How the Diamondbacks' Bullpen is Taking Shape Ahead of Opening Day

The Arizona Diamondbacks invited a large contingent of pitchers to compete for bullpen spots that were not already locked up by veteran relievers on major league contracts. Sorting through them all and figuring out the direction the team may be headed is no easy task.

Luckily for our readers, we are here to help you sort through all the options and considerations the team is facing.

The first thing to understand is that this article is primarily addressing opening day roster for the series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles starting March 26. We will address specific roles in a follow-up article.

We expect there will be changes to the bullpen construction shortly after the tenth game of the season even if there are no injuries in the meantime. By the time the team gets to Citi Field on April 7 to face the Mets, Merrill Kelly should be able to join the rotation and Michael Soroka could be pushed to the bullpen.

Diamondbacks Opening Day Bullpen Locks

There are five pitchers that are locks for the opening day roster, namely Paul Sewald, Kevin Ginkel, Ryan Thompson, Jonathan Loaisiga and Taylor Clarke. There are three spots still open for competition.

Of these five locks, only Loaisiga is not on the 40-man roster, having come into camp as a non-roster invitee. He's going to make the team, however. He's healthy, the stuff has looked great, and he's throwing strikes.

The other four pitchers are all on the 40-man roster and on major league contracts. Notably, none of these five pitchers have minor league options.

That leaves the team little flexibility with the top five relievers. If any are underperforming, they cannot be sent down to the minors. They would need to be designated for assignment and passed through waivers to be removed from the active 26-man roster.

Six Candidates for Three Remaining Spots

Six Candidates for Remaining 3 Spots in D-backs Bullpen | Jack Sommers

Coming into camp, the D-backs had only two realistic left-hand bullpen candidates: Brandyn Garcia and Philip Abner. Garcia was considered by most to have a leg up if the team decided to go with just one lefty in the pen due to having more electric stuff.

But the fact is Garcia has pitched quite poorly, walking five batters and hitting four. He's given up eight runs in 4.2 innings across seven outings. Even the stuff has looked somewhat diminished.

Speaking after Garcia's second straight poor manager Torey Lovullo expressed some disappointment with over-reliance on the two-seam fastball and the inability to command the pitch.

"It just seems like he's not finding a zone with that fastball. That's extremely important to us. It was a lot of balls today. Not big misses. We think he's very close, but he's got to find the zone. That's our main pillar, is fill up the zone," Lovullo said.

Abner, meanwhile, has pitched well, walking just three and striking out nine in seven innings. We project Abner to take to the spot, with Garcia likely having to try to figure things out in Triple-A.

Juan Morillo and Andrew Hoffmann have pitched well, posting solid strikeout to walk ratios and commanding the zone. Morillo has yet to allow a run in six innings. We project these two right-handers to make the trip to Los Angeles to open the season.

Kade Strowd came over in the trade for Blaze Alexander, but has had a rough spring, allowing nine hits and seven runs in six innings of work. He's only walked two and struck out five, however.

The D-backs may still consider to keep him on the MLB roster over one of Morillo or Hoffmann on the basis of his performance last September for the Baltimore Orioles.

Joe Ross is a dark horse non-roster invitee. He is on this list due to his ability to go multiple innings and provide long relief. The issue for Ross is he does not have minor league options and is not on the 40-man roster.

Not only would the team need to create a roster space for Ross, but he cannot be optioned to the minor leagues. That would all be an issue for Ross when Kelly joins the rotation and Soroka is pushed into a relief role. There would be no such issue with Hoffmann, Morillo or Strowd, who all have minor league options.

Summary

There are still six Cactus League and two exhibition games for the D-backs to evaluate the remaining six candidates for the last three spots in the pen. As of this writing we believe that Abner, Morillo, and Hoffmann are the favorites to capture those three bullpen slots.

A lot can change over the next 10 days when the team must make their final decisions. Once those are made, we can still expect a very fluid situation and very much a revolving bullpen door once again for the Diamondbacks in 2026.