Might the D-backs have some internal help coming this year?
When the team added prospect names to the 40-man roster earlier this winter, in order to protect them in the Rule 5 draft, it was interesting that they chose to protect less-heralded names, in pitcher Joe Elbis and position player Tim Tawa. When Fangraphs listed Arizona’s best prospects, both were well outside the top 10: Elbis was #15 and Tawa #21. But it feels as if the latter in particular, could offer a potential answer to the right-handed shortage currently faced by the D-backs line-up. There are currently sixteen position players on Arizona’s 40-man roster. Only six are purely right-handers, and half of those have had little or no success at the major-league level.
That includes Tawa, who spend 2024 in Amarillo and Reno. However, across those levels, he hit 31 homers. Only three players with any franchise in the minors hit more. Now, there’s no argument both parks are hitter friendly. Reno is well-known, but two years ago, Jack called Amarillo, “The most hitter friendly environment in all of affiliated minor league baseball.” But even if those home-runs were sharply reduced, Tawa could still be useful. Previous analysis (which I really must update!) suggests Reno inflates OPS by about 250 points over MLB performance. Doing so for Tawa’s 37 Aces’ appearances would still leave him at a .742 OPS. For comparison, Corbin Carroll and Jake McCarthy both had an OPS of .749 last season.
Indeed, that may be doing him a disservice, because it includes a wretched start to the season there. Nine games into the season with Reno, Tawa was hitting .188 with a .493 OPS, and a K:BB of 13:1. He was sent down to Amarillo, and his power blossomed, with 21 home-runs in 105 games. He had no real explanation, though acknowledged the role of the park: “I think it’s just kind of just happening. There’s nothing that I’ve changed or tried to do anything different. You just kind of run into some pitches or you put good swings on balls and sometimes they fly out. It helps, too, that I’ve been playing in some ballparks where the ball flies. I’m just trying to put together quality at-bats.”
That got him a call-up back to Reno in the middle of August, and the results this time were far better than at the beginning of the year. Over thirty regular PCL season games, Tim went off to the tune of 340/.419/.717 for a stellar 1.136 OPS, and was a key player in the Aces making the post-season. Of particular note, his K:BB this time round was 19:12. It’s little exaggeration to say Tawa looked a completely different player, and the turnaround was likely a large factor in the team deciding to protect Tawa from being Rule 5’d. It came three years after he had been an 11th-round pick in the 2021 draft, out of Carlos Quentin’s alma mater, Stanford University. But his sporting career might have gone a different direction.
For during his time as quarterback at West Linn High, Tim threw for 11,337 yards, which remains the state high-school record by more than a mile and a quarter. In his final year he passed for 55 touchdowns and only one interception. However, he had already committed to go to Stanford in a baseball scholarship by that point, and has no regrets about the decision: “I think baseball was always a better path for me in terms of the size and just being able to stay healthy.” He hit .274 in his college career, including .290 with an .876 OPS in his senior year, leading to the D-backs making him the ninth player picked from Stanford (as well as Quentin, Chris Carter and John Hester are also alumni from there).
One factor that could well play into his potential is Tawa’s positional flexibility. Last year, he started games at nine different positions – everywhere on the diamond plus DH, except for catcher. Of particular note: for the first time in his career, he got time at first-base in 2024, which suggests the team may be looking to use him there in future. All told, he had 33 starts and almost three hundred innings there, playing error-free baseball despite his lack of experience at the position. With Josh Naylor and Pavin Smith currently representing the major, left-handed incumbents at first and DH for Arizona, it’s possible to imagine Tawa as the other side, and also occupying a super-utlity role this year.
Indeed, even if the team, say, re-signs someone like Randall Grichuk, it’s still possible to see a spot for Tawa on the roster. While the starting nine non-pitchers might look largely set, the (likely four) bench spots are a lot less certain. One will obviously be a catcher, probably Adrian Del Castillo. But on the infield, Tawa could potentally be in competion with Jordan Lawlar and Blaze Alexander; Tim’s ability to play the outfield as well – 26 starts, at all three positions last season – could be a factor. He could end up occupying a similar role to the one Josh Rojas (whom I see signed with the White Sox yesterday!) had for the D-backs in 2021, where he started 5+ games at five different positions.
It’s always particularly nice to see players rise unexpectedly up through the ranks, and I can’t immediately think of an Arizona prospect whose stock has risen so much since the middle of April. Tim has certainly come a long way since I offhandedly mentioned him in a spring recap, as “something called a Tim Tawa”! It may not be long before his name is considerably more known, and not just here on the SnakePit either.