Now that I live half the year in Phoenix, this has become my other "favorite" team. Now I have a home team and a favorite team. Anyways, this team is very much like the Guardees with the team speed aspect. And former Cleveland front office guy Mike Hazen as their GM. Zac Gallen, their ace, is much like Bieber. A pitcher, not a thrower. Oh and they are Corbin Carroll and a bunch of role guys - just as we are Jose Ramirez and a bunch of role guys.
The Diamondbacks lost 110 games two years ago. Now they lead the NL West. How?
PHOENIX, ARIZONA - JUNE 12: Evan Longoria #3 of the Arizona Diamondbacks celebrates his three-run home run with Ketel Marte #4 against the Philadelphia Phillies in the sixth inning at Chase Field on June 12, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
By Cody Stavenhagen
3h ago
18
Save Article
It was the summer of 2021, and the Arizona Diamondbacks were losing. And losing. And losing some more.
“We were getting gutted every single night,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “It was like a hot knife getting driven into your belly after some of these games.”
On the bad nights, Lovullo reached for a pen. He attempted to conjure his feelings and put them to paper. He wrote down the words that floated in his head. As a sort of personal exercise, he intended to look back on all this at year’s end. His writings eventually became a sort of word collage. Embarrassing, he wrote after one particularly awful game.
The losses ate at him, so on his 25-minute drives home from Chase Field, he would crank up Led Zeppelin or Supertramp. He tried to escape the ruminations of that night’s game. He wanted to clear his mind and rest, to be able to attack the next day with a renewed sense of purpose.
His word collages morphed along that same route. He started with the agonies of losing. Unacceptable. And then he would work his way through the frustration, back to the surface. He kept returning to the things that drove him to this point in his career, emotional tentpoles. He wrote those words down, too.
“It came from a deep-rooted emotion,” Lovullo said, “almost like Jim Morrison writing one of his favorite Doors songs.”
On some nights, he studied his scribbles. As a UCLA alumnus who has long kept John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success framed above his desk, an epiphany eventually came.
“As I was writing these words I started to have this little pyramid,” Lovullo said. The priorities, however, were in the wrong place. His thoughts were starting with failure, then funneling down to purpose. Instead, he needed to start with his core motivations and build up from there.
“It was an upside-down pyramid,” Lovullo said. “I needed to turn it around.”
So at year’s end, he took his paper to Ken Crenshaw, the Diamondbacks director of sports medicine and performance.
What do you make of those words? What could we do with this?
Crenshaw looked at the paper and looked back at Lovullo. Let me spend some time with this.
Crenshaw returned with the Diamondbacks’ own Woodenesque creed, a motivational tool shaped like a baseball diamond. Lovullo’s most important tenants run through the middle: Love, trust, faith, commitment.
Those words shaped the way Lovullo communicates with his players and staff. They have become the values that define the Diamondbacks, a club that lost 110 games only two seasons ago but now leads the National League West.
What a flip it has become.
“We often talked about what it would look like when we came out on the other side,” Lovullo said, “and I think that’s what got us through some of those dark days.”
Welcome to the light.
Friday night against the Detroit Tigers, Corbin Carroll smacked a first-inning line drive over the right-field fence. In the seventh inning, he fouled off two tough pitches, stayed on the fastball and sent an outside pitch flying over the left-field fence. It was his first career grand slam.
“We were waiting for him to hit one to center in his last at-bat, because he hit one to right, then left,” outfielder Jake McCarthy said.
Watch Carroll — the 5-foot-10 frame, the bat he drops down over his shoulders, dangles near his back, then whips through the zone — and you are looking at one of the best young players in the sport. He is programmed like a machine — all baseball, all the time — but plays with an artist’s flair.
Carroll is the league’s leader in WAR, the 22-year-old main attraction on a club suddenly playing like a well-oiled machine. He was the No. 16 pick in 2019 and has blossomed into a megaprospect, so far meeting the highest of expectations while hitting .311 with 14 home runs and 19 stolen bases. Older teammates marvel at the ease and focus with which he carries himself. Lovullo, a former bench coach with the Red Sox, compared him to Mookie Betts.
Because every building block matters, Lovullo has spent the past few years fostering relationships with Carroll and other young players well before they ever reached the major leagues.
Torey Lovullo. (Matt Kartozian / USA Today)
“Years ago, the first time I met Sparky Anderson was when I went to his office when I was called up,” Lovullo said. “That just doesn’t happen anymore. I know every one of these players that have come through here. I’ve been texting them since they were in A-ball.”
Sunday in a comeback victory against the Tigers, Carroll smacked a single, a double, a triple and also hit a ball to deep center that would have been a home run in 19 MLB parks. In the postgame handshake line, starting pitcher Zac Gallen said he joked, for what seems like the millionth time, “I wonder who the player of the game was?”
In March, the Diamondbacks awarded Carroll with an eight-year, $111 million contract, despite the fact he still has less than one full year of MLB service time.
“Everybody probably had some questions as far as, ‘Was the extension worth it?’ and all the noise that comes along with signing that big of an extension,” pitcher Merrill Kelly said. “I think he’s proven to everybody that he’s worth every penny.”
Carroll is electrifying, yes. But he is far from the lone reason for the Diamondbacks’ success.
“I think it starts with our leadership, in terms of players and coaches,” Carroll said. “We’ve got a great group of veterans. They’ve kind of seen it all. Played some important baseball. They know when the right moment is to say something and when, in other cases, it’s just baseball.”
Their current roster is a masterful mix-and-match. There is the powerful prospect in Carroll, the underrated veteran in Christian Walker and the supposed defense-first shortstop in Geraldo Perdomo, who is now hitting balls that keep finding grass. There are also unknowns such as infielder Emmanuel Rivera, who has surpassed everyone’s expectations and is now hitting .333.
“We’re very diverse, and we can do it with a lot of different players,” Lovullo said. “You look up there and you have a lot of different players with an over .800 OPS, and that’s not by accident. They’re just good players, and they’re growing and learning and accepting the coaching every single day.”
The Diamondbacks lost notable names such as Paul Goldschmidt, Zack Greinke and Patrick Corbin in the late 2010s. But under general manager Mike Hazen, they steadfastly rejected the idea of a full-scale rebuild. This is what makes them such an interesting case study in contrast to the rest of the league.
“If you say you’re not rebuilding after you lose 110 games, it looks very suspicious, you know what I mean?” Lovullo said. “But I feel like they always had a master plan in place.”
Although they have suffered three consecutive losing seasons, the Diamondbacks never stripped things down to the floorboards. They invested in young talent without pawning off good players like Ketel Marte, the type of leadership now central in this club.
“There were some years where teams punted,” shortstop Nick Ahmed said. “It’s no secret that teams were not really putting their best foot forward and not really trying to go out and win each and every game that they could. … It unfortunately worked. Teams like the Astros and Cubs rebuilt and won the World Series. I’m very thankful that Mike Hazen and his group didn’t do that here.”
Coming off a 74-win season in 2022, Arizona’s front office remained aggressive. This past spring, the Diamondbacks traded one of their best young players in center fielder Daulton Varsho. It was a bold move, but in return, Arizona received young catcher Gabriel Moreno and the hard-hitting Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Although they parted with one good piece, they got two in return in a deal that has so far benefitted both clubs.
Gurriel is hitting .290 with 10 home runs, a powerful force in the middle of the order. Moreno’s rapid development has been another story entirely. In March at Camelback Ranch, catcher Carson Kelly fractured his right forearm. There was immediate concern.
“I felt like we were going to give a lot of responsibilities to a very young catcher, and we felt like we were gonna have some growing pains,” Lovullo said.
But in Kelly’s absence, Moreno has asserted himself as a cornerstone catcher. He is hitting .279 and making stellar grades for his blocking and throwing.
“He has exceeded our expectations in a lot of different areas because he accepts coaching and is willing to learn every single day,” Lovullo said. “Without him, I don’t know where we’d be.”
Kelly was activated from the injured list Monday, giving Arizona a dynamic catching duo.
They say good teams are built up the middle. And in Lovullo’s Pyramid of Success, you may remember, that’s where the strength also lies.
At his locker this past weekend, Evan Longoria deadpanned when a reporter asked what was working for his team.
“We’re good,” he said, laughing.
Longoria might have known this well before most. He sensed something brewing after spending the last five years playing with the Giants in the NL West.
Now in the latter days of his career, he was interested in playing for the Diamondbacks for two reasons: He lives in nearby Scottsdale, and he also saw Arizona as a place where he could win.
“Going into the tail end of my career, the only thing I’ve wanted to do was win,” Longoria said. “I didn’t want to go into a situation where I knew that wasn’t a possibility. I saw the talent that was coming in this organization, so that was the icing on the cake for me.”
Longoria’s mere presence shows how the secrets to the Diamondbacks’ success go beyond sheer talent. A former All-Star, Longoria now plays sparingly. Ahmed, a two-time Gold Glover at shortstop who is in his 10th season with the Diamondbacks, has also seen his playing time lessen. Yet these two players are integral parts of a club that seems to have set egos to the side.
“I feel like right now the vibe is just a bunch of role players,” said Walker, the first baseman who hit 36 home runs last season. “We’ve got guys who aren’t trying to be somebody they’re not.”
There are 11 players from the 2021 team still on this club. Ahmed remembers those long nights of that summer all too well. Talking about it in front of his locker, he inhaled. He exhaled. “That was a hard year,” he said.
Players found some motivation, perhaps, in understanding their front office was not conceding entire seasons even when things reached a low point.
“As a player, you don’t really want to (rebuild) either,” Walker said. “That’s a long time of some funny headspace years. I think honestly it’s impressive that we didn’t have to go to a five-to-seven-year rebuild. Even when it was lean, I think we always felt like we were a couple pieces away.”
Those experiences have shaped everything that’s happening now, though Arizona’s road this season has not been without mistakes or tension. In April, the Diamondbacks released veteran starter Madison Bumgarner after he posted a 10.26 ERA through four starts. It was no secret Bumgarner and the coaching staff had disagreements as Bumgarner struggled to cope with his diminished stuff. The Diamondbacks ultimately cut bait in what became a public divorce. They owe him the $34 million he was due to make on the remainder of his contract.
Their largest free-agent deal proved to be a mistake. But that serves as more of a testament to how the Diamondbacks have built this organization. Their $116 million Opening Day payroll was the lowest in the NL West, more than $100 million less than both the Dodgers and Padres.
Arizona, though, leads the division by 3 games. In shortstop Jordan Lawlar and outfielder Druw Jones, the Diamondbacks also have two top-15 prospects still rising up the system.
Before the season, veteran pitching coach Brent Strom was well aware of the schedule. Forgive him if he might have bristled.
“We had the Dodgers and the Padres early,” Strom said. “I was not sure if we were ready.”
The Diamondbacks opened with four games against the big-market Dodgers, then two against the big-spending Padres and four more against the Dodgers. Rather than falter, the Diamondbacks went 6-4.
“We held our own against them,” Strom said. “I think that was a big boost, to be able to compete with the best in the West.”
The Diamondbacks have gotten a wide array of contributions from their position players and formed a fearsome offense. But their pitching is an interesting component, too. This rotation is anchored by starters Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly. For much of this season, they have also relied on three rookie starters in Brandon Pfaadt, Ryne Nelson and Tommy Henry.
They are all guided by Strom, the 74-year-old sage who has spent decades ahead of the times. Two years ago, he left the Houston Astros, thinking it was time to retire. Then Lovullo called and convinced him to forgo a waterfront condo and a cozy retirement in Mexico. At the time Strom took over the staff, the Diamondbacks, per one account, threw the lowest percentage of elevated four-seam fastballs in baseball.
Strom was a pioneer in viewing the strike zone as a vertical attack ground rather than a horizontal landing strip.
“The stuff I was teaching years back got me fired,” Strom said. “Now it’s the norm.”
The game has finally caught up to his teachings, but Strom has never slowed down.
“On numerous occasions I’ve heard he’s up at 3 in the morning, sending emails to whoever, trying to find ways to get one guy better,” Gallen said.
Arizona ranked 19th overall in ERA entering Wednesday, so there is room to improve the pitching at the trade deadline. But Gallen and Kelly have become formidable starters, and even as Bumgarner faltered and rookie pitchers stepped in, internal confidence in the staff has remained high.
“I think a lot of guys were like, ‘All right, we know what we have in here,’” Gallen said. “We know we have talent. It’s all coming to fruition. To be honest with you, I don’t think anybody in this room is really surprised with how well we’re playing.”
In Gallen’s view, the Diamondbacks faced their second major test in early June when they played the Braves in a three-game series. Arizona lost the series 2-1, dropping the final game on a two-out grand slam in the ninth. Gallen, though, saw the series as further validation his team could hang with the best.
Arizona then went on the road against Washington and Detroit, and the Diamondbacks won five straight.
“I’m not going to speak on other clubhouses, but maybe in years past it could be like, ‘Ah, we don’t have enough,'” Gallen said. “As opposed to now it’s like, ‘No, we have enough.’”
On June 4, the Diamondbacks held a press conference to announce Lovullo was receiving a contract extension through 2024. That day, the manager again talked of the hard times two seasons ago.
“It was real dark,” he said. “And I never imagined sitting here saying that I was going to be guaranteed another couple of years, you know? Two years ago, I didn’t know where I was. I was lost emotionally, but I couldn’t show that because I had a team to be in charge of.”
And that leads us back to the central question: After losing 110 games two years ago, how are the Diamondbacks doing this? How do you build something out of nothing?
In the clubhouse, players have listed many reasons for the team’s success. The lack of egos, the depth of the lineup, the contributions from young pitching, the dynamic play of Carroll.
The Diamondbacks ended last weekend ranking fourth in defensive runs saved and fifth in FanGraphs’ base running metric, indications of the small things they do well.
Players have also alluded to Lovullo’s pillars, all that faith and love and trust.
“It’s a very confident, trusting relationship,” Walker said. “He makes it clear to us that he trusts us on how we prepare every day. We know (the coaches) are doing the same things.”
Said Ahmed: “It’s kind of taboo in sports to talk like that, to talk about love. But every good team has it, even if they don’t talk about it.”
Lovullo, like any manager, gives the credit to his players. The Diamondbacks have many of the right building blocks. Now they’re starting to put them all together.
"I've suffered a great many tragedies in my life....most of them never happened". Mark Twain
