Diamondbacks' Devotion to Chaos Continues into 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks, under manager Torey Lovullo and general manager Mike Hazen, have embraced the use of "small ball" over the last five years. It didn't start out that way during their Diamondbacks tenure.

Over the first five years they ran the D-backs (2017-2021) they eschewed bunting and stealing bases as a means to generate runs. Perhaps out of necessity after the disastrous 110 loss season in 2021, that changed suddenly in 2022.

Below is an extended quote from Lovullo. I thought it would be interesting to look at what he said, and fact-check it against the playing record.

Torey Lovullo Explains Team Small Ball Philosophy

"We work very hard at bunting," Lovullo said. "You can see a lot of clubs are doing it now. It's coming back into this game. I think for a long time it was, we will accept swing and miss, let's launch the ball into the seats, let's create some walks and build innings.

"But over the past three or four years, I think it started somewhere in the 2023 season, we thought and figured out this part of the equation that when we can put somebody in scoring position in combination with baserunning, put the ball on the ground, it was going to create a little bit of chaos."

"And that's our identity. That's something we talk about. We preached it here for a long time, and it shows up and makes a difference. It puts pressure on the defense. We force defenses to play fast. We force pitchers to pay attention to what's going on behind them, and that creates an advantage at home plate."

Small Ball by the Numbers

The table below shows the number of Sac Bunt attempts per chance, or opportunity, and the rate.

While Lovullo said the change started in 2023, it actually began in 2022, and it was a sharp change. The number of sac bunt attempts went from mostly single digits, and less than half a percent per opportunity, to over 30 per year and five times the rate.

For "plus stats" afficiaonados, Rate+ is relative to the rest of the league, and represents more than twice as many attempts compared to the league average from 2022 onwards.

Lovullo is also right that the sac bunt has almost completely disappeared from the game, but is making a slight comeback. The below chart shows sac bunts starting from 1901 through 2026 year to date.

Sac Bunts Through Modern Baseball History | Jack Sommers

In the deadball era there were well over one sac bunts per game. That number plummeted with the advent of the live ball in 1920, and then gradually decresed over the years through 2011 when there were still 0.34 sac bunts per game.

Starting in 2012 the decrease accelerated to nearly the point of extinction in 2022 to 0.08. There has been an uptick the last two years, however, to 0.12 in 2025 and 0.14 in 2026. While Lovullo is correct that there has been an increase league-wide, those numbers are still less than half what it was just 15 years ago. That makes the D-backs' usage of the sac bunt stand out all the more.

The D-backs also rank very high in straight bunting for base hits, with 80 since 2022. That trails only the San Francisco Giants, who have 82.

What about Stolen Bases?

Here too we can see a sharp jump starting in 2022 in the number of stolen base attempts of both second and third base.

Diamondbacks Stolen Base Attempt Rate | Jack Sommers

Beyond stolen bases, the Diamondbacks have annually been at or near the top in baserunning runs used to calculate WAR at Baseball Reference. That incorporates not just stolen bases, but also taking the extra base when the opportunity presents and avoiding outs on base.

In this metric, the D-backs are +43 runs since 2022, nearly twice as many as the Dodgers and Orioles who each have 23.

Chaos!

One area where you would expect the chaos that the team is attempting to create would be in Reached on Error, or ROE. Surprisingly, the D-backs typically do not rank high in that metric. Currently they rank 18th in ROE, and have never ranked higher than 20th over the last five seasons, averaging 22nd.

As far as how the attempts to create chaos impact the pitcher throwing to the plate, that's an article for another day. One can only assume that the team, which is very numbers oriented, has some type of data to support that assertion.

It's very difficult to quantify however. Analysts have made a numerous attempts to study this and weigh the offsetting factors of opening holes in the defense versus causing hitters to take hittable pitches, for example.

That said, we have often heard other teams lament the difficulty of facing the Diamondbacks because of the pressure they apply. Another team that has adopted this culture is the Milwaukee Brewers under Pat Murphy. We can see the results for that team over the last couple of years.

The D-backs have an identity, and will continue to deploy as many disruptive tactics as they can, depending on the personnel they have. The likes of Geraldo Perdomo and Corbin Carroll will surely press the envelope in their respective areas, as will others on the team, in tune with team philosophy.

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