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Corbin Burnes Placed On IL, Still Being Evaluated Due To Elbow Discomfort

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June 3: Results on Burnes’ first wave of imaging were inconclusive, reports John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. He’ll seek further testing and opinions to determine the severity of his elbow issue, and the club will have more information on his status later in the week. Per Jody Jackson of Arizona Sports, the further testing will include a visit to Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles. As expected, Burnes was officially placed on the 15-day IL today with lefty Tommy Henry recalled as the corresponding move. Per Gambadoro, Nelson will return to the rotation with Henry to the bullpen.

June 1: Corbin Burnes made an early exit from the Diamondbacks’ 3-1 win over the Nationals due to what was described by manager Torey Lovullo as right elbow discomfort.  The right-hander had sailed through 4 2/3 shutout innings before allowing a two-out single to CJ Abrams in the top of the fifth, and a clearly upset Burnes then immediately motioned to the home dugout for a quick consultation with team trainers.

Post-game, Lovullo told reporters (including Arizona Sports) that Burnes will get an MRI tomorrow, and won’t join the Diamondbacks on their upcoming road trip to Atlanta and Cincinnati.  The pitcher himself also described his health situation to the media, saying his elbow started to gradually tighten up during the outing.

“It just got to the point where the tightness was just too much…didn’t feel like we needed to push any farther.  Hopefully we caught it early, hopefully it’s not bad, but we’ll see,” Burnes said.

More details will be known in the aftermath of the MRI, though it seems like Burnes will probably be placed on the 15-day injured list at least as a precaution.  This would be the first arm-related IL stint of Burnes’ durable career, as his two previous IL trips were due to Covid-19 (in 2021) and an oblique strain late in the 2020 season that kept him out of the Brewers’ brief playoff run.

After signing a six-year, $210MM free agent deal with his local team this past offseason, Burnes has mostly looked the part of a frontline ace in posting a 2.66 ERA over 64 1/3 innings.  However, his secondary metrics tell another story, as Burnes entered today’s start with a more modest 3.99 SIERA.  Burnes’ hard-hit ball rate and walk rate are both well below the league average, let alone the strong numbers in both categories that Burnes had posted over his previous seven Major League seasons.  Burnes’ whiff rate remains above the league average but also down from his 2024 total.

The right-hander’s signature cutter has been among the best pitches in baseball over the last few years, but Statcast’s Run Value metric indicates that the cutter has gone from a +17 in 2024 to only a +2 in 2025 since batters have been able to square up on the pitch with far more regularity.  Both Burnes’ cutter (95.3mph to 94.2mph) and his sinker (97mph to 95.6mph) have lost some velocity from last season to this campaign.

Even with these red flags, the bottom-line results have still been there for Burnes, and he has still been the most consistent member of Arizona’s underwhelming rotation.  MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently explored how the Diamondbacks’ pitching staff is again struggling, and undermining the efforts of the team’s powerful lineup.  Today’s win bumped the Snakes up to only a 28-31 record, and they are five games behind the Giants for both third place in the NL West and the final NL wild card slot.

Losing Burnes even for a fairly minimal amount of time would severely hamper the Diamondbacks’ chances of making up that ground, let alone making a late run at the Dodgers at the top of the division.  Eduardo Rodriguez is expected to return from the 15-day IL this coming week after a mid-May placement due to shoulder inflammation, but if Burnes is also sidelined, Ryne Nelson (who was headed to the bullpen due to E-Rod’s return) will likely be reinserted back into the starting five.

Diamondbacks’ Starters Drawing Trade Interest

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As free agent starters begin to find new homes — Blake Snell, Yusei Kikuchi, Frankie Montas, Matthew Boyd and Kyle Hendricks have all signed in the past two weeks — interest in the Diamondbacks’ collection of rotation arms has “started to pick up,” general manager Mike Hazen tells Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. The D-backs have at least six starters on the roster at present: Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt, Ryne Nelson and Jordan Montgomery.

Of the six, Montgomery is the most obvious trade candidate, following a rough 2024 showing and owner Ken Kendrick’s public, verbal thrashing of the player. In October, Kendrick openly lamented ever pushing his front office to sign Montgomery late in the 2023-24 offseason, calling it a “horrible decision to have invested that money in a guy that performed as poorly as he did” and “our biggest mistake this season from a talent standpoint.” Montgomery unsurprisingly exercised a $22.5MM player option even after being called out by Kendrick — a straightforward decision for a pitcher coming off an injury-shortened year with career-worst marks in ERA (6.23), strikeout rate (15.6%) and walk rate (8.3%).

For all the focus placed on Montgomery’s struggles last year, the other veteran lefty signed by Arizona last offseason also fell well short of expectations. Rodriguez signed a four-year, $80MM pact with the Snakes but was limited to just 10 starts after opening the season on the injured list due to a shoulder strain. He pitched 50 innings of 5.04 ERA ball while showing diminished life on his four-seamer and sinker. Rodriguez is owed $20MM for the coming season, $21MM in 2026 and $19MM in 2027. He’s also guaranteed a $6MM buyout on a $17MM mutual option for the 2028 season — an option that could automatically vest based on his innings tallies in 2026-27. While Montgomery’s contract is underwater, the three years and $66MM remaining on Rodriguez’s pact very likely make him even harder to unload.

Any of  the other four arms in Arizona’s rotation would be hard to pry loose. Ace Zac Gallen is a Cy Young contender when healthy, evidenced by fifth- and third-place finishes in 2022 and 2023 balloting. He missed about a month of action with a hamstring strain in 2024 and flashed worse command than usual (relative to his excellent standards, anyhow), but any team would love to have the right-hander. He’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $14.1MM in his final season of club control before becoming a free agent next winter. Gallen is not being shopped, to be clear. Hazen even chuckled at the mere notion of Gallen being a prominent trade candidate in a mid-November appearance on Arizona Sports 98.7’s Wolf & Luke Show (2:35 mark). That’s unlikely to stop other teams from trying.

Kelly, like Gallen, is a free agent next offseason. He missed more than three months in 2024 with a shoulder strain but was generally effective when healthy, logging a 4.03 ERA with a slightly below-average 21% strikeout rate and a strong 6.3% walk rate. Arizona made an easy call to exercise a $7MM club option on Kelly for the upcoming season.

Nelson and Pfaadt are both controllable and thus quite valuable to the Snakes. The 26-year-old Nelson is under club control for four more seasons and just tossed 150 2/3 innings with a 4.24 ERA, 20% strikeout rate and outstanding 5.4% walk rate in 2024. Those numbers are skewed by a slow start, but from July onward, Nelson posted a 3.05 ERA, 24.8 K% and 5.0 BB% in 82 2/3 frames. He’s not yet eligible for arbitration.

Pfaadt, also 26, paced the D-backs with 181 2/3 innings and 32 starts. His 4.71 ERA doesn’t stand out, but his 24.3% strikeout rate, 5.5% walk rate, 3.61 FIP and 3.65 SIERA are all far more encouraging. He might’ve worn down a bit late in the season as he pushed through that new career-high workload, as his worst months were August and September. A disproportionate amount of the damage against Pfaadt this season came in one nightmare September outing, wherein the Brewers tagged him for eight runs in just 1 2/3 innings. Lopping off even that one start would cause his season-long ERA to drop by nearly 40 points. Regardless, the former top prospect is a 2025 breakout candidate when considering his pedigree and rate stats that far outpace his pedestrian earned run average. Of the arms on the big league staff, he’s probably the most difficult for another team to acquire.

There’s depth even beyond that sextet. Right-hander Drey Jameson will be back from 2023 Tommy John surgery next year. He’s already had some big league success. There are another five starters on the 40-man roster and likely ticketed for Triple-A, all of whom have minor league options remaining and at least a bit of MLB experience: Yilber Diaz, Slade Cecconi, Blake Walston, Cristian Mena and Tommy Henry. Few organizations boast a stockpile of arms so deep.

All of that is to say — it’s hardly a surprise that clubs are calling the D-backs about their starters. The same is true of their outfielders, as Hazen already acknowledged a couple weeks back. Piecoro writes that (naturally) Montgomery is both the likeliest to move and the pitcher whom the team would most strongly prefer to deal. Hazen stated that Kendrick’s comments regarding the left-hander have “zero” impact on the urgency to trade him, though there’s likely some public-facing lip service at play there.

Piecoro adds that the D-backs would be willing to take on another contract of some note in return for Montgomery (if said player filled a roster need) or perhaps pursue more of a traditional salary dump, where they shed as much of the contract as possible for little to no return. Of note, Hazen suggested that if he’s to ultimately move Montgomery in deal that is primarily rooted in salary relief, the trade would need to come together before the bulk of quality free agents come off the board: “At some point, it doesn’t make sense because your pivot moves are picking at the edges rather than getting somebody (who is more of a target).”

Diamondbacks Designate Logan Allen For Assignment

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The Diamondbacks announced this morning that they’ve designated left-hander Logan Allen for assignment. Lefty Tommy Henry was recalled to the majors in a corresponding move to replace Allen on the club’s active roster.

Allen, 27, is not to be confused with the 25-year-old Guardians left-hander of the same name despite the fact that he too was once a fairly well-regarded prospect in Cleveland’s farm system. Acquired from the Padres in the three-team blockbuster that sent Yasiel Puig and Franmil Reyes to Cleveland, Trevor Bauer to Cincinnati, and Taylor Trammell to San Diego, Allen pitched only briefly for Cleveland in the majors prior to the 2021 season, where he struggled badly with a 6.26 ERA in 50 1/3 innings of work across 14 appearances (11 starts).

The peripherals matched that lackluster performance. Allen struck out just 16.7% of batters faced while walking 7.7% and allowing an eye-popping 22.2% of his fly balls to leave the yard for home runs. Even with a solid 45.1% groundball rate, those brutal results and the peripherals that indicated they were largely deserved left the Guardians to part ways with Allen in May of 2022. He was initially claimed off waivers by the Orioles, although he struggled through just three appearances with Baltimore before they too designated him for assignment. This time, he passed through waivers successfully and was assigned outright to the minors.

The lefty spent a few months in the Orioles minor league system before eventually getting released and signing with the Rockies on a minor league deal that August. He remained in Colorado into the 2023 season but was released in mid-July, though he found a job with the Mariners just weeks later. Across four organizations and two seasons, Allen struggled badly at the Triple-A level with a 5.77 ERA in 110 2/3 innings of work and never sniffed the majors after he was outrighted by the Orioles. Nonetheless, Allen was able to find a minor league pact with the Diamondbacks this winter. Unlike his past minor league deals, this time Allen found some success with a 3.00 ERA in 12 innings of work with the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Reno.

That was enough for the Snakes to decide to call Allen up to the majors as a long relief option in mid-April. He’s made 12 appearances for the Diamondbacks since then, often pitching as many as three or four innings at a time, and had generally impressed with a 3.67 ERA and 3.84 FIP through his first 11 outings as a Diamondback. Unfortunately, the lefty was torched for six runs on six hits (including a home run) and a walk in one inning of work against the Padres last night, a disastrous outing that ballooned his ERA to 5.46 and his FIP to 4.31. With Arizona in need of a fresh arm and Allen out of option years, that left Arizona to DFA him in order to get Henry, who has acted as optionable starting pitching depth for the Diamondbacks since his debut in 2022, onto the roster.

Arizona will now have one week to either trade Allen or attempt to pass him through waivers. If Allen clears waivers successfully, the Diamondbacks would be able to outright him to the minor leagues, although he’d have the right to reject such an assignment as a player who has already been outrighted previously in his career. It’s not inconceivable that a pitching-needy team would be willing to look past Allen’s rough outing against San Diego last night and take a chance on him based on his previous 11 appearances, although it’s also possible the lefty’s shake results both at Triple-A and in the majors prior to joining the Diamondbacks could turn otherwise intrigued clubs away.

Diamondbacks Select Brandon Hughes

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The Diamondbacks announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Brandon Hughes. Fellow lefty Tommy Henry was optioned to Triple-A Reno to open an active roster spot. To get Hughes onto the 40-man, lefty Kyle Nelson was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Hughes, now 28, had a solid debut with the Cubs in 2022. He tossed 57 2/3 innings that year with a 3.12 earned run average, striking out 28.5% of batters faced while giving out walks at an 8.8% clip. He even moved into a leverage role, securing eight saves and eight holds that year.

But he found some struggles last year, going on and off the injured list throughout the season due to left knee inflammation. He made just 17 appearances with a bloated 7.24 ERA before eventually requiring surgery in June. He underwent a debridement procedure on that left knee and wasn’t able to return to the big league club in the final months of the season.

The Cubs non-tendered Hughes at the end of last year and he landed with the Snakes on a minor league deal. He has been getting good results in Triple-A so far, with a 1.84 ERA through 14 2/3 innings for Reno. However, those results are in spite of subpar strikeout and walk rates of 20% and 15%, respectively.

This is the second time Henry has been optioned, as he has been helping the club cover for some rotation injuries, posting a 5.40 ERA in six starts. Him being optioned today leaves the Diamondbacks with a rotation of Zac Gallen, Brandon Pfaadt, Jordan Montgomery and Slade Cecconi, while Eduardo Rodríguez, Merrill Kelly and Ryne Nelson are on the injured list.

They will need a fifth starter but not right away. They have an off-day on Thursday and another on Monday, therefore allowing them to use just four starters until next weekend, if they so choose. Manager Torey Lovullo said that Ryne Nelson recently threw a sim game of five innings and 75 pitches, per Alex Weiner of AZSports. That perhaps suggests he’s not far off from a return to the club. But for now, Hughes will give Lovullo another bullpen lefty alongside Joe Mantiply, Andrew Saalfrank and Logan Allen.

As for the other Nelson, Kyle was placed on the 15-day injured list a week ago due to left shoulder inflammation. It’s unclear how long the club expects him to be out of action but this transfer means he’s ineligible to be reinstated until mid-June.

D-Backs Recall Tommy Henry, Place Merrill Kelly On IL

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April 23: The Diamondbacks announced today that they have recalled Henry as well as left-hander Andrew Saalfrank. Kelly has been placed on the 15-day IL due to a right shoulder strain while righty Miguel Castro also landed on the IL, with his ailment listed as right shoulder inflammation. Kelly’s move is retroactive to April 20 and Castro’s to April 21.

April 22: The Diamondbacks will recall left-hander Tommy Henry from Triple-A Reno to start tomorrow evening’s game against the Cardinals, manager Torey Lovullo told reporters (including Theo Mackie of AZ Central). Arizona optioned Henry five days ago. Pitchers need to stay on optional assignment for at least 15 days unless they’re recalled to replace a player who is going on the injured list, so Arizona will need to make an IL move tomorrow.

Lovullo confirmed that the “most likely” option would be placing Merrill Kelly on the 15-day IL, although the skipper noted that one of Arizona’s relievers could land on the shelf instead. Kelly was recently sent for imaging on his shoulder after suffering some kind of injury to his teres major muscle. The 35-year-old righty was scratched from his scheduled start yesterday as a result.

If Kelly hits the IL, he’ll join Eduardo Rodriguez and Ryne Nelson on the shelf. Jordan Montgomery made his team debut last Friday and tossed six solid innings against the Giants. Montgomery’s presence becomes all the more meaningful if Kelly is out, as Arizona’s staff otherwise looks very thin behind Zac Gallen and Brandon Pfaadt. The D-Backs brought up Slade Cecconi to take Kelly’s start yesterday. Henry would seem the choice for the final spot, although he hasn’t had a great start to the year.

The Michigan product has taken the ball four times. Over 18 1/3 innings, he’s given up 15 runs (14 of them earned) on 25 hits. Henry has walked eight (9% rate) while striking out 18 (20.8%). The 26-year-old has worked as a depth starter over the past three years. In 154 1/3 frames covering 30 appearances — roughly the equivalent of one full season — Henry has allowed 4.84 earned runs per nine with worse than average strikeout and walk rates.

Kelly has continued to excel in his sixth season in Arizona. Over his first four starts, he owns a 2.19 ERA in 24 2/3 innings. Kelly hasn’t posted an ERA above 3.37 since 2021. He missed a couple weeks last season with calf inflammation but reached the 30-start threshold for a second straight year. Kelly topped 150 frames each season between 2021-23.

D-backs Select Logan Allen, Transfer Eduardo Rodriguez To 60-Day IL

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The D-backs announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Logan Allen from Triple-A Reno and transferred lefty Eduardo Rodriguez from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a roster spot. The Snakes also recalled righty Justin Martinez from Triple-A. Right-hander Luis Frias and left-hander Tommy Henry were optioned to Reno to creative active roster space for Allen and Martinez.

It’ll be the first big league action since 2022 for the 26-year-old Allen (not to be confused by the other left-hander named Logan Allen, who solidified himself in the Guardians’ rotation with a strong rookie campaign in 2023).

The older Allen also pitched for Cleveland previously, to make matters more confusing. He’s a former eighth-round draft pick who’s appeared in parts of four big league seasons, working to a combined 5.89 ERA in 96 1/3 frames between Cleveland, San Diego and Baltimore. In a dozen innings with Reno, he’s pitched to a 3.00 ERA with nine strikeouts, three walks and a 50% ground-ball rate.

The “60-day” term on Rodriguez’s IL stint is retroactive to his original placement and does not reset to today. While Arizona had hoped he’d only miss a month originally, the veteran southpaw recently experienced renewed shoulder discomfort during a throwing session and had his rehab program paused. In light of that setback, it’s not especially surprising to see him pushed to the 60-day IL. His original placement was retroactive to March 25, meaning he’s now sidelined through at least Friday, May 24.

With Rodriguez now shelved for another five weeks at least, Arizona’s rotation will consist of Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Jordan Montgomery and Brandon Pfaadt in the top four spots. Montgomery has also yet to make his season debut but it scheduled to do so on Friday. Twenty-six-year-old righty Ryne Nelson currently holds the fifth spot, but he’s yielded eight runs in 13 2/3 innings this season and carries a 5.31 ERA in 157 2/3 frames dating back to last year. His grip on that rotation spot is not exactly iron-clad.

D’Backs Select Nabil Crismatt, Move Tommy Henry To 60-Day Injured List

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In between games of the Diamondbacks’ double-header with the Padres, the D’Backs have selected the contract of right-hander Nabil Crismatt from Triple-A.  MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert was the first to note this evening that Crismatt had been issued locker space in Arizona’s clubhouse.  In corresponding moves, the Diamondbacks optioned left-hander Tyler Gilbert to Triple-A Reno and moved Tommy Henry to the 60-day injured list.

Should Crismatt see action in tonight’s game, he’ll be making his D’Backs debut against his former team.  Crismatt has spent three of his four MLB seasons with the Padres, posting a 3.39 ERA over 148 2/3 innings on the strength of some good soft-contact numbers and a 50.6% grounder rate.  Unfortunately, Crismatt’s 2023 season has been a trial, as he missed two months due to a hip strain and had a 9.82 ERA over 11 innings before San Diego designated the righty for assignment in June.

Crismatt opted for free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to the Padres’ Triple-A team, and he quickly landed with Arizona on a minor league contract.  He opted out of that deal at the start of August but then returned to the Snakes on a new minors deal, and it will now result in another opportunity at the big league level.

It is possible Crismatt’s stint in the majors might only last through tonight, as Arizona might just need a fresh arm available for the double-header’s nightcap.  The Diamondbacks have off-days on both Sunday and Wednesday, so Crismatt’s selection might be a temporary stopgap until the Snakes can reset their pitching staff.  That said, given the inconsistency of Arizona’s relief corps, the D’Backs might decide to give Crismatt a longer look to see if he can provide the bullpen with any stable innings.

Henry was placed on the 15-day IL on July 29 due to inflammation in his throwing elbow.  Through the 60-day IL stint also retroactively starts on July 29, the new placement means that Henry isn’t eligible to return until the very end of September, indicating that his 2023 season is probably over.  An MRI didn’t reveal any structural damage in July, yet obviously there is still enough concern to give Henry an extended recovery time.

The Diamondbacks have been starved for consistent pitching behind Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly this season, and Henry posted respectable numbers as the team’s third-best starter.  Despite a below-average 9.2% walk rate and a very low 16.8% strikeout rate, Henry still managed a 4.15 ERA over 89 innings, thanks in large part to an excellent 32.4% hard-hit ball rate.

Diamondbacks Option Jake McCarthy, Drey Jameson

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The Diamondbacks optioned right-hander Drey Jameson to Triple-A Reno yesterday, opening up a roster spot for lefty Tommy Henry, who was recalled and started last night’s game. Today, the club is optioning outfielder Jake McCarthy as well, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, recalling infielder Emmanuel Rivera in a corresponding move.

Individually, the moves aren’t necessarily shocking. Both players have started a bit slow here in the early parts of this season and neither is fully established. Each player is 25 years old and came into this year with less than a year of service time. But their demotions, as well as Madison Bumgarner recently getting designated for assignment, perhaps point to the club having more of a win-now mentality than recent years.

The D’Backs went 25-35 in the shortened 2020 season before winning just 52 games the season after and 74 last year. The silver lining of those losing seasons is that they’ve been able to devote playing time to young players like Josh Rojas, Corbin Carroll, Christian Walker and others, who were able to use those opportunities to hone their skills cement themselves as viable big leaguers to varying degrees.

But this year, the club’s emerging young core has helped them jump out to a 13-11 start. With the Dodgers having a modest offseason and feeling less like inevitable conquerors while the Padres and Giants have had slow starts, the D’Backs find themselves leading the American League West. In order to stay that up there, it seems there’s less room for players to develop in the big leagues.

McCarthy looked to have taken a step forward last year, hitting .283/.342/.427 for a wRC+ of 116 while also stealing 23 bases. With him in the outfield alongside Carroll and Alek Thomas, the club felt good enough about its options on the grass to trade Daulton Varsho to the Blue Jays in the offseason. They did get Lourdes Gurriel Jr. back in that deal for some insurance, though he’s a short-term add since he’s an impending free agent. McCarthy hasn’t been able to carry over those results so far, hitting just .143/.229/.238 prior to today’s move. He’s surely due for some regression from a .160 batting average on balls in play, but he’s also not hitting the ball with much authority. He’s currently in the 9th percentile in terms of average exit velocity, 8th in hard hit rate and 34th in barrel rate. He’ll head to Triple-A to try to get into a groove.

As for Jameson, his numbers might not look disastrous at first glance, as he has a 3.71 ERA through six appearances. However, he hasn’t exactly been racking up the outs. He started the season in the bullpen and made three long relief appearances, but then was moved to the rotation when Zach Davies landed on the injured list. His first start was solid, tossing four shutouts innings against the Brewers, throwing 54 pitches in the process. His next start wasn’t quite as good, as he threw 71 pitches but logged only 3 2/3 innings against the Cardinals. Then on Sunday, he only lasted one inning against the Padres. It took him 43 pitches, allowing three hits, three walks and three earned runs in the process.

“If he pitched better, he’d still be here,” manager Torey Lovullo said frankly yesterday, per Theo Mackie of the Arizona Republic. “That’s one of the things that (General Manager Mike Hazen) told him. A 43-pitch first inning puts us way behind, we’re kind of in a box, we’ve got to play a little catchup now with our bullpen. This was a direct response to what he did yesterday and a little bit of what he did in St. Louis as well.”

Those comments seem to reflect the win-now mentality that the club currently has. “We felt like the best thing for Drey at this point in time is to go down, get his timing, get his rhythm and find his stuff,” Lovullo said. “I said it last night: Good major league hitters, when they know you’re throwing a fastball, will get wood on a bullet. I stand by his ability to make pitches and when he does, he’s going to find his way back here.”

With Jameson going to Reno to try to earn his way back to the majors and Bumgarner out of the picture, the club is down to four starters on the roster in Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Ryne Nelson and Henry. They have some off days coming up that could allow them to get by with that group, but it sounds like that’s not the plan. “We have discussed the four-man,” Lovullo said. “We know the off days are there. It was thrown around. We have not made any decisions, but I don’t think a four-man rotation right now is anything we’re interested in.”

Since the club needs a fifth starter, it makes speculative sense that a promotion of prospect Brandon Pfaadt could be imminent, though the club hasn’t made any kind of official announcement in that department. A telling sign could be if he makes his next scheduled start, as he’s currently slated to take the ball for Reno on Wednesday. A consensus top-50 prospect in the league, Pfaadt isn’t on the 40-man roster and would require a corresponding move if he gets the call. He has a 3.54 ERA through four starts in Triple-A this year, striking out 30.1% of batters faced while walking 4.8%.

Diamondbacks Designate Madison Bumgarner For Assignment

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The Diamondbacks have designated left-hander Madison Bumgarner for assignment, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. The D-backs have formally announced the move. Left-hander Anthony Misiewicz has been recalled from Triple-A Reno to take Bumgarner’s spot on the 40-man roster.

The Bumgarner DFA comes on the heels of three-plus sub-par seasons for Bumgarner in Arizona, where he signed a five-year, $85MM contract prior to the 2020 season. The 33-year-old left-hander has been generally durable but ineffective for the Snakes, pitching to a lowly 5.23 ERA in 363 1/3 innings and 69 starts under that contract.

Things have taken a particularly pronounced downswing in 2023, however, as Bumgarner has been torched for 20 runs (19 earned) on 25 hits and 15 walks with just 10 strikeouts in 16 2/3 innings. The D-backs have lost three of Bumgarner’s four starts this season, including a seven-run three-inning clunker against the Cardinals yesterday, wherein Bumgarner got into a verbal altercation with St. Louis catcher Willson Contreras after apparently taking objection to Contreras’ reaction to a swing and reaction on a pitch he fouled straight back. The team’s lone victory of the season with Bumgarner on the mound came when he was pulled after 4 2/3 innings, three runs and six walks.

Bumgarner’s current 89.6 mph fastball average is down more than three miles per hour from its 92.9 peak. His 11.1% strikeout rate and 16.7% walk rate are both career-worsts by wide margins, and he’s seen his ability to induce swinging strikes (just  6.3%) and chases off the plate (21.1%) evaporate in this season’s four starts.

In seasons past, the Diamondbacks could perhaps sell themselves on occasional glimmers of hope and at least accept that if nothing else, Bumgarner was a durable innings eater who could somewhat narrowly keep his ERA south of 5.00. The Diamondbacks didn’t enter 2021 or 2022 as hopeful contenders anyhow, after all, and Bumgarner gave them a bridge to some of their starting pitching prospects while those promising young arms continued to develop in the upper minors.

That’s no longer the case in 2023, as MLBTR’s Anthony Franco outlined earlier this week in a piece for MLBTR Front Office subscribers, arguing within that the D-backs needed to move on as soon as possible. The D-backs entered the ’23 campaign with an emerging, exciting young core headlined by outfielder Corbin Carroll, and they have one of MLB’s top farm systems to further bolster that group in the near future. Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly are strong rotation arms, and with a talented collection of youth complementing them (e.g. Ryne Nelson, Drey Jameson and, sooner than later, Brandon Pfaadt), the starting pitching outlook is bright.

Arizona is out to an 11-8 start, and while the season is still quite young, expectations have shifted. Bumgarner simply hasn’t been a competitive pitcher for them in any capacity this season, and his body of work in three seasons prior gives little reason to hope for a turnaround. With the division looking more vulnerable than it has in years and the D-backs potentially on the rise, it’s just not feasible to continue on with what increasingly looks like a sunk cost.

Exactly how the rotation shakes out from this point forward remains to be seen. Piecoro tweets that 25-year-old left-hander Tommy Henry is expected to start in Bumgarner’s place next time around, though one would imagine that Pfaadt — one of the sport’s top pitching prospects — will get a look in the near future after opening the season in Triple-A. Veteran Zach Davies is also a factor, though he’s currently out with a strained oblique and figures to be sidelined into next month.

What’s clear is that Bumgarner’s time with the D-backs is virtually over. Given the left-hander’s woeful performance not only in 2023 but throughout his D-backs tenure as a whole, there’s no chance another team will roll the dice on the remaining $34.3MM on his contract. Bumgarner is being paid $23MM in 2023 and is still owed a $14MM salary for the 2024 campaign.

The Diamondbacks could technically place him on outright waivers, but he has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment while retaining his salary, and no team would claim the contract anyhow. As such, he’ll likely be placed on release waivers in the coming days and, upon clearing, become a free agent who’s eligible to sign with any other club. Any team that signs Bumgarner would only need to pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the D-backs owe the lefty, but Arizona is effectively committing to eating close to $34MM in dead money by parting ways with Bumgarner at this juncture of his contract.

Latest On D-Backs’ Rotation

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The Diamondbacks entered Spring Training with four rotation spots in place. Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly are the top two on the staff. Madison Bumgarner will get another crack in the middle, while Arizona brought back Zach Davies on a one-year free agent deal to take a back-end spot.

Who would secure the fifth spot was one of the more interesting decisions for the Snakes in camp. As MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald explored in early January, that battle looked likely to come down to four hurlers: Ryne Nelson, Drey Jameson, Tommy Henry and Brandon Pfaadt. Jameson and Nelson, both of whom made their big league debuts late in the 2022 season, seemed the early favorites.

That indeed now appears to be a two-person race. Arizona reassigned Pfaadt, who is not yet on the 40-man roster, to minor league camp over the weekend. They optioned Henry to Triple-A Reno this afternoon, taking him out of consideration for an Opening Day job as well.

Neither Jameson nor Nelson has done much to seize the job this spring. The former has allowed eight runs in 9 2/3 innings, while the latter has been tagged for nine runs in the same amount of work. Jameson has at least managed a solid 12:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio, while Nelson’s 10:6 mark is less impressive.

Both pitchers fared well in very limited MLB looks last year. Jameson made four starts and posted a microscopic 1.48 ERA through 24 1/3 innings. That came with an excellent 56.1% grounder percentage and above-average strikeout and walk numbers. It was a very strong debut effort but won’t completely erase concerns about the ghastly 6.95 ERA he’d posted over the 114 Triple-A innings he’d thrown prior to his promotion. Reno is among the hardest places in affiliated ball to pitch, which certainly didn’t do him any favors. That said, some prospect evaluators have suggested the Ball State product is likelier to settle into a bullpen role than a rotation because of concerns about his command.

Nelson has had some relief concerns himself, though he’s generally credited for more advanced command than Jameson. He doesn’t throw quite as hard and didn’t miss as many bats in his brief big league look as Jameson did. Nelson had similarly strong bottom line numbers in a cup of coffee, however, allowing four runs in 18 1/3 big league frames. Over 136 innings in Reno, he’d posted a 5.43 ERA with roughly average strikeout and walk numbers.

Henry had the most MLB work of this group in 2022, starting nine games. He didn’t find the early success of Jameson or Nelson, pitching to a 5.36 ERA with below-average strikeout and walk rates in 47 innings. Henry allowed 11 runs in 16 1/3 frames in camp before being optioned. Pfaadt is arguably held in the highest regard of the bunch but is the only one who hasn’t made his big league debut. The 24-year-old made 19 starts at Double-A Amarillo and 10 with Reno last season, combining for a 3.83 ERA in 167 innings. He allowed five runs with 15 strikeouts and four walks in 12 innings this spring.

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