The Arizona Diamondbacks have entered a different phase of their season, one they hoped to never experience.
The Diamondbacks have 53 more games to play after selling veteran talent for young assets at the trade deadline, a pivot toward 2026 after the club entered this season looking to contend for a World Series.
Merrill Kelly is a Texas Ranger. Eugenio Suarez is a Seattle Mariner, along with Josh Naylor. Randal Grichuk and Shelby Miller were traded as well.
The D-backs (51-58) have spent the past several weeks scrolling through trade rumors and answering questions about what they had to do to avoid this fate. Once the first domino fell last week with the Naylor trade, the bottom fell out, as Arizona played its most lifeless baseball of the season over a five-game losing streak in which it scored five runs.
That level of inadequacy should not be considered the norm for even a selling team given the talent that remains. If it is, that would reflect poorly on the state of leadership down the stretch.
The trade deadline has been an admittedly poor explanation for why the D-backs were outscored 32-5 over their last five games, but that weight has been lifted.
There is a lot of baseball left to play and much to play for in terms of building toward 2026 and beyond.
“It may look a little different, take a different shape offensively,” general manager Mike Hazen said. “I know the trade deadline was probably a little bit of a distraction. It’s not an excuse, but I acknowledge that it was probably a distraction. … So that’s behind us now and I want us to go out there and play competitive baseball.”
“We just have to rediscover who we are,” team president and CEO Derrick Hall told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta.
For the rest of the year, the D-backs are going to give looks to younger players, such as trade-acquired first baseman Tyler Locklear.
Rookies from within the system will also get run, including top prospect Jordan Lawlar, who is expected to be activated off the injured list (hamstring) and returned to Triple-A Reno within the next few days.
Hazen stressed the importance of these last two months to give the fans competitive baseball before wrapping up for the year.
“We’re exceptionally disappointed in where this season went,” Hazen said.
“Unfortunately in my job and where we’re at looking forward in trying to put the best team on the field for 2026 — certainly the best for the rest of 2025 to our ability — but in 2026, I have to face the reality of where our feet are, how we’re playing and we just didn’t play well enough. … Those baseball decisions don’t always align with what the fans wanna see. I respect that and I don’t do that lightly. It was very complicated to make that decision given how all in we went in at the beginning of the season.”
What to watch for in final 53 Diamondbacks games
Will the brand of baseball look any different/Is there an identity to be found?
In 2022, the Diamondbacks previewed their “create chaos” mantra when a group of young players started getting everyday reps. Hall alluded to this time, when teams did not like facing that aggressive style of play.
The 2023 D-backs were then top two in stolen bases and extra bases taken, a brand of baseball where they found areas along the margins to beat teams. The 2025 D-backs have been poor on the margins, below average in steals and bases taken while playing lousy defense.
And now, the Diamondbacks lost three players who hit a combined 54 home runs in Suarez, Naylor and Grichuk.
Will Locklear, Lawlar and other rookies push the Diamondbacks in a direction that looks more like 2022? That’s tough to say, but the D-backs are probably going to have to score a bit differently and find some sort of identity.
“We’ve gotten a little more athletic, a little younger,” manager Torey Lovullo told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo. “We tried to incorporate that into the Detroit series and had a couple runners picked off. … When you can create a little bit of a diversion and chaos as we all remember, then I will sign up for that every day of the week. But we’ve got to be smart.”
Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll are still going to put the ball over the wall, but the Diamondbacks as a whole will have to manufacture more runs.
Can Jordan Lawlar show the same promise as a major leaguer?
Lawlar has been an exceptional minor league baseball player with the power to hit 20 home runs, speed to steal 40 bases and athleticism to handle multiple defensive positions.
He has not been a good major leaguer in two cups of coffee, as he is 4-for-50 at the plate. Major league breaking balls have been an issue.
Lawlar just turned 23 years old, and he’ll get more chances to prove that he belongs in the long-term vision of the Diamondbacks. The back end of this season is a terrific opportunity for that.
Zac Gallen is still here, and this is a big stretch for him
The last man standing in terms of Arizona’s most heavily trade rumored players on expiring contracts is Zac Gallen.
The Diamondbacks received a lot of interest, but no offer cleared the bar Arizona set, so he will make his next start back with the club on Saturday.
Zac Gallen did not get traded at the deadline, and Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen breaks down why that is with @WolfandLuke.
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— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) August 1, 2025
Gallen has not been an easy watch this season. This has been his worst statistical campaign, and it came during a critical season for the D-backs and for himself as an impending free agent. Gallen has a 5.60 ERA, and his peripherals are not much better with a 4.75 FIP (fielding-independent pitching). He leads the major leagues in earned runs. And yet, he’s had moments of brilliance this year intertwined.
It’s been a weird season for him.
What his market looks like and potential future with the Diamondbacks could depend on whether or not he finds what he’s been looking for down the stretch.
New faces
Locklear is already on the MLB roster and set to start games, and more returnees from these trades should come up to contribute before the year concludes. The Diamondbacks targeted players from the upper minors who may not need much seasoning before getting called up.
I would expect between now and the end of the season Diamondbacks fans will get to see some of the prospects they got during this trade deadline. We have already seen Brandyn Garcia and will see Tyler Locklear tonight. I would expect relievers Andrew Hoffman and Juan Burgos plus…
— John Gambadoro (@Gambo987) August 1, 2025
First base is not a position with much clarity moving forward, which is a change after Paul Goldschmidt and Christian Walker locked it down for so long. Locklear becoming a staple at first base would be a big win for the ballclub.
There’s no guarantee of that, but he has crushed the ball this year after a quiet MLB cup of coffee last season. The 24-year-old made a change to his hand positioning in early June, and he’s been dominant since. He hit .422 in July.
Left-hander Brandyn Garcia has big stuff as a sidearm left-hander with a 97 mph sinker and a sweeper. He was optioned to Triple-A Reno on Friday.
Andrew Hoffmann has had a great year pitching in Triple-A for Kansas City and will start in Reno. Juan Burgos made his MLB debut for Seattle in early July, while Hunter Cranton is an older prospect at Double-A Amarillo with an upper 90s heater and a promising slider.
Arizona got back three starting pitching prospects from the Rangers: lefty Kohl Drake, lefty Mitch Bratt and right-hander David Hagaman.
Drake is already considered the best pitching prospect in the farm system by MLB Pipeline as a 6-foot-5 lefty who can throw various pitches for strikes. He’s in Triple-A to start.
“The closer to the big leagues, the sooner they can contribute, I think there’s a certain value there for us,” Hazen said.
Corbin Carroll, Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo remain a quality top of lineup
The Diamondbacks took a lot of firepower away, but the top three of the batting order should still produce.
Carroll has gone through some ups and downs since breaking his hand on a hit-by-pitch in June, but he’s hit five triples and six doubles in his last 18 games played. He is one triple away from setting the franchise record, as he is tied with himself and Tony Womack with 14.
A good way to ignite an offense is with a lead-off hitter who can get extra bases at any time.
Marte remains one of the top hitters in baseball (.935 OPS) as he’s been over the last couple years, while Perdomo’s breakout campaign at the plate continues. This season is the best he’s looked by far offensively over a sustained run, and he’s now the team’s active leader in RBIs with 75. He is set to break Nick Ahmed’s franchise record of 82 RBIs in a season by a shortstop.
Catcher Gabriel Moreno will in all likelihood return from injury at some point and add some depth to the lineup.
Will the Diamondbacks fight for manager Torey Lovullo?
The past 10 days have not reflected well on anybody in the Diamondbacks’ dugout, and the manager of a team with expectations to be competitive is typically placed under a microscope. Lovullo has been the manager in Arizona for nine years, leading the club through some of its brightest and lowest moments.
It would not be a good look if the team rolled over and died in the final two months of the season. The level of fight shown, the sharpness of the games and improvement of younger players, fair or not, will come back to him as the team evaluates what to do going forward.
“We’re not expecting to go out there and have cash-in moments. That’s unacceptable,” Lovullo said. “I want focused baseball. I want winning baseball. Winning that at-bat, winning pitches. I want to see where that leads us. At the end of the night, if we do that enough, we’re gonna win some baseball games.”
Lovullo is under contract through next season and there have been no public suggestions his seat has been hot, but the performances leading into the trade deadline were untenable and can’t become a norm.
Is Torey Lovullo coaching for his job over the Diamondbacks’ final 53 games?
The skipper “lives in that space every day,” he told @BurnsAndGambo.
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— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) August 1, 2025
