{"id":45038,"date":"2025-05-22T01:06:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T01:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/45038\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T01:06:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T01:06:10","slug":"the-diamondbacks-surprisingly-middling-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/45038\/","title":{"rendered":"The Diamondbacks’ Surprisingly Middling Rotation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few teams have more aggressively added veteran rotation help over the past two years than the Diamondbacks. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker<\/a>, 15 free agent starting pitchers have signed for at least a $20MM average annual value since the start of the 2023-24 offseason. The D-Backs have been responsible for three of them.<\/p>\n

If we exclude Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, who was obviously signed more for his bat, \u00a0Arizona is the only team to sign three such contracts over the past two winters. The Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> and\u00a0Blake Snell<\/a>) are the only other club that has signed more than one.<\/p>\n

Arizona began with a four-year, $80MM contract for Eduardo Rodriguez<\/a>. That was a sizable investment for their market size but not one that took too many people by surprise. They finally snapped Jordan Montgomery’s<\/a>\u00a0extended free agent stay with a one-year, $25MM guarantee and an easily achievable vesting option that pushed their investment close to $50MM over two seasons.<\/p>\n

The true shocker came last winter, when they emerged out of nowhere as the landing spot for Corbin Burnes<\/a>, who wanted to pitch close to his Arizona home. He probably left some earnings upside on the table, but it still took a six-year commitment worth $210MM (with a net present value closer to $194MM after adjusting for deferred money).<\/p>\n

They’ve added those big-name arms to an in-house starting pitching group that included\u00a0Zac Gallen<\/a>,\u00a0Merrill Kelly<\/a> and\u00a0Brandon Pfaadt<\/a>. Maybe they didn’t match the depth of some other clubs, but their top six to seven starters look exceptionally formidable. This should be one of the best rotations in MLB.<\/p>\n

And yet, for two years running, it hasn’t been particularly close to that.<\/p>\n


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