{"id":658909,"date":"2026-04-02T14:25:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T14:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/658909\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T14:25:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T14:25:20","slug":"the-diamondbacks-are-starting-behind-the-8-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/658909\/","title":{"rendered":"The Diamondbacks Are Starting Behind the 8-Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"

The top four in the lineup \u2013 Ketel Marte<\/a>, Corbin Carroll, Geraldo Perdomo<\/a>, and Gabriel Moreno<\/a> \u2013 is excellent. We all know the talent Marte and Carroll have, and Perdomo\u2019s breakout in 2025 looked real and not just a fluke. Moreno is one of the better young offensive catchers in the National League.<\/p>\n

After the top four, is there a player that will give opposing managers fits? As much as I respect Arenado and Santana, their best days are behind them. Lawlar has the talent to become a threat, and his hot start is promising, but we\u2019ve seen a lot more bad than good since his debut.<\/p>\n

The sample is too small to play around with numbers. I\u2019m sure the offense will get to a point where they can compete for a playoff spot, especially once they get healthy. However, if the bullpen does not make significant progress, it might not matter.<\/p>\n

Bullpen Blunders <\/p>\n

Monday night\u2019s game against the Detroit Tigers might have only been one game in a season of 162, but it encapsulated what the Diamondbacks have been dealing with for far too long. Leading 8-0 heading into the seventh inning, the Diamondbacks took nearly 30 minutes, and three pitchers, to stop the Tigers\u2019 surge.<\/p>\n

Joe Ross<\/a> allowed five hits and six runs. Ryan Thompson<\/a> came in to try to get Arizona out of a jam but could not locate his pitches, walking two. He was pulled before he could record an out. In the snap of a finger, the game was suddenly 8-6.<\/p>\n

To their credit, Taylor Clarke<\/a> and Paul Sewald<\/a> did not allow a hit in the eighth and ninth, securing the victory, but not many smiles, for the Diamondbacks.<\/p>\n

Sure, Arizona is without arguably their two best late-game options in A.J. Puk<\/a> and Justin Martinez<\/a>, but both of those injuries happened last season. The only arms they lost relatively recently were Andrew Saalfrank<\/a> and Derek Law<\/a>. Fine options, but not guys you would look upon in the eighth or ninth.<\/p>\n

The team knew what they would be up against this season and decided to sign Sewald, Ross, Clarke, and Jonathan Loaisiga<\/a>. All of whom landed in Arizona in the third or fourth wave of free agency. At this point in their careers, all of these arms are depth options, or even minor leaguers, but instead are being asked to fill leverage innings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The top four in the lineup \u2013 Ketel Marte, Corbin Carroll, Geraldo Perdomo, and Gabriel Moreno \u2013 is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[146,22,4314,5,38,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-658909","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-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116335576819126372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658909","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=658909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}