The 2019 Arizona Diamondbacks: A new generation

No Paul Goldschmidt. No A.J. Pollock. No Patrick Corbin. No Chris Owings. This winter has seen the departure of the four longest-tenured members of Arizona’s major-league roster. Goldschmidt played his first game for the Diamondbacks in 2011, with Pollock and Corbin both following suit one season later, and CO in 2013. With them gone, I thought it might be fun to look at the players still around, and see who has been on the major-league roster for longest - and also, who has been part of the organization for the greatest time overall. So, I took the current 40-man roster, together with a couple of non-roster invitees who have history in Arizona, and charted their time here.

Turns out, the new “veteran” in terms of time on the D-backs roster is David Peralta. He’s one of four current players who made their debut in 2014, with the Freight Train first leaving the station on June 1 that year. Later that month, on the 29th, he was joined by Nick Ahmed. Jake Lamb showed up for the first time on August 7th, and Andrew Chafin got a cup of coffee when the rosters expanded, taking the mound on September 17th. Though among those four, Chafin had been with the organization for longest, having been drafted in June 2011. At that point, for example, Peralta was still trying to re-invent himself as an outfielder back at home in Venezuela!

That same draft as Chafin also brought the team Archie Bradley. Both were first-round picks, but Archie went higher (#7 vs. #43), so I guess that gives him bragging rights over Andrew, by a couple of hours! However, there’s one man who has been with the team still longer than either, and is about to start his tenth season in the Diamondbacks organization. You might be surprised to learn that it’s Socrates Brito. He was signed as an amateur free-agent by Arizona on April 28, 2010, more than a year before Chafin or Bradley came on board. Brito played his first game for us, in the Dominican Summer League on July 30, coming in as a replacement DH in the fifth inning.

The chart below shows the info for everyone. Boxes in yellow are seasons where they were entirely in the minors; in Sedona red means they appeared in the majors (not necessarily for the entire season). There’s one white box, representing Rubby De La Rosa’s recovery from Tommy John Surgery. For 2019, I’ve taken my “best guess” as to where the player concerned will be: red and yellow mean the same, but there’s also grey, indicating uncertainty. The first box for a player also shows how they came to the D-backs. Those abbreviations should largely be self-explanatory, except for IFA, which is short for “International Free Agent.” Have fun!

Link to full version of chart

Disclaimer. There’s probably an error in there somewhere. I just caught one before going to press, realizing Joey Krehbiel had NOT been with the team since 2011. Bonus points will be awarded to anyone who spots any others!