Category: Baseball

It’s not impossible that San Diego Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller will use the quality and quantity of his bullpen to acquire needed roster pieces before the season begins but he has stated his reluctance to weaken the team’s biggest strength.

The inflated player prices this offseason have made it more difficult for Preller to round out the Padres roster. The budget constraints of the organization seemingly imply that the biggest expense was re-signing starter Michael King. With what is left, the bargain bin is the most likely place to find the rotation help and another bat that Preller has repeatedly said he is looking to sign before the season.

The real question is if there is enough cash left in the budget to sign these additions without losing anyone from the current roster. So far, Preller has stayed true to his statement at the GM meetings where he voiced a desire to not lose any of his bullpen in the trade market.

The Padres 2025 bullpen finished the season with the best ERA in baseball at 3.06. The loss of closer Robert Suarez should not seriously affect this group as Mason Miller, ranked the No. 2 reliever in baseball by MLB Network, assumes that role. Jason Adam, with his 1.93 ERA last year, served as the setup man for much of the season and should again be considered the leader for that role when he returns from his season-ending ruptured quad tendon.

Behind those two dominant pitchers, the Padres have an embarrassment of riches in their bullpen. Assuming they go into the 2026 season with five starters and eight relievers, there are only six spots available to fill out the rest of the bullpen.

Options for six spots

From the current roster, both the 40-man and the non-roster invitees who are in camp, the Padres have at least 18 pitchers to fill those six roles. From that group, only Ron Marinaccio is out of options and will have to be placed on waivers if he doesn’t make the 26-man roster.

The Padres signed RHP’s Sean Boyle, Evan Fitterer and Justin Yeager to minor league contracts with invites to Spring Training. Yeager is a confirmed reliever but both Boyle and Fitterer could be used as starters and have starter histories. Of the system’s minor league relievers invited to camp, RHP Manuel Castro, RHP Francis Pena, RHP Ethan Routzhan and RHP Ryan Och all showed the stuff that got the attention of the organization and earned them an invite to major league camp. Both Castro and Pena could be close to being added to the roster during the coming season. All of these are probable to start the season in the minor leagues.

RHP Logan Gillaspie, who was a minor league pickup in 2023, has had an inconsistent career with four different organizations and was re-signed to a minor league contract with the Padres in 2024. Between injuries and poor performances, Gillaspie has stayed with the organization and gets another chance this season to take a step forward. He got a spring invite after being retained following the end of 2025.

Who makes the 26-man roster?

On the 40-man roster there are 13 relievers to compete for those six slots in the bullpen. RHP Jhonny Brito will not be ready to start the season due to his Tommy John surgery last season. He is likely to be available by mid-season. Whether he is brought back as a starter or reliever has not been discussed to this point.

The Padres signed right-handers Ty Adcock and Daison Acosta to major league contracts during the offseason. Acosta was with the Nationals organization last season but has not made his major league debut. Adcock, who pitched in three games and three innings for the Mets last season, signed with the Padres and pitched for Estrellas Orientales (Dominican Winter League) during the offseason.

RHP Garret Hawkins was added to the roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft during the offseason and is most likely starting the season with San Antonio or El Paso and would be a depth piece for the bullpen during 2026.

That leaves long-man/swing-man Bryan Hoeing to come back after an injury-riddled 2025 to reclaim his spot. His competition could be Adcock or Marinaccio who was a limited contributor last season but had a 0.84 ERA in his 10.2 innings pitched. Lefty Kyle Hart will begin by competing for a starting job. If that role does not go to him, he would also be a competitor for the long-man role with Hoeing, Adcock and Marinaccio.

The five remaining spots will be a battle between Jeremiah Estrada, Alek Jacob, Yuki Matsui, Adrian Morejon, Wandy Peralta, David Morgan and Bradgley Rodriguez. Adcock, Hoeing, Hart or Marinaccio could also be in competition as only one of them can win the swing-man or long-man job.

Estrada, Morejon, Morgan and Peralta have all pitched in high-leverage situations while Matsui, Jacob and Rodriguez can cover the middle innings. Rodriguez also has the potential for a late-inning role with his stuff. MLB Network recently listed their top 10 relievers in baseball. The Padres had Miller, Morejon and Adam all make that list. It would seem a lock for Morejon to keep his spot as a high-leverage reliever along with Adam and Miller.

Spring Training will tell the tale

Many say that six weeks is too long for Spring Training. That could be true for hitters, most of whom say that three to four weeks is plenty to get ready for a season. The six weeks is for the pitching staff to be ready. With the big decisions that this organization has to make with its pitching staff, both starters and relievers, the next six weeks will be fascinating to watch. Add to that the time that the World Baseball Classic cuts into the preparation, and those decisions will be even more interesting.

Look for all the borderline pitchers to get lots of looks during spring games. Matsui, Peralta and Miller will be gone for the duration of their WBC teams’ participation in the tournament. Miller for Team USA, Matsui for Samurai Japan and Peralta for the Dominican Republic.

Figuring out who makes this bullpen will be a great challenge for the staff. The fans can play along and see how close we get.

This post is part of a series of daily questions that we’ll ask the community here at Amazin’ Avenue throughout the month of February. We hope you find the questions engaging and that our prompts can spark some fun conversations in the comments. We’ll see you there and plan to have staff chiming in, too.

What’s your National League East standings prediction?

TAMPA — The Yankees are adding a recognizable name to their bullpen competition this spring.

The club agreed to a minor league deal with Rafael Montero, The Post’s Jon Heyman confirmed Thursday night, and invited him to big league spring training to see if the veteran righty can win a job.

Montero would earn $1.85 million if he makes the team, The Post’s Joel Sherman reported.

The 35-year-old Montero, once a ballyhooed Mets prospect, pitched to a 4.48 ERA across 59 games last season with the Astros, Braves and Tigers, striking out 58 but walking 37 in 60 ¹/₃ innings.

He is four years removed from the best season of his career, when he posted a 2.37 ERA for the Astros on the way to a World Series championship in 2022.

Montero will join a group competing for the last few spots in the Yankees bullpen following an offseason in which the team lost Devin Williams and Luke Weaver and did not replace them with established arms.

David Bednar, Fernando Cruz and Tim Hill are locks for the bullpen, with Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn likely to join them if the rotation stays healthy.

The Yankees are also counting on a bounce-back season from Jake Bird and then are hoping for a few legitimate choices to emerge from a group that includes Brent Headrick, Cade Winquest, Yerry De los Santos, Angel Chivilli, Kervin Castro and now Montero.

“I think it has a chance to be [a strength],” manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday. “I think it’s because of our overall pitching depth that I really like. So that may mean a starter having to collapse and maybe somebody that nobody’s writing about at this point that usually, especially in bullpens, seems to always emerge around the league. The bullpen is usually one of the most volatile things that’s hard to predict sometimes.

“There were some big numbers [salaries] attached to relievers this winter, so we obviously had to address different things. You try to allocate your resources the best you can.”

The Yankees are inviting another reliever to spring training.

New York has signed right-handed pitcher Rafael Montero to a minor league deal with a spring training invite, according to multiple reports. If he makes the club, Montero will earn $1.8 million, according to insider Hector Gomez.

Montero, 35, is coming off an up-and-down season with the Astros, Braves and Tigers. Although the right-hander pitched to a 4.50 ERA in three appearances in Houston and a 5.50 ERA with Atlanta across 36 appearances after being traded, he turned things around in the Motor City after being dealt again, pitching to a 2.86 ERA in 20 appearances with the Tigers. 

In 10 career seasons, Montero is 23-30 with 30 saves, a 4.68 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP across 380 appearances. He was on the Astros' World Series-winning team in 2022, pitching to a 1.93 ERA across 10 appearances in that postseason.

With the departures of Devin Williams and Luke Weaver, the Yankees are looking to retool the bullpen. Aside from closer David Bednar, and relievers Camilo Doval, Tim Hill and Fernando Cruz, there are spots open to those who can win a job this spring. 

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. –– Dave Roberts has had a lot of great teams during his tenure as Dodgers manager.

But his 2026 squad, he believes, is “probably the best team we’ve had on paper.”

There’s plenty of premium talent, of course, from returning stars including Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, to this offseason’s blockbuster additions of Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz. 

There’s also ample depth, from longtime veterans in Max Muncy, Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman, to younger options including Andy Pages, Roki Sasaki, Hyeseong Kim and a crop of other talented pitchers returning from injury. 

Yet, as Roberts spoke at a Cactus League media day event Thursday, on the eve of his team’s first workout of spring training at Camelback Ranch, there was another, more intangible dynamic bolstering his belief in this year’s team.

“Knowing we have a target (on our backs) –– as we should if we’re the defending champions –– but to still focus on yourselves and what’s forward, that’s what our guys do a good job of,” Roberts said. “It’s easy to say, to not concern yourselves with people that are trying to knock you off the hill or whatever analogy. But it’s harder to do in practice.”

Indeed, for all the money they’ve spent and talent they’ve accrued in recent years, the Dodgers have been steadfast about how their behind-the-scenes culture has buttressed their on-field success.

Players, coaches and executives have all pointed to the team’s clubhouse chemistry as the bedrock to their back-to-back World Series championships.

Even with the influx of new faces, the consistency of their core has served as a stabilizing foundation.

To that end, the Dodgers made some long-anticipated moves in the final days of their offseason this week, locking down some familiar faces in order to keep the gang together.

On Wednesday, the club re-signed veteran reliever Evan Phillips to a $6.5 million deal, ensuring he will stay with the organization after being non-tendered earlier this winter (as a way to preserve space on the team’s 40-man roster).

On Thursday morning, a $10 million contract extension was struck with Muncy, one that will keep what is now the franchise’s longest-tenured player in the fold through 2027 (and potentially 2028 thanks to a $10 million club option).

And on Thursday afternoon, fan favorite and longtime veteran Kiké Hernández re-signed with the Dodgers on a $4 million contract, too, marking the third-straight winter he has returned to Los Angeles as a free agent.

“You know, Michael Jordan couldn’t do it without Scottie Pippen and the other guys on that team,” fellow veteran Miguel Rojas said at last month’s Fanfest event, speaking specifically of Hernández but delivering a message that applies to many around the clubhouse. “We’re all part of this, and we’ve all been part of this for the last couple years.”

Exactly how the team’s final winter moves will impact this upcoming season, of course, remains to be seen. 

Muncy was already entrenched as the team’s starting third baseman for this year. And Phillips and Hernández are unlikely to play until “sometime in the summer,” Roberts said, with Phillips still recovering from last year’s Tommy John surgery and Hernández from an elbow procedure he had early this offseason.

But their presence, Roberts noted, is impactful –– making their returns an important tone-setter as camp gets underway.

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Consider: After Phillips was non-tendered at the start of the offseason, Roberts said the reliever “wanted to kind of see what was out there, which I respect; he earned that right.” And yet, he ultimately decided to return to the Dodgers, even if his eventual place in a beefed-up bullpen remains unclear. 

“Evan understanding the value of whatever role we need him, it’s of importance,” Roberts said. “And to have that reinforced this year is huge.”

Hernández also faces an uncertain role this season, whenever he completes his surgical rehab. But that’s been the case for the utilityman over the past several seasons, when he has grinded through limited playing time in the regular season only to deliver when called upon in October.

“When it comes to crunch time,” Roberts said, “he’s gonna be counted on.”

Even Muncy’s extension served as a sign of the team’s priority on maintaining cohesion, proactively locking up a veteran who Roberts said goes “very under the radar in terms of what he’s done for us to win three championships.”

Put those moves together, and they represent one more reason Roberts and the Dodgers boast such confidence in this year’s team. 

They have a huge payroll (now up to $409 million for luxury tax purposes). They have an almost endless supply of big-name players. And now, they enter the spring with a few fitting final roster moves, subtle additions that could nonetheless have profound impacts as well.

TAMPA — Yankees of any position are free to challenge pitches under the new Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS) — for now.

For the second straight spring, the Yankees will have Grapefruit League games to try out ABS, except this time it is going to be for real and in play once the regular season begins.

That has forced the Yankees to develop a strategy for how to best use the challenge system and take advantage of the two they get each game (they are retained if the challenge is successful).

“We’ll set that more in place when we get ready to break camp and then probably continue to evolve with it throughout the year,” manager Aaron Boone said Thursday afternoon after the club held a morning meeting for ABS education and strategy. “We’ve done a lot of work on it behind the scenes, a lot of meetings this winter going through it. I feel like, right now, we’re in a pretty good place with it as far as trying to continue to educate our players and understanding leverage and things like that. 

“Everyone’s free to challenge right now. We’ll see how it continues to unfold.”

Over the winter, Boone had indicated he was leaning toward not allowing his pitchers to challenge calls — a strategy that seemed to be popular among managers at the winter meetings — because they tend to think anything borderline is a strike.

But as of Thursday, he had softened somewhat on that stance, at least at this point in the spring.

“I’m not at the point of not allowing pitchers [to challenge] — I am less comfortable,” Boone said. “Catcher probably No. 1 with who I’m the most comfortable with challenging. Then hitter, then pitcher, probably in that order.”

Max Fried is hoping to possibly gain some leeway this spring.

“I guess I’m going to have to really pay attention here in spring training, see if my eyes are as good as I think they are,” Fried said. “If I’m really good in spring, I might have a little more liberty of doing it in-game.”

Another rule change came down the chute Thursday when MLB owners voted to enforce the rule that first and third base coaches must remain in their boxes until a pitch is thrown.

That became an issue during a Yankees-Blue Jays series at Rogers Centre in 2023, when the Blue Jays got upset with Yankees coaches straying outside of their boxes, which could help them get a better angle to pick up tipped pitches and relay that to runners or hitters.

“It’s probably a good thing to regulate that,” Boone said Thursday. “We talked about that at the winter meetings in our managers meeting. … Overall, I think it’s probably a good thing, just for the competitiveness of the game.”

Luis Gil threw the equivalent of two innings in live batting practice Thursday, hitting 95 mph and striking out Aaron Judge while building up to about 35 pitches.

Luis Gil strikes out Aaron Judge. pic.twitter.com/itMEwuvFP3

— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) February 12, 2026

“I think he’s had a really good winter as far as strength and conditioning-wise and getting himself in a good place, ready to come in,” Boone said. “That talent hasn’t gone away. He’s a young man that you can tell is very hungry right now and he wants to go out and prove that he’s that guy that he was in ’24.”

PORT ST. LUCIE — Bryan Hudson fills a need for the Mets and will have a legitimate opportunity this spring to show he’s worthy of opening the season with the club.

The lefty reliever, acquired this week from the White Sox for cash considerations, threw his first bullpen session for the Mets on Thursday and left an immediate impression on manager Carlos Mendoza.

“The one thing that stuck out to me was the intensity,” Mendoza said. “For him to be like 92 [mph], that’s not normal, in a good way. This is a guy that is always tinkering with mechanics, and today he got behind the baseball pretty good.”

The Mets have a need for a second lefty reliever behind Brooks Raley, with A.J. Minter expected to continue his rehab from lat surgery into May.

Hudson pitched to a 4.80 ERA in 16 appearances last season between the Brewers and White Sox.

He posted a 1.73 ERA in 43 appearances for the Brewers the previous year.

“He’s had some ups and downs, but we still feel like he can help us,” Mendoza said.

PORT ST. LUCIE — Bo Bichette spent his first day of spring workouts listening intently Thursday as his manager offered tips about fielding his new position.

At third base on the main field, Bichette absorbed Carlos Mendoza’s words.

Later, Bichette faced Freddy Peralta in a live batting practice session, putting the Mets’ two biggest offseason acquisitions on display.

“I’m meeting a lot of new people and trying to figure out a new routine,” Bichette said. “But it’s honestly really exciting. It almost feels like my first season again.”

Bichette, in his transformation from shortstop to third base after arriving to the Mets on a three-year contract worth $126 million, worked out in front of Mendoza earlier this month.

But now camp is for real, and Bichette was sure to arrive ahead of next week’s reporting date for position players to get acclimated.

Mendoza’s messages to Bichette on this day focused on timing.

“Part of the transition, even when he’s just taking regular ground balls, is realizing how much time he has [to throw] compared to the shortstop position,” Mendoza said. “The ball is going to get to you a lot quicker — you have got more time. Those are some of the things, besides angles, it’s just a feel for the game clock.”

On the flip side, Bichette is learning he doesn’t have the luxury of as much time when starting a double play.

“You have to be quicker getting rid of the baseball,” Mendoza said. “You have got to give the second baseman a chance. Those are some of the conversations we are having out of the gate, and I am glad he’s here early so we can get that out of the way.”

What are Bichette’s early takeaways about the position?

“It’s more forward-to-back than side-to-side,” Bichette said. “Shortstop you definitely have to come in, but having more time at third base is something that I am getting used to — understanding that I can take a little more time.”

But Bichette isn’t ready to quantify his comfort level at third base.

“I am not sure I can put a number on that,” he said. “I haven’t played any games, so that is going to be my biggest hurdle, but I am excited for it.”

Bichette’s offensive potential is what appealed to the Mets.

Last season, he owned a .311/.357/.483 slash line with 18 homers and 94 RBIs in helping the Blue Jays reach Game 7 of the World Series.

The Mets, after missing on free agent Kyle Tucker (who landed with the Dodgers), snagged the 27-year-old Bichette as the rival Phillies were moving toward signing him.

Mendoza has indicated he is leaning toward batting Bichette third in the order, behind Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto.

“There’s a ton of really good players on this team, and I think you can line it up any way,” Bichette said. “But I have hit almost everywhere in my career, so I am ready for whatever.”

Bichette will help anchor a rebuilt infield that includes Jorge Polanco at first base and Marcus Semien at second. Lindor is returning to shortstop but will be absent from the Grapefruit League season as he rehabs from hamate bone surgery in his left hand.

Bichette said he’s spent much of his early time in camp around Polanco, another veteran who was early to report.

Just seeing Bichette in the batter’s box against the Mets’ ace, Peralta, was enough to raise Mendoza’s excitement level on this day.

“You get that kind of matchup, and OK, it’s real now,” Mendoza said. “Just the fact that they are getting ready for their season and they get to go out and do it themselves together.”

The Automated Ball-Strike System might be the most talked-about change in Major League Baseball this coming season, but it won’t be the only adjustment on the field.

MLB owners voted on Thursday to enforce a rule that requires first- and third-base coaches to stay within their designated boxes until a pitch is thrown.

“The clubs approved a rule change on the coaches’ box requiring more adherence to the existing lines in the box,” commissioner Rob Manfred said after the vote at the owners’ annual meetings in Florida.

The move is designed to curb pitch tipping and on-field sign stealing — something that has long existed in the sport but has drawn increased scrutiny in recent seasons.

Umpires enforced the measure during Game 7 of the World Series between the Blue Jays and Dodgers last fall, but it will now become standard practice across the league.

Under already existing MLB rules, coaches may not leave their boxes while a pitcher is in contact with the rubber or until a ball is put into play or received by the catcher.

First- and third-base coaches’ on-field movements have allowed them to get better angles and visuals of pitches, making it easier to relay signs to hitters and baserunners.

Coaches can move closer to the dugout or stands for safety concerns, but will receive a warning for violations and face ejection for repeat offenses.

The issue boiled over during a heated May 2023 series between the Yankees and Blue Jays.

With Toronto already irritated over Aaron Judge allegedly glancing toward his own dugout during an at-bat, Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker took issue with Yankees third-base coach Luis Rojas’ positioning near the line.

The complaint sparked a fiery exchange between Yankees manager Aaron Boone and Blue Jays skipper John Schneider.

MLB ultimately found no wrongdoing by the Yankees, but Schneider made clear where he stood.

“There’s boxes on the field for a reason,” he said afterward.

For his part, Boone said Thursday’s decision was a “good thing” for baseball.

“It’s probably a good thing to regulate that,” Boone said. “We talked about that at the winter meetings in our managers meeting. … Overall, I think it’s probably a good thing, just for the competitiveness of the game.”

TAMPA — For the most part, Max Fried’s first season in pinstripes was a smashing success.

Except for the way it ended — the Blue Jays smashing him — which has stuck with the Yankees left-hander in the months following an early playoff exit.

“You try to move on from it. You don’t want to ruin your everyday life from it,” Fried said Thursday at Steinbrenner Field following the first official workout for pitchers and catchers. “But every time I get in the gym or I pick up a ball or anything that has to do with baseball, it’s definitely a motivating factor. You want to always keep getting better, learn from your mistakes and make sure you’re not making the same mistakes over again. So just trying to remember that feeling and using that as motivation to constantly get better every year.”

Following a terrific regular season, in which he posted a 2.86 ERA across 32 starts — earning him a fourth-place finish in the AL Cy Young voting — Fried threw 6 ¹/₃ shutout innings against the Red Sox in his first playoff start.

But then in Game 2 of the ALDS against the Blue Jays, with the Yankees already having dropped Game 1, he picked a bad time for a clunker.

Fried lasted just three-plus innings, getting tagged for seven runs on eight hits and two walks, as the Blue Jays cruised to a 13-7 win. 

Two games later, the Yankees season was over, with Fried unable to atone for his dud that tarnished an otherwise strong first season in The Bronx.

“Felt like it was a good year, but at the end, I didn’t have the start that I needed to make,” Fried said. “So definitely left a bad taste in my mouth and motivated me for the offseason.”

That offseason did not look any different for Fried despite him coming off the heaviest workload of his career, he said.

He threw 195 ¹/₃ innings during the regular season and another 9 ¹/₃ in the postseason, but has not altered his preparation or buildup for this season because of it.

“I felt great at the end of the year,” said Fried, who faced hitters on Tuesday at the player development complex. “The last start I made, I was throwing just as hard as I had all year. I was really looking forward to potentially making another start. It wasn’t like I was hanging going into the offseason or anything like that. I felt as good as I did all year.”

Fried was forced to watch the World Series from his couch instead of pitching in it, but believes the Yankees have what it takes to make another run at it this year.

“I personally think that our group is good enough talent-wise to compete with anyone in the game,” Fried said. “Obviously, didn’t have the series that we wanted to and a big part of that was we weren’t able to pitch as well as we wanted and keep us in games.”

The desert was still yawning to life on Thursday when Edwin Díaz stepped out onto the manicured grass at Camelback Ranch — and just like that, spring training flipped from a warm-up to the starting line of a three-peat in the making.

Welcome to #DodgersST, Edwin! pic.twitter.com/wsljDZI6RW

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 12, 2026

The Los Angeles Dodgers, long looking for someone to lock down the 9th inning, now have a closer whose résumé reads like a gauntlet thrown down across baseball.

Last season, with the New York Mets, Díaz posted a 1.63 ERA across 66⅓ innings, converting 28 of 31 save opportunities while fanning 98 hitters and walking just 14.

That performance vaulted him into the upper echelon of relief arms — a No. 3 ranking in “The Shredder,” a No. 5 nod from Brian Kenny, and a top-5 placement from Mike Petriello.

The traffic through the Dodgers’ bullpen in 2025 was a carousel of uncertainty — veteran closers like Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates flamed out and October saw starting pitchers closing games, a surreal twist that culminated in a World Series Game 7 victory built on Snell, Glasnow, and Yamamoto.

L.A. needed a high-leverage reliever. They got Díaz.

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He arrives not as a reclamation project or a placeholder, but as a reigning force. His heater sits in the upper 90s, his slider wipes batters out, and his track record of dominance demands respect. 

The trumpet is ready to blare. DJ Severe has “Narco” queued up on his playlist. And for the Dodgers, spring training just got its newest bullpen star.

The news on Monday that the team had lost reliever Andrew Saalfrank for the season, after shoulder surgery, was not exactly the way the Diamondbacks wanted the week of pitchers and catchers reporting to start. Since debuting as a September call-up in 2023, Saalfrank has posted a 1.79 ERA, and was better even than that last year, with a 1.24 ERA. Of course, that was limited to only 28 appearances, coming after he had finished serving a suspension for gambling. But going into the off-season, he was one of only a few relievers who seemed locked in for a 2026 bullpen spot. So discovering he won’t be appearing is a significant blow.

What can the team do in the left-handed bullpen department? Let’s look at the various areas from which they could pull.

The 40-man roster

There are currently seven left-handed pitchers on the 40-man roster. However, for one reason or another, most of there are not credible replacements for Saalfrank.

• Mitch Bratt – Outside of his 2023 stint in the Arizona Fall League, he has been almost exclusively a starter. While using him in the bullpen is possible e.g. Ryne Nelson, that would most likely be as long relief, not the situational lefty role Saalfrank occupied.
• Kohl Drake – The same goes for Drake, perhaps even more so. He will be part of the team’s rotational depth in 2026, and quite close to the top of the AAA depth chart. The Diamondbacks will want to keep him stretched out down in Reno, for that purpose.
• A.J. Puk – Puk said yesterday he is hopeful he can return by early May. Because his procedure was less invasive, that should reduce the rehab time. He may start in low-leverage situations, but I would expect him to take over the closer’s role quite quickly, with Justin Martinez likely out until late August.
• Eduardo Rodriguez – Simply put, earns too much money to be moved to a bullpen role at this point, with two years still left on his contract.
• Blake Walston – It’s been a while, Walston having Tommy John surgery in mid-March 2025. While there have been no updates since, expectation at the time was about fourteen months, so we are probably looking at late May before he can pitch.

That leaves just two candidates: Philip Abner and Brandyn Garcia, and they have less than twenty innings of major-league experience between them. That’s not necessarily a show-stopper – Saalfrank claimed the job fresh out of the minors, making more appearances in the 2023 playoffs than in the regular season. But it’s not a great body of work on which to base things. Abner looked decent in 2025, with a 2.86 FIP, but that’s off a pitiful sample size of 3.2 innings. Garcia, who came over from Seattle in the Josh Naylor trade, has slightly more experience and put up a decent 3.07 FIP between the Mariners and D-backs. Rolling the dice with either would be a risk.

Non-roster invitees

While there are a lot of non-roster invitees to spring training, only three are left-handed pitchers. Conveniently, I wrote about those at the link above. Inconveniently, none of them are a good fit for the role. While Tommy Henry is in camp, he is recovering from Tommy John surgery last June, so clearly isn’t going to be ready. Spencer Giesting and Yu-Min Lin are both young starting pitchers, and would be better served in their development by staying in that role, rather than getting intermittent work out of a major-league bullpen. So I don’t see any of the trio as being a credible replacement for Saalfrank on Opening Day.

Outside the organization

I would definitely not be surprised to see the team go outside the current system to find a replacement, and there are a couple of names of definite interest, and both should already be known to Arizona fans. The first is former D-back Anthony Banda, who was designated for assignment by the Los Angeles Dodgers – they simply had too many lefties. It’s generally expected they will be able to find a trade partner for him before he hits waivers. He has had an ERA+ of 130 across the last two years, covering 119 appearances, and at $1.625 million for the year, seems well worth that price. Should the D-backs be in on him? There is always a general reluctance to deal within the division, but he certainly would fill a need.

The other possibility is the free-agent market, and a reunion with Jalen Beeks. He was the busiest member of the Diamondbacks pitching staff last year, appearing 61 times, and with a solid ERA+ of 115, while being paid $1.25 million. He would be another reasonably cheap option, and unlike Banda, would not cost prospect capital. There are other decent left-handed veterans still on the market. Justin Wilson was good with the Red Sox, and Danny Coulombe – a local kid, who went to Chaparral HS, possibly overlapping with the SnakePitette – was great with the Twins, then terrible after being traded to the Rangers at the deadline. Does Mike Hazen have the money left for any of these?

Conclusion

While there is no requirement to have a left-hander in the bullpen, it has been standard practice for the D-backs in the Lovullo era, and we all know how he likes to play match-ups. So, given the paucity of the options currently in the system, I would not be surprised to see the team look for an outside replacement. This could come via a trade, a free-agent signing or even adding a non-roster invitee or two to the squad, and seeing who impresses in spring training. At least the timing of Saalfrank’s surgery gives time for alternatives to be assessed. Which this sucks, it would have sucked considerably harder if it had happened on the eve of Opening Day.