The Athletic (subscription link): “The shoulder wasn’t why I was so bad last year. My swing was not good. I was steep, I was late.” However, Lamb admitted his shoulder tightness was on his mind in the past, and that’s no longer the case. He now may be in position to bounce back after turning in a .208/.315/.350 line in a combined 464 plate appearances during the previous two years. The Diamondbacks believe that’s the case, as Buchanan details; otherwise, they wouldn’t have tendered him for $5.515MM over the winter.
Astros righty Brad Peacock has been battling neck problems, but he believes he’ll be ready for the beginning of the season, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle relays. Peacock started throwing off flat ground this week, should move to the mound in early March and then anticipates appearing in “three or four” Grapefruit League games. Most of Peacock’s work last year came from the Astros’ rotation, but they’re set to use him out of their bullpen this season. The swingman did well in a full-time relief role back in 2018.

Diamondbacks, Dalton Pompey Agree To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | February 26, 2020 at 6:51pm CDT

The D-backs have agreed to a deal with outfielder Dalton Pompey, per Sportsnet’s Jamie Campbell (Twitter link). It’s surely a minor league pact for Pompey, who has acknowledged the new opportunity himself in some replies on Twitter.

Now 27 years old, Pompey was once considered to be among the game’s premier prospects. During the 2014-15 offseason, Baseball America rated him as high as 30th overall among minor leaguers, while both MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus ranked him inside the top 50. In the preceding season, Pompey had skyrocketed from Class-A Advanced to the Majors, hitting a combined .317/.392/.469 with nine homers, 22 doubles, nine triples and 43 stolen bases across his three minor league stops. Even his .231/.302/.436 output in 43 big league plate appearances were impressive, considering that he was a 21-year-old who’d never played above A-ball as of Opening Day that season.

The switch-hitting Pompey had another productive season in the upper minors in 2015 but struggled in 103 MLB plate appearances. Still, the sky appeared to be the limit for the 22-year-old, who was heralded as a plus defender with a high-end hit tool and blazing speed that made him a threat on the basepaths and anytime he put the ball in play.

Sadly, Pompey’s career has been waylaid by injuries — most notably a series of concussions. He barely played in either 2017 or 2019 due to concussions troubles, and a wrist injury limited him to 57 games in 2018. In total, over the past four seasons, Pompey has been able to suit up for just 188 games between the big leagues and the minors — an average of only 47 contests per year. By the time the 2019 season rolled around, he’d exhausted all of his minor league options; the Blue Jays were forced to designate him for assignment in July, at which point he went unclaimed on waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A. Pompey became a free agent at season’s end.

It’s been six years since Pompey debuted in the Majors, which makes it seem like he’s older than he is, but he won’t even turn 28 until next December. He has plenty of hurdles to clear before he can be considered as an option to resurface in the Majors, and the D-backs have a deep outfield mix that’s controllable for the foreseeable future. David Peralta signed a three-year extension earlier this winter, while the Snakes acquired the final two seasons of Starling Marte’s contract in a trade with the Pirates, and free agent Kole Calhoun signed a two-year deal with a third-year option. Standout second baseman/center fielder Ketel Marte is also signed long-term, while backup outfielder Tim Locastro can be controlled another five years.

Still, the D-backs will give Pompey a proving ground to attempt to demonstrate that his injury troubles are behind him. And with a strong, healthy showing in camp and/or in the upper minors, he could position himself as one of the first lines of defense in the event of an injury at the MLB level.

NL West Notes: Yolmer, Ray, MadBum, Saunders, Cordero

By Mark Polishuk | February 23, 2020 at 7:39pm CDT

Before signing a minor league deal with the Giants, Yolmer Sanchez turned down some MLB contract offers from other teams, the second baseman told Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. His decision was partly for financial reasons — the other offers promised him guaranteed money but less than the $2.5MM Sanchez will make if he cracks the Giants’ roster — and partly for opportunity-based reasons, as other clubs wanted to use Sanchez in a utility role. As Schulman writes, Sanchez preferred to “bet on himself…for a chance to be an everyday second baseman” in San Francisco.

It remains to be seen if Sanchez can become a regular amidst the Giants’ youth movement, or against a veteran like second base candidate Wilmer Flores, who did sign a guaranteed Major League deal with the team. Aside from Flores, the Giants also have youngster Mauricio Dubon and utilityman Donovan Solano in the mix at the keystone, not to mention Kean Wong, Zach Green, and longtime Giants staple Pablo Sandoval in camp battling for infield jobs.

Diamondbacks Sign Mark Leiter Jr. To Minors Contract

By Mark Polishuk | February 23, 2020 at 5:51pm CDT

The Diamondbacks have signed right-hander Mark Leiter Jr. to a minor league deal. Leiter announced the move last week on his Instagram page, with the caption “new elbow, new team.”

Leiter missed all of the 2019 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery last March. Given the normal 12-15 month timeline for TJ recovery, Leiter might not yet be ready to pitch even if the D’Backs did want to put him on their Opening Day roster, though he could also continue to recover and ramp up in the minors until he is ready for a potential big league return. Assuming good health, Leiter provides the Diamondbacks with a versatile depth arm who has worked as both a starter and reliever.

Most recently a member of the Blue Jays roster, Leiter (who turns 29 next month) became a free agent after the season. The righty has a 5.53 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 2.47 K/BB rate, and 48.2% grounder rate over 114 career MLB innings, all with the Phillies and Blue Jays in 2017-18. While some ERA indicators (4.37 xFIP, 4.23 SIERA) hint that Leiter’s real-world ERA is unduly inflated, Leiter hasn’t helped himself by allowing 25 home runs over his 114 frames of work, averaging out to an untenable 1.97 HR/9.

Archie Bradley Wins Arbitration Hearing Against Diamondbacks

By Steve Adams | February 21, 2020 at 9:50am CDT

Diamondbacks closer Archie Bradley won his arbitration hearing against the team, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (via Twitter). He’ll earn the $4.1MM salary figure submitted by his representatives at the BBI Sports Group rather than the $3.625MM sum proposed by the D-backs. That’s a $2.27MM raise over last season’s $1.83MM salary. Bradley will be eligible for arbitration for the final time next winter before becoming a free agent in the 2021-22 offseason.

The 27-year-old Bradley, the No. 7 overall draft pick back in 2011, never quite panned out as a starter but has found his groove in a relief role. The righty has gradually been entrusted with increasing amounts of high-leverage innings and eventually supplanted Opening Day closer Greg Holland as Arizona’s top ninth-inning option in 2019. Overall, he pitched to a 3.52 ERA with 18 saves, 10.9 K/9, 4.5 BB/9, 0.63 HR/9 and a 45.2 percent ground-ball rate. He’s the clear favorite for save opportunities heading into the 2020 season.

Since moving to the bullpen full time in 2017, Bradley has helped to anchor the Arizona bullpen with a 2.95 ERA (3.24 FIP) and 10 strikeouts per nine inning pitched over the course of 216 1/3 innings. He’s appeared in at least 63 games and pitched at least 71 2/3 innings in each of those three seasons. As it stands, he’s slated to hit the open market in advance of his age-29 campaign, so if he continues on his current trajectory without incurring a significant injury, his age should put him in position for a relatively handsome payday.

With Bradley’s victory and this morning’s last-minute settlement by Phillies closer Hector Neris ($4.6MM with a 2021 club option), all of this year’s arbitration cases have now been resolved. Teams rushed out to an early 4-0 lead over the players but ultimately wound up at a more balanced 7-5 when all was said and done. Now that all of this year’s cases are in the books, you can see the full slate of pre-trial agreements, extensions and hearing outcomes in MLBTR’s 2020 Arbitration Tracker.

Quick Hits: Mikolas, K. Seager, Judge, D-backs

By Connor Byrne | February 20, 2020 at 1:05am CDT

Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas will begin the season on the injured list after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. As of now, it appears Mikolas will make his 2020 debut toward the end of April or in the beginning of May, according to Goold. It’s a blow to the Cardinals’ rotation, which got back-to-back quality seasons from Mikolas in 2018-19 and now has to fill a couple openings behind Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright and Dakota Hudson. Carlos Martinez and Kwang-hyun Kim were already known to be in the running before Mikolas went down, and now Daniel Ponce de Leon, Austin Gomber, Ryan Helsley, Alex Reyes, John Gant and Genesis Cabrera are also in the mix, Goold writes.

Here’s more from around the game…

Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager was the subject of trade rumors over the winter, when “a handful of teams” discussed him with the M’s, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times writes. Seager has stayed put to this point, and he’s now the longest-tenured player on Seattle’s roster, though he realizes a deal could still come together. The 32-year-old admitted to Divish that a trade remains “a definite possibility.” Seager enjoyed a bounce-back season in 2019, but he’s still owed $37MM over the next two years. His contract also includes a 2022 $15MM club option that will turn into a player option if he’s dealt, which could help stand in the way of a trade.
Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge has been battling a right shoulder issue early in camp, but he’s progressing in his recovery, George A. King III of the New York Post relays. Judge told manager Aaron Bone he’s “game-ready,” but the Yankees are taking it slow with their prized slugger, whom injuries limited to a combined 214 of a possible 324 regular-season games from 2018-19. “Start reintroducing him to full swinging and stuff in the next couple of days I would think,’’ Boone said. “I am sure in the next day or two it will probably start to ramp him back up.’’
Thanks to a productive 2019 season at the Double-A level, Diamondbacks first base prospect Pavin Smith has a chance to make his major league debut sometime this year, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic observes. Smith was the seventh overall pick of the Diamondbacks in 2017, and while he hit well in low-A ball that year, he provided little to no power (zero home runs, .097 ISO). He then didn’t produce at a particularly impressive clip at the high-A level the next season, but Smith turned it around last year. In his Double-A debut, he put up a .291/.370/.466 line with 12 homers and almost as many walks (59) and strikeouts (61).

Kendrick, Hall Discuss D-Backs

By Jeff Todd | February 18, 2020 at 8:08am CDT

Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick and president Derrick Hall held court on several topics with the press yesterday. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reported on the session; we’ll cover a few salient points here.

Kendrick had lofty praise for recently extended GM Mike Hazen, saying the top baseball ops decisionmaker has “done a remarkable job of transitioning from what he inherited to what we now have,” referring to the strides made in building out the farm system and compiling a competitive and cost-efficient MLB roster.

We’re accustomed to the notion of ownership setting payrolls that are never quite as robust as a baseball operations department might prefer. But Hazen has actually counseled against certain added cash outlays, Kendrick relays. “I’ve had a willingness to personally commit more money than [the front office] feels is the smart thing for us to do,” he says.

In the long run, Kendrick says, he anticipates that payroll will continue to rise along with the team’s revenue streams. It wasn’t quite clear whether he meant to suggest that his organization anticipates gaining ground relative to the rest of the league, though that’s certainly possible.

The D-Backs are, after all, still working on ways to make more cash from their stadium situation. Hall says the organization is focused at present on maximizing the opportunities at Chase Field, which the team gained added control over after sorting out some elements of a dispute regarding maintenance with municipal authorities.

With positive initial returns on efforts to take care of the facility and put it to non-baseball uses, Hall says “there’s not such an urgency to figure out that next step.” Indeed, things went so well last year that the organization sees some spillover onto the baseball side. “It does provide us with new resources from a revenue standpoint that we can invest back into the team,” Hall explains.

It does seem there’s still an inclination to pursue a new ballpark — or, perhaps, a major revamp of the existing facility. Kendrick posited a rather confusing analogy of Chase Field to a “classic automobile;” in both, he says, one might like some of what’s outwardly visible but might also “find things sometimes you wouldn’t wish to find.” Kendrick seemingly suggested that maintaining the facility might ultimately not be feasible, thus requiring a new one altogether. It seems odd that a ballpark that opened in 1998 would have been constructed in such a manner. While it’s understandable enough that the team is desirous of maximizing its earning opportunities — particularly after seeing a few peer organizations pull off fancy multi-use, publicly-funded projects to replace perfectly useful existing structures — building new ballparks every quarter-century really isn’t a reasonable overall strategy.

Diamondbacks Notes: Leake, Vogt, Giants, Bradley

By Mark Polishuk | February 13, 2020 at 3:09pm CDT

An MRI revealed a small fracture in Mike Leake’s left wrist, though the veteran right-hander told reporters (including Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic) that he is still hoping to be part of the Diamondbacks’ Opening Day roster. Since his pitching arm wasn’t affected, Leake said he will play catch (without return throws) over the next two weeks to keep his right arm loose while his left wrist heals. In keeping with the annual Spring Training tradition of players suffering injuries under unusual circumstances, Leake said he injured his wrist while chasing after one of his dogs, as Leake slipped and fell on his basketball court while in pursuit of the disobedient pet.

After being acquired from the Mariners in a trade deadline deal last July, Leake posted a 4.35 ERA and 3.38 K/BB rate over 60 innings (10 starts) for Arizona, though with a 4.1 K/9 and a whopping 2.3 HR/9. Leake is tentatively penciled into the fifth starter role for the D’Backs this season, as the club hopes that he can provide his usual durability at the back of the rotation — the 32-year-old has averaged 188 innings pitched over the last nine seasons.

Some more from the desert….

Stephen Vogt talked to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link) about Vogt’s decision to sign with the Diamondbacks, with the catcher citing both logistical and contractual reasons. Vogt liked being able to spend eight months in Arizona for both Spring Training and the season itself, and the D’Backs separated themselves from the Giants in contract talks by offering Vogt a vesting option for the 2021 season. The Giants offered Vogt more in guaranteed money than the $3MM Vogt will receive from the D’Backs, though if his option vests and Vogt hits his contract incentives, he can earn up to $7MM over the two-year span.
Archie Bradley’s arbitration hearing has been set for February 18, MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert reports. Bradley is seeking a $4.1MM salary for the 2020 season, while the D’Backs filed for a $3.625MM number. The 2019 season saw Bradley increasingly deployed as a closer, as he recorded 18 saves after having only four saves on his career ledger heading into the year. Players haven’t had much luck going to hearings this year, as arbiters have ruled in favor of teams in five of the six arbitration hearings that have already taken place this month; the Dodgers’ Pedro Baez is the only player who has won his arb hearing. You can follow along with all the results in MLBTR’s Arbitration Tracker.

Health Notes: White Sox, Leake, Perez, Dominguez

By Steve Adams | February 12, 2020 at 11:26pm CDT

The White Sox opened camp with a series of unwelcome injury developments, as each of Yasmani Grandal, Lucas Giolito and Gio Gonzalez are all dealing with minor injuries (link via Daryl Van-Schouwen of the Chicago Sun Times). Grandal injured his calf in the weight room last week, and an MRI revealed a minor calf strain. Giolito is working through a strained muscle in his chest, and Gonzalez is battling some discomfort in his left shoulder. However, GM Rick Hahn expects all three to be good to go by Opening Day and referred to the injuries as “minor.” Grandal clearly isn’t overly worried about his status, as he joked with reporters that he was merely trying to get out of some running drills in Spring Training (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Scott Merkin). Giolito, meanwhile, is already throwing from 120 feet and said he’s “zero percent” concerned about his injury.

Some more health/injury notes from early on in camp…

Diamondbacks right-hander Mike Leake is undergoing an MRI after experiencing soreness in his left wrist following a fall at his home, manager Torey Lovullo told reporters today (Twitter links via The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan). Lovullo described the MRI as precautionary in nature, so it doesn’t seem as though the organization is overly concerned at the moment. Leake, 32, landed in Arizona following a deadline swap with the Mariners and pitched to a 4.35 ERA in 60 innings (10 starts). Leake fanned just 27 hitters in those 60 frames but was quite stingy in terms of issuing free passes as well, surrendering just eight bases on balls. The ever-durable righty made at least 30 starts for the eighth consecutive season in 2019, eating up 197 innings between Seattle and Arizona.
After missing the 2019 season due to Tommy John surgery, Royals stalwart Salvador Perez is ahead of schedule and expected to be ready for Opening Day, new manager Mike Matheny told reporters (link via MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan). Perez is already throwing to second base without issue and is slated to meet with his doctors tomorrow for another check-in. Interestingly, Matheny suggested that Perez would not only see some time at designated hitter early in the season but also at first base, as the Royals look to be cautious with his throwing workload.
Phillies right-hander Seranthony Dominguez managed to avoid Tommy John surgery last year after an elbow scare, and he now appears to be on track for Opening Day, tweets Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Dominguez resumed throwing in December and has now thrown three bullpen sessions — including one earlier today. The 25-year-old was lights out in his debut effort back in 2018 and took a step back in limited action in 2019 before hitting the injured list. In 82 2/3 innings between those two seasons, he’s pitched to a 3.27 ERA with 11.2 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and 16 saves.

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