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Inside the Diamondbacks Notebook February 28th

Madison Bumgarner throws BP, Blake Walston Faces the Mountaineers

After a rough weekend, Torey Lovullo had the team spent a good part of yesterday morning working on bunt play defense. The starting infield for yesterday's game also went through a brisk and rigorous morning infield session. It seemed to bring focus as yesterday's defense was outstanding.

Following yesterday afternoon's walk-off victory against the Cubs the team played an exhibition game in the evening against the West Virginia Mountaineers. A lineup of minor leaguers and non roster invitees defeated the Mountaineers 6-0.  Deyvison De Los Santos hit a home run and a single with exit velocities of 113 and 111 MPH.  Blake Walston threw two scoreless innings, striking out three and did not allow a baserunner. His fastball sat at about 92.  Peter Soloman, who the D-backs claimed in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft, in camp on a minor league contract, also threw two innings, walking one and striking out five batters. 

Madison Bumgarner threw his 3rd live batting practice session yesterday. His next outing should be in a game coming up soon, perhaps Wednesday or Thursday. Lovullo said he was locating well inside the zone, but Kristian Robinson managed to take  him deep though. 

Zach Davies will start in today's game against the White Sox at Salt River Fields, game time is 1:10 P.M. 

Kyle Lewis will not play in a game before the weekend. He is still “building back up” according to Lovullo, although no new injury has been identified. Lewis has a history of knee problems however and has been wearing a heavy brace.

The question came up as to whether Corbin Martin may work in long relief. While Lovullo said Martin would definitely be working out of the bullpen he would not characterize his role as a long man. Martin will be expected to go 1+ sometimes. The D-backs may not have a classic long man in the bullpen this year. Lovullo said that he is going to try to get more 1+ inning outings out of most of his relievers. He said he started trending towards that usage last year with the advent of the DH.

Reliever Stefan Crichton has decided to retire. Crichton, who pitched in four major league seasons, including three with the D-backs from 2019-21, was trying to come back from Tommy John surgery. He appeared in 93 major league games and had a 4.79 ERA. But for the 2020-2021 seasons he was one of Lovullo’s most trusted relievers, posting a 3.04 ERA across 54 games, 56 innings in that span.

Infielder Yairo Munoz reported to camp yesterday. He had been delayed due to visa issues. Munoz was signed to a minor league contract and is a non-roster invitee. He  has a career .268 batting average and 93 OPS+ in 628 plate appearances. He is a potential depth option that can play second, third, outfield, and shortstop.

Here is Torey Lovullo speaking before yesterday's game.