Diamondbacks add four for minor-league depth

Nothing particularly earth-shattering here, and odds are heavily against any of them making the Opening Day roster (unless something goes really wrong). Indeed, it’s quite possible we’ll see none of them at all with the major-league club during the 2017 season. But just so you know, here are details on the four men in question.

OF Reymond Fuentes

Fuentes was a first-round pick in the 2009 draft, going to the Boston Red Sox with the 28th overall selection. He was part of the Adrian Gonzalez trade to the Padres, and made his major-league debut with San Diego in 2013 (by coincidence, against Arizona). He appeared in 23 games there, mostly off the bench, but was dealt to Kansas City at the end of 2014. After a strong spring, he made the Royals’ Opening Day roster this year, but only as a fill-in until Jarrod Dyson returned from injury, and was released by Kansas City in mid-September. Overall, he’s a .243 hitter in 36 major-league games, though won the Puerto Rico winter batting title last year, and is still only 25 years old. Fun fact: he’s a second cousin to Carlos Beltran, through his mother.

RHP Brooks Hall

Selected in the fourth-round of the 2009 draft by the Milwaukee Brewers, Hall had spent his entire pro career with them, until becoming a free-agent at the end of last season. Over seven years, he has a 4.13 ERA in 140 appearances, including 92 starts, with a K:BB ratio of 390:177 in 564.2 innings. He reached Triple-A for the first time in 2016, but did not enjoy Colorado Springs, posting a 7.71 ERA over 13 relief stints. He was much better in Double-A, with a 3.48 ERA over 20 games, seven of them starts. Our friends at Brew Crew Ball would have liked to see him re-signed, but he’s ours now! Fun fact: Hall was drafted out of T. L. Hanna High School, in Anderson, SC, which has only ever produced one major-league player - but he’s a good one: Hall of Famer, Jim Rice.

OF Jason Pridie

The most experienced of the signings, Pridie has appeared in 133 major-league games, the great majority of those coming in the 2011 campaign with the New York Mets. Since then, he has been seen in four of the five seasons, but never in more than 10 games. He spent 2016 in the Japanese minor leagues, as part of the Hiroshima Carp organization. He received a 50-game suspension in 2012, after a second failed test for a recreational drug, and later said, "I made a stupid decision." The veteran turned 33 in October, and was drafted back in 2002 by the Rays; he was in the deal that brought Matt Garza from Minnesota, and Arizona will be his eighth MLB organization. Fun fact: But it’ll be a homecoming of sorts for Pridie, as he was born in Phoenix, and went to school in Prescott.

RHP Asher Wojciechowski

Another first-round pick, this time in the 2010 draft by the Blue Jays, who traded him to the Astros two years later, as part of the J.A. Happ swap. He reached the majors with them in 2015, making three starts and two relief appearances, with an ERA of 7.16, and was selected off waivers by the Miami Marlins in May this year. He had a 4.94 minor-league ERA in 17 starts and three relief appearances, with a 63:38 K:BB in 85.2 innings of work. Growing up, Wojciechowski and his family spent time on a mission working in a Romanian orphanage, and played on the country’s first Little League team. Fun fact: If Asher makes the big leagues with Arizona, he’ll have the second-longest surname in Diamondbacks history, tied at 13 characters with Ryan Rowland-Smith. I’ll leave you to figure out who’s #1!