Diamondbacks Outright Pavin Smith
The Diamondbacks announced that first baseman Pavin Smith has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Reno. The Snakes designated Smith for assignment last week.
Smith has the right to elect free agency but isn’t likely to do so. Players with at least three years of service time have the right to reject outright assignments in favor of the open market. But if they have less than five years of service, they have to forfeit their remaining salary commitments in exercising that right. Smith is in that three-to-five window and is making $2.25MM this year. That leaves about $900K still to be paid out. Assuming he doesn’t want to leave that on the table, Smith will report to Reno.
There have been times in the past where Smith seemed like a key part of Arizona’s future. The club selected him with the seventh overall pick in the 2017 draft and he went on to be one of the club’s top prospects.
When first called up to the majors, he didn’t immediately flourish, but he seemed to break out in 2024. He spent most of the first half of that season on optional assignment but got a decent chunk of playing time late in the year and capitalized on it. He finished the year with only 158 plate appearances but they were good ones. His 11.4% walk rate and 19.6% strikeout rate were both above-average figures and he hit nine home runs. His .270/.348/.547 slash line led to a 142 wRC+, indicating he was 42% better than league average at the plate overall.
He had another good season in 2025, finishing that year with a .258/.362/.434 line and 123 wRC+, but with some concerns. Though his walk rate ticked up to 14.2%, his strikeout rate ballooned to 31.9%. He was awful without the platoon advantage, hitting .167/.375/.167 against lefties. His overall production got a lot of help from a .377 batting average on balls in play. He was also pretty bad after a red-hot start. He had a .342/.473/.630 line through April but then hit .222/.311/.351 the rest of the way.
Coming into 2026, the Snakes hoped he could at least be a viable strong-side platoon guy. They signed Carlos Santana to help shield Smith from southpaws but both players quickly got hurt. Left elbow inflammation put Smith on the shelf after just two games. He returned at the start of June but hasn’t been able to get into a groove. He has a .141/.236/.192 line this year. A tiny .167 BABIP has hurt him a lot and he has returned his strikeout rate to a much better 20.2% clip, but he also only has one home run in 89 plate appearances.
The Snakes decided to move on and none of the other 29 clubs decided to grab him off waivers. Assuming he accepts the assignment, the Diamondbacks will see if a stint in Reno can get Smith back on track. If that comes to pass, there’s not much blocking his path to playing time, as the Snakes are currently using utility player Tim Tawa at first base most days. On the other hand, the club could look for a first baseman ahead of the deadline if they hang around enough to buy. They are currently 2.5 games back of a playoff spot.
If Smith is not added back to the roster before season’s end, he would become a free agent, like all players with at least three years of service who are removed from a 40-man roster in the preceding year.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Diamondbacks Designate Pavin Smith For Assignment
July 10: The Diamondbacks have now officially announced the Smith and Waldschmidt moves.
July 9: The D-Backs are designating first baseman Pavin Smith for assignment, reports Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. Rookie outfielder Ryan Waldschmidt will be recalled from Triple-A Reno to replace him on the active roster.
That might mark the end of nearly a decade in the organization for Smith, whom the D-Backs selected with the #7 overall pick in 2017. The lefty batter has shown intermittent offensive flashes but ultimately hasn’t provided enough from a bat-first position. Smith has yet to top the 11 home runs or 27 doubles he tallied during his first full big league season in 2021.
Smith was up and down from Triple-A for the next couple seasons. Aside from minor league rehab assignments, he has been in the big leagues since August 2024. Smith popped nine homers with a .270/.348/.547 batting line over 60 games that season, but that hopeful breakout proved short-lived. His strikeout rate spiked the next year, though a jump in his average on balls in play resulted in a solid .258/.362/.434 slash across 288 plate appearances.
That was enough for the D-Backs to roll with Smith as the strong side of a first base platoon this year. They’d traded Josh Naylor at the deadline and focused their offseason resources on starting pitching. Smith would ideally split time with either Tyler Locklear or free agent signee Carlos Santana at first base. That didn’t work out. Locklear has spent the entire season in Triple-A, while Smith and the since-released Santana both struggled and got injured early in the season.
Smith was down from April through the beginning of June. He underwent surgery in mid-April to remove loose bodies from his left elbow. Smith hasn’t hit at all since returning, batting .141 with one homer across 28 games. He has a league average .241/.325/.394 batting line in more than 1600 plate appearances over parts of seven seasons.
Arizona’s first base group has been the worst in MLB by far. Ildemaro Vargas has been one of the league’s least productive hitters since his improbable 24-game hit streak to begin the season. Rookies Jose Fernandez and LuJames Groover have struggled in limited playing time.
D-Backs first basemen have an overall .210/.253/.303 slash line across 366 plate appearances. It’s their most obvious area to address if they buy at the deadline, preferably with a left-handed bat. Cincinnati’s Nathaniel Lowe would seem an obvious target given his affordable $1.75MM base salary. Kody Clemens, Gavin Sheets and Jake Burger are a few others who could be available on the trade front.
Waldschmidt, Arizona’s top prospect, is up for the second time this season. He struggled to make contact consistently in his first look at MLB pitching. Waldschmidt has hit well against Triple-A arms and has been on a nice run since being optioned in mid-June. The D-Backs presumably wouldn’t bring him back up to play sporadically. He should be in the everyday lineup in left or center field, moving one of Max Kepler or Tommy Troy to the bench.
The D-Backs have five days to trade Smith or place him on waivers. He’s playing on a $2.25MM arbitration salary, around $950K of which has yet to be paid. Smith is a little shy of five years of service time and would forfeit his remaining salary if he elects free agency, so he’d very likely accept a Triple-A assignment if he goes unclaimed on waivers.
Diamondbacks To Reinstate Pavin Smith From 60-Day IL
4:20pm: Arizona has now officially announced Smith’s reinstatement and Tawa optioning. Santana was indeed moved to the 60-day IL as the corresponding 40-man move.
3:3opm: The Diamondbacks are going to reinstate first baseman Pavin Smith from the 60-day injured list, reports John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Phoenix. Infielder/outfielder Tim Tawa will be optioned as the corresponding active roster move. The Snakes will also need to open a 40-man spot.
Smith played in just two games before left elbow inflammation put him on the 10-day injured list at the end of March. He was transferred to the 60-day IL in mid-April and the team announced that he would require surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow. He had recovered enough to start a rehab assignment a week ago. He hit .333/.364/.381 in five rehab games and is now going to rejoin the big league squad.
The former seventh overall pick seemingly broke out in the past couple of seasons. Over 2024 and 2025, he put up a big .262/.357/.475 slash line, which translated to a 130 wRC+. However, there were some asterisks in there. For one, the sample size was just 446 plate appearances. In 2024, Smith was still a fringe roster player and was optioned to the minors multiple times, only getting 158 big league plate appearances. Last year, IL stints for a strained oblique and then a strained quad capped him at 288 plate appearances.
He has also done most of his damage with the platoon advantage. A left-handed hitter, he had a .271/.359/.493 line against righties over those two campaigns but just a .184/.340/.316 line versus southpaws. Furthermore, he finished 2025 poorly. He had a .342/.473/.630 line through April but then a .222/.311/.351 line the rest of the way, working around those aforementioned injuries.
Despite the question marks, it seems the Diamondbacks planned on him being at least a strong-side platoon guy here in 2026. They signed the switch-hitting Carlos Santana to join Smith in the first base group. Santana is a switch-hitter and good defender, so he could shield Smith from lefties and also occasionally serve as a defensive replacement, since Smith isn’t considered an especially strong defender.
They haven’t had much of a chance to implement that plan. As mentioned, Smith appeared in just two games before hitting the IL. An adductor strain sent Santana to the IL after just eight appearances.
In the interim, the Snakes have mostly been using utility guys José Fernández and Ildemaro Vargas to cover first base. Vargas, a 34-year-old journeyman, has a strong .295/.321/.465 line on the year. However, that is mostly due to an improbable 24-game hit streak to begin the season, which was technically a 27-game streak when factoring in last season. Since that streak, he has a .198/.225/.255 line in 111 plate appearances. It’s a similar story for Fernández, who had a .325/.349/.470 line at the end of April but hit .181/.224/.236 in May.
Smith could now take up the first base job, at least against righties, and bump those two back into utility roles. Smith could also slot in as the designated hitter. Adrian Del Castillo has been getting most of the playing time there this year but has a line of just .192/.252/.325. Whether he’s at first base or DH, Smith will presumably need a platoon partner. Fernández and Vargas could perhaps help there since Fernández is a righty and Vargas a switch-hitter.
As for the 40-man move, it’s possible Santana gets transferred to the 60-day IL. His 60-day count would be retroactive to his initial IL placement, which was April 6th, so it’s already been almost 60 days. He began a rehab assignment at the beginning of May but last played on May 10th. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic relayed at that time that Santana had re-injured his adductor. He hasn’t yet started a new rehab assignment and presumably isn’t likely to be reinstated in the near term.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
Pavin Smith To Undergo Elbow Surgery
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.
D-backs Announce Several Roster Moves
The Diamondbacks announced a slate of roster moves Tuesday. Catcher Gabriel Moreno was placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to April 11) due to an oblique strain. Fellow catcher Aramis Garcia has had his contract selected from Triple-A and will take Moreno’s spot on the roster, serving as a complement to veteran James McCann and 26-year-old Adrian Del Castillo. Arizona moved first baseman/designated hitter Pavin Smith from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL to clear a 40-man spot for Garcia. The Snakes also reinstated right-hander Merrill Kelly from the 15-day injured list and optioned right-hander Taylor Rashi to Triple-A Reno.
Moreno missed the past three games after what was originally termed as a back issue. The Diamondbacks haven’t provided a timetable, but historically speaking, it’s common for even low-grade oblique strains to sideline a player for close to a month. The former top prospect is one of baseball’s more complete catchers, combining elite defense with above-average offense in each season of his still-young big league career. He was out to a fine start in 2026, hitting .275/.333/.400 in 45 turns at the plate.
With Moreno sidelined, the D-backs can use the lefty-hitting Del Castillo against right-handed pitching and the righty-swinging McCann versus southpaws. Garcia provides a viable third catching option on the roster and also has some experience at first base. He’s probably relegated to third catcher status in this setup, with Del Castillo the most obvious beneficiary on paper. He hasn’t gotten a consistent look in the majors, thanks largely to Moreno’s presence, but Del Castillo is a .276/.322/.439 hitter in 239 big league plate appearances and touts a .292/.381/.535 line in parts of four seasons (712 plate appearances) in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
Garcia, 33, has played sparingly in parts of six major league seasons — including a two-game cup of coffee in Arizona last year. He’s a lifetime .208/.245/.321 hitter in 331 plate appearances. He’s never logged more than 115 plate appearances in a given major league season but is a career .240/.316/.436 hitter in just under 1400 Triple-A plate appearances.
Kelly’s return from the injured list was expected. The team moved righty Brandon Pfaadt to the bullpen yesterday to clear a spot in the rotation, where Kelly will join Zac Gallen, Eduardo Rodriguez, Ryne Nelson and offseason signee Michael Soroka. The 37-year-old Kelly also signed with Arizona this winter, returning to the D-backs on a two-year, $40MM deal after closing out the 2025 season in Texas following a deadline trade that netted three pitching prospects from the Rangers (Kohl Drake, Mitch Bratt, David Hagaman).
Kelly will make his first start of the season for the Snakes tonight against the Orioles. He was slowed by back discomfort early in spring training and was thus limited to only two starts during exhibition play in the Cactus League. Kelly tossed five shutout frames for Triple-A Reno in what wound up being his only rehab outing. He might be on something of a pitch/workload limit in his season debut as he continues to build up, but it shouldn’t be long before he’s back to his workhorse ways atop manager Torey Lovullo’s rotation.
Diamondbacks Recall Jose Fernandez For MLB Debut
The Diamondbacks announced that infielder Jose Fernandez has been recalled to the active roster. He’ll be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. He will take the spot of first baseman Pavin Smith, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list with left elbow inflammation, retroactive to March 29th.
Fernandez, now 22, was an international signing out of Venezuela in 2021. Since then, he has climbed the minor league ladder. He never really hit much but he stole some bases and played all four infield positions.
He may have taken a step forward offensively last year. He got into 122 Double-A games and stepped to the plate 511 times. His 17 home runs more than doubled his previous high, which was the seven long balls he hit in the prior season. His .272/.321/.454 batting line was still not overwhelming, translating to a 98 wRC+. However, considering his speed and his defensive abilities, it was an intriguing jump.
The Diamondbacks gave him a 40-man roster spot in November, to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. In December, FanGraphs ranked him as the #42 prospect in the system. Arizona optioned him to the minors a few weeks ago, an unsurprising move since he had no Triple-A experience coming into this year. He does have one Triple-A game under his belt now but will quickly be thrust up to the show. He was perhaps chosen by default, as he was the only position player on the 40-man roster who wasn’t already in the majors or on the injured list.
The Snakes have a regular infield of Nolan Arenado, Geraldo Perdomo, Ketel Marte and Carlos Santana from left to right. With Smith out, they don’t really have a regular designated hitter. Utility guy Ildemaro Vargas is in that spot tonight. Fernandez gives the club a bit of depth all over and could perhaps serve as a pinch runner or defensive substitute. Given that every healthy position player on the 40-man is now on the active roster, another injury in the short-term will require Arizona to add a non-roster player.
Photo courtesy of Allan Henry, Imagn Images
Diamondbacks Notes: Gallen, Kelly, Rotation, First Base
Zac Gallen is one of the more intriguing pitchers on the free agent market this winter, as interested clubs will have to balance the right-hander’s solid track record up against his shaky 2025 season. Theoretically, the situation could present an opening for Gallen to accept a qualifying offer from the Diamondbacks, though John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7FM Radio (multiple links) feels “there is no chance he accepts it.”
This winter’s qualifying offer is estimated to be worth roughly $22MM. While a nice one-year payday, Gallen is undoubtedly looking for much more in a longer-term commitment as he tests the market for the first time. Even if his struggles this year inevitably lower his asking price, baseball’s ever-present need for pitching means that Gallen should be able to land some kind of acceptable multi-year pact.
Scott Boras (Gallen’s agent) has a long history of finding such deals for his clients, though Boras has also explored relatively shorter-term contracts with opt-out clauses for players who are entering free agency on the heels of so-so platform years. It isn’t hard to imagine Gallen signing such a deal, and then if he returns to form in 2026, enacting an opt-out clause to immediately return to free agency. Obviously there’s some risk in betting on himself in such a fashion, plus next year’s market has the added uncertainty of labor unrest and a potential lockout as the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires.
Gallen posted a 4.83 ERA, 21.5% strikeout rate, and 8.1% walk rate over 192 innings in 2025, with the ERA and K% both standing out as career worsts. Pretty much all of Gallen’s Statcast numbers were below the league average, and he was continually plagued by the home run ball — Gallen’s 31 homers allowed were the third-most of any pitcher in baseball. The inflated number is related in part to the number of innings Gallen tossed, though his barrel rate and hard-hit ball rates didn’t surpass the 26th percentile of all pitchers.
The good news for Gallen is that he seemed to get on track over the season’s final two months. After posting a 5.60 ERA over his first 127 innings, he improved to a 3.32 ERA over his last 65 frames and 11 starts. Gallen’s turn-around came directly after the trade deadline, and had he started pitching better a little earlier, it is quite possible he already would’ve been gone from Arizona considering the Diamondbacks’ other deadline sells.
Ken Kendrick is a known fan of Gallen, and the D’Backs owner stated earlier this week that it isn’t “out of the realm of reality” that the righty could be re-signed. Within that same interview, however, Kendrick said that “we will not be spending at the same level” as in 2025, though the Diamondbacks still plan to have a competitive payroll and are intent on winning next year.
Whether this adds up to a salary number that can work for both the D’Backs and Gallen’s camp remains to be seen. If Gallen did reject the qualifying offer and sign elsewhere, Arizona would receive a compensatory draft pick just after the first round of the 2026 draft. Landing an extra pick in the 31-36 overall range would be a decent consolation prize if Gallen did depart, especially if the Diamondbacks could add starting pitching elsewhere at a lower price.
For instance, a reunion with Merrill Kelly has been speculated on basically ever since Kelly was traded to the Rangers at the deadline. Kelly was open about his desire to stay in Arizona both before and after the trade, and Kelly would be available at a lower price than Gallen given their ages (Kelly turns 37 in a couple of weeks, and Gallen turned 30 last month). Gambadoro feels the Diamondbacks will pursue one of Gallen or Kelly but not both, leaving one rotation spot open for a younger pitcher until Corbin Burnes is ready to return from Tommy John surgery.
Between Arizona’s pitching needs and the team’s desire to lower payroll, some other areas of the roster might receive less focus. For instance, Gambadoro thinks the D’Backs will probably stand pat at first base, with Pavin Smith getting the bulk of at-bats and Tim Tawa or Tyler Locklear facing as the right-handed hitting side of the platoon. Bringing in a veteran bat for the first base/DH mix would also seem logical, even if such an acquisition isn’t likely to be as high profile as last offseason’s trade for Josh Naylor.
Smith appeared in only eight games after July 5, as an oblique strain and then a quad strain cost him essentially all of the back half of the season. Smith hit .258/.362/.434 with eight home runs over 288 plate appearances in 2025, facing right-handers in all but 24 of those trips to the dish. The result was a very solid 123 wRC+ for the season, yet almost all of Smith’s production came during a scorching-hot April, and his strikeout rate ballooned upwards to an ungainly 31.9%. Getting more out of Tawa or Locklear would go a long way towards solidifying the Diamondbacks’ first base platoon, but the unproven duo has only 390 combined Major League PA between them.
Diamondbacks Claim Elvin Rodriguez
The D-backs have claimed righty Elvin Rodriguez off waivers from the Orioles, per announcements from both teams. Arizona transferred first baseman/designated hitter Pavin Smith to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Smith was placed on the 10-day IL in late August, so the move to the 60-day injured list officially ends his season.
Rodriguez signed a split major league deal with the Brewers over the winter after pitching well in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball from 2023-24. He pitched 18 2/3 innings with Milwaukee and just one inning with Baltimore, combining for an ugly 9.15 ERA between the two teams. He’s been far better in Triple-A, logging a combined 40 1/3 frames with a 4.46 ERA, 18.3% strikeout rate and 5.3% walk rate between Norfolk and Nashville.
The now-27-year-old Rodriguez made his MLB debut with the 2022 Tigers (29 2/3 innings) and pitched even more briefly with the 2023 Rays (3 1/3 innings). He’s allowed more than a run per inning in his 52 2/3 big league frames but has a decent track record in Triple-A and turned in a sparkling 1.80 ERA in 45 innings pitching in Japan. Rodriguez is in the second of three minor league option years. If the D-backs hold onto him into the 2026 season, he’d still have one option remaining, but given his rough performance in the majors this year, it’s far from a sure thing he’ll stick on the roster that long.
As for Smith, the quad injury will formally end a season that started in impressive fashion but faded as the year progressed. Smith hit .270/.348/.547 in 158 plate appearances last year and came roaring out of the gate with a .291/.347/.473 slash in 174 plate appearances through the end of May. He’s since cratered with a .208/.310/.375 batting line in 114 plate appearances and now won’t get a chance to pull himself out of that slump.
Even with the poor finish, Smith touts a .262/.357/.475 slash and 17 homers in 446 plate appearances dating back to last year. By measure of wRC+, he’s been 29% better than average in the batter’s box. The lefty-swinging Smith has the benefit of being platooned, and the D-backs will surely look to pair him up with a righty bat next year, but he’s emerged as a viable contributor on the strong side of a first base or DH platoon — a welcome development for a former top-10 pick who hit just .240/.319/.379 through his first 1094 MLB plate appearances from 2020-23.
Pavin Smith Unlikely To Return In 2025 Due To Quad Strain
Pavin Smith is “likely” done for the 2025 season, manager Torey Lovullo told reporters (including Jacob Gurvis of MLB.com) earlier today. Lovullo noted that Smith has not been officially shut down for the season, but after he went on the injured list with a strained left quad yesterday it seems unlikely he’ll be able to get healthy and back up to speed in time to appear before the end of the season.
Smith, 29, appeared in 87 games for the Diamondbacks this season and has slashed .258/.362/.434 with a wRC+ of 122. That’s solid production on paper, but those surface level numbers cover up what was a strange, up-and-down season for the former seventh-overall pick. Smith started the year as one of the hottest hitters in the majors, as he slashed an unbelievable .342/.373/.640 through the end of April. Even during that hot stretch, he was striking out at a hefty 28.1% clip but made up for it by hitting for significant power and floating a massive .488 BABIP.
That batted ball luck was going to run out at some point, however, and his next 48 games saw him hit just .232/.336/.384 in 146 plate appearances. His 13.7% walk rate in that stretch remained quite impressive, but his power largely disappeared and he struck out at an ugly 32.9% clip. It wasn’t long after that when Smith suffered an oblique strain that left him sidelined for the majority of July and much of August. He’s appeared in just 14 games in the back half of Arizona’s schedule, and in those limited appearances he’s hit .195/.244/.268 with a 32.6% strikeout rate in 46 plate appearances.
With such a hot start to the year followed by a lengthy cooldown later in the first half, it would be easy to write off Smith’s early-season performance as a simple flash in the pan. There could certainly be merit to that assessment, but it’s also worth noting that his injury-marred second half left him with little opportunity to make adjustments in order to respond to those struggles he began to have after the calendar flipped to May. In conjunction with Smith’s brilliant partial season in 2024, where he slashed .272/.371/.568 in 97 plate appearances after the All-Star break, it’s anyone’s guess what sort of production the Diamondbacks will be able to get out of Smith next year. It seems likely he could be tasked with sharing time at first base with Tyler Locklear in at least some capacity, though Locklear’s .169/.256/.247 slash line in 23 games for Arizona this year hasn’t exactly inspired confidence to this point.
In the short term, Smith’s at-bats at DH will be handled by Ketel Marte. That’s because, as Lovullo noted to reporters (including Gurvis) this evening, Marte is dealing with what the manager described as “fatigue” in his right forearm. That forearm issue has led the Snakes to play Marte out of the DH spot in each of the past two games rather than play him at his usual position of second base. With Jordan Lawlar now on the roster to get increased reps at the hot corner, perhaps more DH time for Marte down the stretch could mean additional opportunities for Blaze Alexander to remain in the lineup even when Lawlar is playng. Alexander has hit a respectable .234/.331/.441 in 49 games this year while splitting time between second and third base.
Diamondbacks Recall Jordan Lawlar
The Diamondbacks announced that they have recalled infielder Jordan Lawlar and left-hander Brandyn Garcia. First baseman Pavin Smith has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 28th, due to a strained left squad. Right-hander Taylor Rashi has been optioned to Triple-A Reno in the other corresponding move.
Lawlar, now 23, has been one of the top prospects in baseball for a while now. He forced his way up to the majors late in 2023, just after his 21st birthday. However, he didn’t immediately hit the ground running, producing a .129/.206/.129 line in is first 34 plate appearances. The Snakes were in contention then and weren’t in a position to just throw him out there as an experiment.
Going into 2024, the Diamondbacks weren’t quite ready to just hand him a big league job, given his youth and those numbers. They already had Geraldo Perdomo and Ketel Marte at the middle infield spots. They could have tried Lawlar at third base but instead acquired Eugenio Suárez from the Mariners. At the time, he had one guaranteed year remaining on his contract.
Lawlar could have forced his way into taking the job from Suárez, especially when Geno struggled badly early in 2024. However, Lawlar required thumb surgery in March and was out of action for several months. Then a hamstring injury cost him more time. He would only play 23 minor league games that year. Meanwhile, Suárez had such a strong surge in the second half that the Snakes picked up his $15MM option for 2025.
That left Lawlar fairly blocked for big league playing time this year. He did his best to unblock things, as he slashed .336/.413/.579 in Triple-A through mid-May and basically forced the Snakes to call him up. They believed that they could spread the playing time around but it didn’t really work out. He was recalled on May 12th but optioned back down on May 29th. In that stretch of barely over two weeks, he got into eight games and received 22 plate appearances. He didn’t take to the sporadic playing time, not recording a hit in that span.
The Diamondbacks fell out of contention and sold at the deadline, which included sending Suárez back to the Mariners. Ideally, Lawlar would have come up to take over at the hot corner but he had suffered a hamstring strain in late June. He got back on the field a couple of weeks back. After ten Triple-A games to get back in shape, he’s now coming up.
The Snakes can now use the final month of the season to finally give Lawlar some regular big league playing time and see how he handles it. His performance could then impact their offseason moves. He will still have one option season after this one, so they don’t have to give him the job in 2026. However, he doesn’t have much left to prove in the minors, so it’s probably time to let him sink or swim in the show.
That’s perhaps especially true given the club’s other priorities. Arizona traded away impending free agent Merrill Kelly at the deadline. Zac Gallen is still on the club for now but is an impending free agent himself. Corbin Burnes is had Tommy John surgery and will miss at least part of 2026. The bullpen lost Justin Martínez and A.J. Puk to UCL surgeries. The front office will definitely be looking for pitching this winter. Outfield upgrades might also be on the menu, given the struggles of Alek Thomas and Jake McCarthy.
With all of that going on, the front office might lean towards going into 2026 with Lawlar and Blaze Alexander competing for the third base job, as opposed to spending money or prospect capital to bring in someone else.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images