Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #105: 7/29 vs. Mariners

Roster moves

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves:

• Recalled INF Josh Rojas from Triple-A Reno.
• Placed INF Evan Longoria on the 10-day injured list (strained lower back).

That’s unfortunate. Longoria had been exactly what we expected when we signed him. He’d given the team a 117 OPS+, veteran presence in the clubhouse and decent defense at third-base. Obviously, there was platooning going on, and limited playing-time, but he was worth just short of a win (0.9 bWAR) in 55 games. Not a disaster. The problem is, it now returns us to a combination of Emmanuel Rivera and Josh Rojas, who have OPS+ of 104 and 69 (nice!) respectively. So there’s definitely going to ba a hit on offense from that position, at a time when the D-backs are flapping and flailing in just about every department.

Indeed, as Michael mentioned over on SI, “Arizona’s 6-15 record in July 2023 threatens to be the worst month of [the] Torey Lovullo tenure outside of the 2021 season.” I need hardly remind you how terrible that was. The D-backs were 5-24 in May, the worst month in franchise history, and then managed somehow to do even worse in June, going 3-24. Outside of that, you would have to go back to the end of the 2014 season, when Arizona went 7-19 down the stretch. Obviously, with only three games left, the 2021 carnage is off the table. But if Arizona can’t pick up at least one more win between now and the end of the month, the resulting 6-18 record would surpass 2014.

It’s remarkable and kinda sad that a team still very much in the hunt for a playoff spot - just one-half game out of a wild-card spot - is having a month which needs to be discussed in “worst ever” terms. We’ll see what happens down the stretch, but if things don’t turn around, then this year could end up being discussed in similar terms to the infamous 2018 meltdown. There, Arizona was 1¹⁄₂ games up on August 30, but went 8-20 the rest of the way, finishing nine games back and barely above .500, with 82 wins. Still, for now let’s hope for the best and, instead, say that the road to recovery starts this evening at Chase Field.