Diamondbacks 2023 Player Review: Jose Herrera
This article is part of a series of player reviews for the 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks. It was a surprising and marvelous year for the team as they won 84 games to make the postseason. They advanced all the way to Game Five of the World Series before bowing out to the Texas Rangers. There are 54 players in all that had at least one at-bat or pitched at least one inning for the team this past season. They are being presented in reverse order of their aWAR (average WAR-Wins Above Replacement) produced, which is the average of Baseball Reference and Fangraphs WAR. These are their season stories.
Jose Herrera: -0.45 aWAR
Jose Herrera started the season as the third catcher on the Arizona Diamondbacks depth chart. However, a fractured forearm courtesy of a pitch to Carson Kelly moved the 26-year-old Herrera to backup duties. He was looking to rebound after a bad rookie season in which he had just a 32 OPS+ and hit .189. In 2023, he rebounded ever so slightly. While he did raise hit batting average 19 points, his OPS+ was still a devastating 54 which is just simply unplayable. He got into just 41 games, most of which came during Moreno's extended injury. Hererra was sent down to the Minor Leagues back on June 9th, until Moreno went on the Injured List. He came back up and formed a duo with Carson Kelly behind the plate.
Herrera's saving grace was his defense. His dWAR was 0.1, though that was down from 0.4 in 2022. Once Carson Kelly was let go, Herrera became the official backup until the team acquired Seby Zavala off of waivers. His last game in a D-backs uniform before the postseason was on September 12th. From that point on, he was in the minor leagues with the Reno Aces.
Due to MLB roster rules, Zavala was ineligible for the postseason roster because he wasn't on the roster before September 1st. That's why Herrera came back and made a few cameos in relief of Gabriel Moreno who departed early in two games with a minor injury.
Still, Herrera didn't do anything with the bat. In fact, from July 23rd to September 12th, he hit .152 with a .409 OPS. He had just seven hits in that time span that covered 20 games. The switch-hitter was equally miserable against both sides of the plate. He hit .191 against left-handed pitching and .213 against right-handed pitching.
2024 Status and Outlook:
The D-backs control Herrera through the 2028 season and he isn't arbitration eligible until 2026. However, he is at definite risk of being designated for assignment or out-righted off of the 40-man roster should the D-backs sign or acquire another backup catcher beyond Seby Zavala. Plus, Herrera is likely to have lost his backup job to Zavala who the team believed in more down the stretch.
His bat is simply unplayable and his defense is unable to make up the difference. While he has played at least 40 games in each of the last two seasons, it appears that he will be slated for more minor league work. In any case, he provides depth and knows how to handle the D-backs pitching staff. The Diamondbacks will need Herrera to figure out his hitting woes so they can go back to their Moreno/Herrera tandem that worked out well in the early part of the 2023 season.
