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Countdown to Arizona Diamondbacks Opening Day: D-22, Socrates Brito

Well, this is unfortunate...

By Jim McLennan

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Arizona Diamondbacks Photo Day Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

We asked you to rank the 40-man roster along with the 16 non-roster invitees to spring training, and every day between now and the eve of Opening Day, we’ll have a profile of one of those Diamondbacks.

D minus 22: Socrates Brito

  • Date of birth: September 6, 1992
  • Ht/Wt: 6’2”, 205 lbs
  • Position: Outfielder
  • Status: 40-man roster
  • Bats/Throws: L/L
  • 2016 MLB numbers: 40 games, 97 PA, .179/.196/.358, 4 HR, 12 RBI
  • SnakePit Rating: 5.17 [pattern of votes below]

Sir Not-Appearing-On-This-Opening-Day-Roster will be playing the part of Socrates Brito, after an ill-advised slide into home-plate earlier this week, left the outfielder with a dislocated ring-finger on his left-hand. The timetable for his return is uncertain at this point, but I’d say May is probably rather more likely than April. It’s a shame, as Brito’s defense would have been useful in our outfield, along with his left-handed bat. Admittedly, last year did not deliver on the promise Brito showed over his first 18 games in 2014: never mind his batting average, Socrates’s on-base percentage fell below the Uecker Line. By OBP, he ranked 430th of the 431 players to appear in 40+ games.

So, we would have been looking for much better from him this season, and in his defense, he is still only 24, an age at which, say, outfield colleagues David Peralta and A.J. Pollock were still playing independent ball and making their major-league debut respectively. There’s work he has simplified his swing, but as important as any mechanical adjustment would be a) Improving his K:BB ratio, which was 23:2 last season, and b) staying healthy. For Brito seems accident prone: part of the problem last year was a stint on the DL after he fouled a ball of his foot, breaking it. But he has a big cheerleader in team-mate Archie Bradley, who said of Socrates in September:

“I’m really hoping he has a chance to stay up here and continue to play. His athleticism is off the charts. You see him put together at-bats like that where you’re like, ‘Whoa.’ He could do that 25 times in a year, maybe more. I think he’s an unbelievable athlete.”

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