D-backs Blaze Alexander Talks Oblique Injury, Recovery, and Defense

Arizona Diamondbacks utility man Blaze Alexander knew something wasn't right on Wednesday morning while taking some extra swings off the machine in the batting cages at Salt River Fields.

"My side got real tight." Alexander said. He came right in to see the trainers to get evaluated and receive soft tissue treatment. But when he showed up on Thursday morning the issue was still there, so it was decided to he needed to get an MRI to see what was going on. Unfortunately that MRI revealed a Grade 1 oblique strain.

This type of injury typically requires "weeks not days" of down time Torey Lovullo said, and that Alexander would most likely not have enough time to get ready for opening day with the major league club.

The frustration for Alexander was palpable. Just a week earlier the always upbeat infielder spoke about his offseason program. "I put about 15, 20 pounds on, you know, functional weight, nothing too blocky. I want to continue hitting the barrel, hit the ball real hard."

But it was a different story speaking with him Saturday morning. "Last night being home for me, just thinking about all the work I put in during the offseason. It's four months of grinding, for it to get cut short [voice trails...], it's obviously unfortunate."

Alexander has already started to pick himself up and in any way he can. "It's another month to mentally prepare, get my body right, and at the beginning of the year, I'll be fresh and ready to go."

That beginning will now have to be with the Triple-A Reno Aces. Originally in the middle of a spring competition for the backup shortstop and utility role, Alexander will have to work himself back up to being game ready and then need at least a dozen games or so early in the season to get back to where he would have been with a normal spring training.

Due to the nature of oblique injuries, the energetic and effervescent Alexander will need to curtail a bit his natural tendency to go all out in the early stages of his recovery. He's not he type of player to ever hold back, but in this case he must. The D-backs' medical staff have reminded him already.

"I've done a little bit of workout stuff on the bike in there, and they just want to make it known that if I feel it all, just shut it down," Alexander said.

He's already drawn upon the experiences of teammates that have had the same or similar injury in the past. "I talked to a couple different guys who've had it," Alexander said. "The same exact things, take your time, obliques are tricky, one day it might feel good, the next day something happens, you sneeze or something, and you can re-aggravate it. Like I said, I trust the training staff."

The topic of conversation moved on to some of the challenges he experienced early last year, especially on the defensive side of things. Alexander was the surprise of camp last year, hitting .400 and making acrobatic plays all around the infield. He made the opening day roster, beating out a slew of players the team had brought in to compete for the backup shortstop role.

But early in the 2024 major league season a spate of defensive miscues in high leverage situations might have cost a couple victories. They also cost Alexander the manager's trust, who puts picking up the ball and making clean plays on the infield his number one priority.

Despite starting off the regular season equally as hot at the plate as he was in spring training, those early defensive issues caused Alexander to quickly lose playing time. Kevin Newman came up from Triple-A and took over most of the shortstop innings that became available due to a knee injury to Geraldo Perdomo.

With the reduced playing time, Alexander's bat cooled as well. By July 2 he was optioned to Triple-A, and only got into three more major league games in August.

While many may have assumed the game "sped up" on Alexander once he started playing under the lights with a third deck on the stadiums, that wasn't really the case in his view. Rather he had difficulty switching over his mind set from competing for a job mode, and was just trying to do too much.

"It's almost like, I felt I was still competing for my spot every day," Alexander said. "It is one thing being a utility guy, but obviously one of my main goals is to be an established big leaguer guy that can run out there every day. Maybe I was just trying to do too much."

Going all out is a quality that has served Alexander well through most of his development, but in this case it might have backfired. "I was excited, freaking balls on the ground. I'm like, let's go 100 miles an hour at it."

His teammates tried to help him through those times. "Guys were talking to me in the locker room. It was just like, dude, just breathe. Just, take a deep breath and make the next play."

Alexander just needed to remind himself that he was a big leaguer. "Just go make the play that you've been doing your whole entire life."

He did improve too. Of the six errors he made all season in 312 defensive innings, three of them came in the first seven games he played. He also started to get some reps at third base, playing 53 innings at the position last year for the big league club.

Alexander is known to have the strongest arm in the organization. It's a true 70 grade tool. With Geraldo Perdomo cemented as the starter at shortstop, and competition from top prospect Jordan Lawlar, versatility from Alexander is the key for his road back to the major leagues, and third base playing time could potentially be the best fit long term.

"I'm definitely open to third base," Alexander said. "Third base is not the captain of the field, third base is still a big part of the defense. I'm sure that my arm plays anywhere on the field."

Knowing that if he were to make the team this year he'd likely be bounced around the infield even more than last year, he came into camp having put in a lot more reps than the previous offseason. While Alexander stressed that he's comfortable playing anywhere on the infield, he acknowledged there are aspects of his skillset that might lend themselves to third base.

"Third base is a little bit more of a reaction position, which I like. I'm athletic. There's no thinking. The ball's hit, catch the ball, set your feet, throw it to first."

The D-backs had also toyed with the idea of having Alexander do some outfield work this spring. Knowing that he even practiced fielding fly balls and grounders in the outfield during his offseason workouts. He was in meetings where the team had discussed with him taking reps in center field. But that work got cut short by the injury.

"It's still out there. They'll have a plan for me, and as soon as I'm healthy, we'll go over that whole plan and figure out. I'm definitely open to it."

Alexander concluded the interview with this thought. "Man, I just want to be in that lineup any way I can, helping the team. That's what I want to do."