Arizona Diamondbacks General Manager Mike Hazen and manager Torey Lovullo addressed the media today. The following are some of the key takeaways from those sessions.
Jordan Montgomery
Following up on earlier news regarding an injury, Montgomery suffered a flexor strain to his left index finger. Both Hazen and Lovullo indicated it was a mild injury and he should begin throwing again in a couple of days.
Lovullo said Montgomery is in the hands of the medical team for now and did not give a timeline as far as readiness for the regular season. Montgomery’s first throwing session post-injury will likely be a side session.
Montgomery earlier said that he did not feel like he was in a competition for a rotation spot, but Hazen said that he was a “candidate.” At the same time, he emphasized that a pitcher with Montgomery’s experience and career success has earned a certain level of respect, and that will certainly factor into their decision-making.
Rotation Competition:
Hazen reiterated that teams seldom get through spring training without at least one or two injuries that push timelines back, and thus he’s not concerned about having too much pitching.
Lovullo emphasized that the team is not just seven deep in the rotation, although that’s the number everyone keeps using. He said that the depth goes far beyond the number seven.
In addition to Corbin Burnes, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, Montgomery, Brandon Pfaadt and Ryne Nelson, there is further depth behind them.
40-man roster options in camp that have prior MLB experience include Tommy Henry, Yilber Diaz, Cristian Mena, and Blake Walston. While all four of those pitchers, along with top pitching prospect Yu-Min Lin, are expected to begin the year filling out the Triple-A rotation, they provide the D-backs with plenty of depth behind the front seven.
No 6-Man Rotation
Hazen shot down the idea of a six-man rotation. While it’s something they’ve kicked around and discussed, ultimately it would often result in too many off days in between starts due to off days. Of course, getting an extra day off due to an off day during is something many pitchers appreciate.
“But when you start going into two extra days, which happens when you have a six-man rotation plus an off day, NNow you may be throwing multiple pens in between I think that’s where the routine gets dramatically altered for the starters sometimes,” Hazen said.
Acquiring a Reliever
On Wednesday, Torey Lovullo spoke at length about the closer situation, and at this point, it’s still undefined. Their preference is to have a firm closer, but they will not force it.
“I think where we have performed the best as a team has been having a closer, but not in all cases,” Hazen said. “When Paul went down last year for the first half of the season, the guys did very very well so that can work. We have a lot of good arms in our pen”
Hazen has tried to add a closer all offseason, but so far has not found the right deal, either via trade or free agency. “I want to be aggressive, I don’t want to be reckless”
Hazen said that he felt that making a trade at this point to fill the role was going to be difficult, although he was unwilling to completely rule out that possibility, based on past history. The main sticking point at this juncture is that any team that wants to compete is unlikely to give up a high-leverage reliever for prospects.
While the free agent market has clearly thinned out, Hazen said his guess was “more free agency than trade” when it comes to bringing in more relief help.
As a side note, one potential candidate we have covered here at this website is David Robertson. Not coincidentally, Arizona Sports radio host John Gambadoro mentioned Robertson in a post on X as a potential target as well.
Related Content: Potential D-backs Free Agency Target: David Robertson
Competing to Win Now vs. Player Development
The D-backs will have a number of holes opening up in the roster at the end of this season. Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly are free agents on the pitching side. Third baseman Eugenio Suarez and first baseman Josh Naylor are free agents as well. And left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. has an opt out of his contract at the end of 2025.
The discussion turned at one point to the issue of balancing the need to develop some of their young, first, second, and third year players so they can step in down the line, when you’re competing now.
“That’s the challenge when you have a team that’s gonna go out there to win, you have to prioritize winning over development,” Hazen said.
That hasn’t always been the case of course. Hazen acknowledged in the past their focus was as much on development, out of necessity. In 2021 and 2022 the team gave a lot of playing time to rookies to bring them along and prepare for the long haul. But that’s not where the team is at right now.
“I think development is going to happen with opportunity, that is certainly going to be there for a lot of our younger players, but this is about winning, that will be the priority and the focus and it’s not going to be about development.”
Diamondbacks Manager Torey Lovullo Addresses the Closer Competition
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