{"id":558601,"date":"2026-02-06T22:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/558601\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T22:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:44:16","slug":"d-backs-notes-lawlar-bullpen-bench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/558601\/","title":{"rendered":"D-backs Notes: Lawlar, Bullpen, Bench"},"content":{"rendered":"

The D-backs have already been getting top prospect Jordan Lawlar<\/a> some reps in center field, and general manager Mike Hazen confirmed to D-backs host Jody Jackson<\/a> that Lawlar will see the bulk of his playing time in the outfield rather than on the infield in 2026.<\/p>\n

Lawlar, drafted as a shortstop, was pushed to third base early in his big league tenure after Geraldo Perdomo<\/a>\u2019s breakout at shortstop. Defensive metrics and a glut of errors quickly made clear that he wasn\u2019t going to be a quality option at the hot corner, and the team seemingly acknowledged that with last month\u2019s acquisition of Nolan Arenado<\/a>. With Arenado at third base, Perdomo at shortstop and star Ketel Marte<\/a> entrenched at second base, Arizona\u2019s infield doesn\u2019t look to have much room for the former No. 6 overall pick.<\/p>\n

The outfield, however, provides more opportunity. Corbin Carroll<\/a> is locked into right field, but the other spots are largely up for grabs. Alek Thomas<\/a> is a solid defender in center but hasn\u2019t hit at all in parts of four major league seasons. Jake McCarthy<\/a> was traded to the Rockies earlier this winter. Pavin Smith<\/a> has some outfield experience but will probably see the lion\u2019s share of time at first base with switch-hitting veteran Carlos Santana<\/a> providing a righty complement to Smith\u2019s left-handed bat. Yesterday\u2019s trade of Blaze Alexander<\/a> to the Orioles removed another occasional option from the equation; Alexander played seven games in the outfield last season.<\/p>\n

Lawlar has only taken 108 plate appearances in the majors, and he\u2019s posted a bleak .165\/.241\/.237 slash in that time while striking out at a dismal 34.3% clip. However, he\u2019s still just 23 years old (24 in July) and has absolutely torched Triple-A pitching in parts of three seasons: .328\/.414\/.576 with 18 homers, 25 doubles, seven triples, 24 steals, an 11.9% walk rate and a 22.6% strikeout rate. Based on that production alone, the D-backs are going to do their best to find a spot in the lineup for his bat.<\/p>\n

The trade of Alexander opens a clearer path for Lawlar to get at-bats in the outfield, and it also helped fortify Arizona\u2019s bullpen. The Diamondbacks picked up righty Kade Strowd<\/a> in that deal, who posted a 1.71 ERA in his first 26 1\/3 innings of big league work in 2025. The 28-year-old\u2019s 22.9% strikeout rate and 12.4% walk rate don\u2019t support that level of run prevention, but Hazen told reporters after the trade that the D-backs felt Strowd took a step forward late in the year and is someone who\u2019ll \u201ccompete in the bullpen for us right away\u201d in 2026 (link via Steve Gilbert of MLB.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Strowd indeed seemed to find another gear in the season\u2019s final month. He walked 11 of the first 71 batters he faced in 2025, but over his final nine innings he issued only two free passes to 34 hitters while punching out 15 (44.1%). His swinging-strike rate in that time nearly doubled, from 8.9% to 16.2%. It\u2019s always dangerous to read too much into small samples, but in this instance, that drastic shift coincided with a huge uptick in Strowd\u2019s four-seam fastball usage and a significant downturn in his curveball and sinker usage. Time will tell whether he can sustain those gains in a larger sample, but it\u2019s a understandable that Hazen & Co. are intrigued to see what he can do with more four-seamers, cutters and sliders with fewer sinkers and hooks.<\/p>\n

Gilbert notes that the D-backs are still on the lookout for more pitching help, which is only natural \u2014 particularly in the bullpen. Arizona has added Strowd and signed Taylor Clarke<\/a> and Jonathan Loaisiga<\/a> as free agents (the latter on a minor league deal), but that won\u2019t be enough to make up for the losses of Justin Martinez<\/a> and A.J. Puk<\/a>, who\u2019ll open the season on the injured list after undergoing elbow surgery last summer.<\/p>\n

The D-backs, Gilbert adds, are also poking around for bench help in the outfield and the infield. Losing Alexander subtracted from that mix, of course, though they acquired six years of Strowd (and a pair of prospects) to offset that loss. At present, backup catcher James McCann<\/a> is the only true lock for the bench. Infielder\/outfielder Tim Tawa<\/a> offers versatility but didn\u2019t hit at all in his first taste of the majors last year (.201\/.274\/.347, 225 plate appearances). Switch-hitting outfielder Jorge Barrosa<\/a> is out of minor league options but is a .148\/.170\/.239 hitter in 95 MLB plate appearances.<\/p>\n

The Diamondbacks\u2019 40-man roster is extremely pitcher-heavy, with catcher Adrian Del Castillo<\/a> and 22-year-old infielder Jose Fernandez<\/a> (who hasn\u2019t played above Double-A) standing as the only other position players on the 40-man roster. It\u2019s only natural that the Snakes will look for some insurance around the infield and outfield, given the thin depth they have at present.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The D-backs have already been getting top prospect Jordan Lawlar some reps in center field, and general manager…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[146,22,4314,5,38,543,1075,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-558601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-diamondbacks","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","10":"tag-arizonadiamondbacks","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-diamondbacks","13":"tag-jordan-lawlar","14":"tag-kade-strowd","15":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116026116267476943","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}