Diamondbacks Outfield Competition Heating Up
The Diamondbacks outfield situation continues to evolve by the day. The amount of talent at the position is pretty envious compared to the rest of the league. Already carrying 2023 National League Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll and a promising young player who led the team in postseason home runs in Alek Thomas, the team still made key additions at the position. They re-signed left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. before adding Joc Pederson and Randal Grichuk late in the offseason.
Beyond those five players, the D-backs have some depth in Triple-A. Jake McCarthy has 736 career plate appearances over parts of three seasons and Jorge Barrosa is knocking on the door for an opportunity. It's a situation where they have many capable players, but very few roster spots they can commit to that position group.
"We have a lot of bodies, a lot of very abled bodies that are able to make it competitive" said manager Torey Lovullo. "We'll see what happens."
Having a lot of capable outfielders makes for tougher roster decisions next month. On top of who makes the team, allotting playing time for players becomes a secondary problem. Lovullo has made it clear they want to be able to use them in the outfield when the situation calls for it.
The key player in all of this is Thomas. The D-backs have rebuffed all trade proposals involving their center fielder, despite two disappointing seasons at the plate. During the offseason he worked with Chad Miller, co-founder of the Louisville Slugger Science Hitting Center, and his dad, former White Sox Strength and Conditioning Coach Allen Thomas, to correct his swing.
"I'm really just trying to stay back and stay tall and stay stacked , and keep a firm front side. Just try to be myself. I've put a lot of hard work in trying to get back to being my normal self. I think it's definitely helped. There's times when I don't do it and it feels a little off. At least I know how to go back to it. That's just the main thing, just trying to stay consistent and try to be in there everyday" said Thomas. "Just trying to stay back and stay stacked with my swing. Firm front side and try to stay through the ball."
Those changes have not gone unnoticed for Lovullo, who says Thomas is close to earning an everyday role. That comes in stark contrast to a year ago, when they were shielding him against left-handed pitching for much of the year with only 71 of his 413 plate appearances coming against southpaws. The D-backs have rebuffed all trade offers involving Thomas, believing the 23-year-old will eventually break out and become a productive hitter.
The next domino is how many games that Pederson gets in the outfield. Pederson signed a one-year deal, hoping to re-establish the fundamentals in his outfield defense under Dave McKay.
"He will coach up anybody to the next level and Joc has committed to that" said Lovullo. "He said he wants to come in here and get some of those fundamentals back that have been elusive to him, and they're been working hard every single day."
While Pederson is maybe the fourth or fifth best outfielder in terms of defensive prowess, the ability to put him on the field gives Lovullo more flexibility to deploy his roster. It would allow them to the use the designated hitter position for another lineup regular such as Christian Walker, Gurriel or Carroll, in order to get them off the field but keep their bat in the lineup. The amount of extra rest the team can get for their best players without weakening their chances of competing for a postseason spot is crucial over a 162-game season.
Grichuk's health also bears monitoring. While the team has stated his recovery from ankle surgery in January shouldn't affect his availability for Opening Day, it certainly will have an impact in terms of garnering valuable reps before the start of the season. It could impact their roster decisions, as they could carry a sixth outfielder while Grichuk gets up to speed defensively. Lovullo talks about the challenge of carrying that many outfielders.
"There's not a lot of innings out there and if you have too many, you're going to fight to get guys consistent playing time. We start to count up innings, how many are left over for Player A, what does that matchup look like? Player B, where is he going to fall into his strengths and limitations, and how can we get him at-bats where he can be the most productive? Those are conversations we're having right now."
