Putting together a team of players who appeared for only one year with Arizona.
This was inspired by a discussion with samath, following his comment on the Geraldo Perdomo article a couple of weeks back. He brought up the topic of the best players who appeared for the Diamondbacks only in one season, and came up with a surprising candidate as the best-ever for Arizona in that role. I thought it was worth digging into a little bit more, so here we are. It was relatively easy to pull up a list of the 132 players who appeared in only one season for Arizona, from Tony Abreu to Allen Zinter, figuring out the “best” required a fair amount of manual checking thereafter. I decided to focus on the best at each position, to construct a team, similar to the Arizona Averagebacks.
My chosen metric was bWAR per 150 games, with a minimum of 50 games. I went for a ratio, because straight bWAR would penalize trade deadline acquisitions like J.D. Martinez. They would have a lot less time to accumulate bWAR than players who were with the team for the whole season. But it needs to be those who played a statistically significant amount of time. Otherwise someone who put up 0.1 bWAR in two games would come out as All-Star level. I’ve also excluded Eugenio Suarez, since he will leave the one-year club this season. That brought us a pool of 45 position players, with each qualifying at the spot they played most. However, I’ve not split up bWAR by position, just using the total for the season.
There was also one spotwhere I made an executive decision, but we’ll get to that in detail shortly. Here are the nine players – eight positions plus a designated hitter – who were the best one-season wonders for Arizona. I’ll get to the pitchers in another article… at some point…
Catcher: Chris Iannetta, 2017, 3.0 bWAR/150
Iannetta was best known as a Rockies catcher, spending eight of his fourteen season in the major league with Colorado. But in January 2017, he signed a one-season deal with the D-backs, and was the main catcher as the team made their way to the NL Division Series. That’s particularly impressive, considering he took a 93 mph pitch to the face in May, resulting in stitches, broken teeth and a fractured nose. [Video: not for the faint hearted] He was back behind the plate just nine days later, which as far as I’m concerned, puts him up their with fellow Chris, Snyder, in the D-backs Catcher Hall of Hardcore fame.
First base: Adam LaRoche, 2010, 1.1 bWAR/150
Not a great selection at this position. The other qualifying candidates were Eric Hinske, Xavier Nady and Juan Miranda, who were all below replacement level for Arizona. Though Hinske gets intangible points for his role in the brawl with the Dodgers. LaRoche did hit 25 home-runs – weirdly, the third consecutive season he hit exactly that number – and drove in a career-high hundred. But he was a bit of a lead glove, making eleven errors at first, and that dragged down his overall production. For comparison, that was more E’s than Christian Walker made in 2022, 2023 and 2024 combined (nine).
Second base: Jean Segura, 2016, 6.3 bWAR/150
You might be surprised to learn that Segura is the best ever one-season wonder for the D-backs. He came to us from the Brewers for Chase Anderson, Isan Díaz, Aaron Hill and cash (we also got Tyler Wagner), and promptly put up the best season of his career, batting .319 with 20 homers, while playing top-tier defense. He didn’t make the ASG – his OPS was below .800 at the break – but went off in the second half (.954 OPS) and got MVP votes. At the end of the year, he was traded to Seattle with Zac Curtis and Mitch Haniger, for Taijuan Walker and some guy called Ketel Marte. Whatever happened to him?
Third base: Troy Glaus, 2005, 3.4 bWAR/150
Coming off a dismal 111-loss season, the D-backs needed to make a statement, and did so by signing free-agent Glaus to a $45 million contract, replacing Richie Sexson. Glaus did his part at the plate, swatting 37 home-runs as part of a 126 OPS+ season, though his defense at the hot corner was nothing special: his 24 errors tied for the most in the majors there. However, the D-backs had another losing season, and one year into that four-year deal, Glaus was on his way with Sergio Santo to the Toronto Blue Jays, for Miguel Batista (second sitting) and Orlando Hudson.
Shortstop: Kevin Newman, 2024, 3.0 bWAR/150
The most recent player on the list likely needs no introduction, having won the SnakePit’s Unsung Hero award little more than two months ago. He came from literally nowhere, having been a non-roster invitee to spring training, but ended up playing in 111 games. Newman appeared mostly at short, but also started games at first, second and third, proving his utility. With a 92 OPS+, Kevin didn’t disgrace himself at the plate, and shone with the glove, where he had only five errors all year. He got a proper contract with the Angels this winter, and it’s still not clear how the team will replace him for 2025.
Left field: Reggie Sanders, 2001, 3.9 bWAR/150
This is the executive decision mentioned above. Sanders was, of course, the team’s regular right fielder during the run to the World Series. But left field in this study was… not great. The other choices were Doug Devore, Rickie Weeks and Yamil Benitez. Only Devore was better than replacement, and barely (0.1 bWAR). He only just qualified, appearing in exactly the minimum 50 games, during his only major-league campaign. Sanders deserves his spot here, having hit .263 with 33 home-runs; not bad for $1.5 million. He then batted .304 in the World Series and scored more runs there than any other D-back.
Center field: Devon White, 1998, 3.9 bWAR/150
Who else was it going to be? Nobody else was above replacement, among candidates like Rey Fuentes, Michael Bourn and Jose Cruz. White was traded to the team from the Marlins before the D-backs had even played a game, as part of Florida’s infamous post-World Series fire-sale. [The pitcher they received, Jesus Martinez, was Pedro’s younger brother, but never reached the majors] In our inaugural season, White led the team in most offensive categories, from RBI to SB, and was the team’s sole representative in 1998 All-Star Game, before becoming a free-agent at year’s end.
Right field: J.D. Martinez, 2017, 5.8 bWAR/150
The rule about using bWAR per 150 games should have been called the J.D. Martinez rule, since he was the only beneficiary. But it’s surprising how close it was, even without it. By flat bWAR, Sanders would have been the only RF above Martinez’s 2.4 bWAR, posted in a mere 62 games, during which he hit 29 home-runs. Sanders had 3.3 bWAR in more than twice as many appearances (126). Has there been a more significant deadline deal in Arizona history? And the price? Jose King (never reached the majors), Sergio Alcántara (0.1 bWAR, before coming back; he played for Reno last year) and Dawel Lugo (-1.1 bWAR).
Designated hitter: Joc Pederson, 2024, 3.3 bWAR/150
A relatively new position, and only a couple of qualifying candidates: Pederson last year, and Tommy Pham in 2023. The latter’s value was perhaps more felt in the post-season, where he hit .279, albeit with poor discipline. But Pederson was clearly better, even allowing for his much greater playing time than Pham’s mid-season arrival. Only six players in team history have posted an OPS+ of 150 or better with 400+ PA. Two (Pederson and Ketel Marte) were this year, a large part of why the team scored more runs than any other. Like Newman, I suspect we’re going to find Joc hard to replace.
If you’re curious, below is the full table of players in question. It’s in ascending order of position, and then by bWAR/150 games within position.