Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #25: 4/25 vs. Royals

Roster moves

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves:

• Recalled INF Emmanuel Rivera from Triple-A Reno.
• Optioned OF Jake McCarthy to Reno following last night’s game.

It felt like this one was only a matter of time. After approaching a month of games, McCarthy had an OPS+ of 30. That’s not good at all. As in, of the 182 players to have 70+ PA this year, only Jean Segura’s 26 is lower than McCarthy’s figure. Jack had a good piece which dove into the numbers behind Jake’s figures, which concluded, “He was being too aggressive, trying to make things happen, as evidenced by his league low pitches per PA. He wasn’t forcing the pitchers to come back inside the middle of the strike zone.” However, it is worth noting that McCarthy was the best D-backs outfielder in 2023 by dWAR, even if UZR tells a different story. Both are very small samples though, so we’ll see.

Perhaps tonight’s line-up, with Lourdes Gurriell in left, Alek Thomas in center and Corbin Carroll in right, will be how the team will line-up in the outfield on a regular basis going forward, at least against a right-handed pitcher. Thomas (63) and Gurriell (83) haven’t exactly been setting their bats on fire. But between Thomas and Jameson. we’ve seen that the 2023 Diamondbacks appear less willing to “baby” their young players. These are the big leagues, they seem to be saying, and you need to perform at big league levels, if you want to stick around. That’s a sharp change in attitude from the last few years, where the team barely provided an illusion of contention, even in the first month.