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Rubby De La Rosa
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Jimmy Nelson
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| Ender Inciarte - LF | Carlos Gomez - CF |
| A.J. Pollock - CF | Gerardo Parra - LF |
| Paul Goldschmidt - 1B | Ryan Braun - RF |
| David Peralta - RF | Adam Lind - 1B |
| Yasmany Tomas - 3B | Aramis Ramirez - 3B |
| Jarrod Saltalamacchia - C | Jean Segura - SS |
| Chris Owings - 2B | Juan Centeno - C |
| Nick Ahmed - SS | Jimmy Nelson - RHP |
| Rubby De La Rosa - RHP | Luis Sardinas - 2B |
The Diamondbacks use their fourth starting catcher of the season today. With the year not even at the one-third point, and Oscar Hernandez still lurking on the DL, not to mention Peter O'Brien, it looks like the pre-season line of 4.5 catchers could be passed by the All-Star break. Both primary and backup catchers from the 25-man Opening Day roster are now on the DL: the changes at that position are the same as everywhere else on the roster combined, where we have lost only Evan Marshall and Jake Lamb to this point.
However, things are going to get quite sticky shortly, as we have nine players currently sitting on the DL, at various stages of return. Gerald Laird is likely toast, and if Tuffy does indeed have a torn ACL, he may be done for the season as well. But we have David Hernandez, Matt Stites and Jake Lamb, all currently on various stages of their rehab assignments (likely returning in that order), with Oscar Hernandez and Enrique Burgos due back at some point, along with starting pitchers, Patrick Corbin and Bronson Arroyo. I dunno about you, but I'm not easily seeing seven roster spots available for them. Cross that bridge when we come to it, I reckon.
For now, let's see if we can repeat the last road-trip, and follow up a sweep being inflicted on us, with a sweep of our own. Certainly, no better candidates than the Brewers, who have lost two out of every three games played so far, and are actually worse than that at home, where they have gone 8-18. De La Rosa has been our second-best regular starter this month, though it might be truer to say "second least worst", since his 3.97 ERA is no great shakes. Still, he and Chase Anderson are the only ones below 5.40 for May. This series also sees our first re-union with Parra since his trade to the Brewers at the deadline last year. Watch out on the base-paths, Diamondbacks...