What does the lack of roster moves tell us about remaining position battles?
Introduction
Now that we are just over halfway through Spring Training, we have officially entered speculation season with more regular check-ins on Opening Day rosters. As Mike Hazen noted on a recent radio broadcast, the team is in a somewhat unique position this year with a paucity of open roster spots compared to some of the leaner years that featured significantly less-skilled rosters. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any roster spots available with associated positional battles, but that the front office has excellently developed and signed a remarkably talented, deep roster for the season. Until the team breaks camp however, we are left with simple speculation and limited information – like watching the team’s transaction log for guesses on where those battles remain. Interestingly, the D-Backs didn’t make their first official roster cut until this past week when roster dark horse Joe Elbis was reassigned to Amarillo’s minor league camp.
This seemed rather late in the Spring Training cycle considering other contending teams had already started making cuts much earlier and how competitive the roster positions are for the D-Backs. That in turn made me wonder if this year was an outlier or if a Hazen-led front office simply opted to make their roster decisions later in the spring and what those decisions might tell us on who has the inside track for the remaining roster spots. In short, this year’s moves are not unique in the post-COVID D-Backs’ world with their first roster moves coming on March 10th last year, the same day in 2023, and not until March 24th back in 2022. And that’s despite wildly different skill-levels on the roster and a labor lockout providing extra confusion for one of those years. Evidently, Hazen and his staff prefer to allow players significant time before they decide on optioning them to minor league camp, which jibes with his overall methodical style on other roster decisions. As such, I expect that many of the roster decisions will likely come down until the last week or so before the D-Backs open their season against the Cubs on the 27th. So, given that there’s likely only one roster spot open on the position player side and likely two spots available for pitchers (per Steve Gilbert’s article above), who are some players who could play their way onto – or off – the 26-man Opening Day roster? As a note, I’m limiting the list only to those players who could find themselves off the roster entirely so someone like Jordan Montgomery or Ryne Nelson, both of whom will almost certainly end up either in the bullpen or the rotation wouldn’t fit.
Garrett Hampson
I tend to agree with Steve Gilbert that the only truly available roster spot on the position player side is “utility” that is currently being battled over by some combination of Grae Kessinger, Garrett Hampson, Connor Kaiser, Blaze Alexander and Ildemaro Vargas. However, while Gilbert gives the inside track to Hampson for his admittedly impressive positional flexibility (he appeared at every position save catcher last year) and veteran experience with seven big league seasons under his belt, I am not convinced. First and foremost, Hampson’s entire value is dependent on his fielding prowess as he managed the impressive feat of failing to hit a single home run while appearing in 113 games and collecting over 200 plate appearances. In fact, comparing all of the above players does not necessarily demonstrate much confidence as they all seem to fall into the “light-hitting utility player” role and Hampson stands out only because of the number of games played relatively speaking. Still, he’s had a solid spring so far with a .269/.321/.385 slash line while appearing at second, short, and third so unless he slumps or Vargas continues to mash, he’ll likely end up on the roster.
Kyle Nelson
Right now, the D-Backs boast two lefty relievers in AJ Puk and Joe Mantiply – with Jordan Montgomery possibly joining them depending on how the rotation competition shakes out. But, like most contending teams, the D-Backs would certainly like as many lefties as possible in the bullpen to provide a different look when facing other teams and Nelson seems to be on the proverbial bubble as such. A 15th round pick of the then-Indians back in 2017, Nelson has flourished since being picked up off waivers in 2021 and had an impressive eight-game scoreless streak to start the 2024 season before being bumped back to Reno at the end of April. Unfortunately, he’s had an ugly spring to this point with a 7.71 ERA in five games across 4.2 IP so he will need to find another gear if he hopes to make the Opening Day roster and not find himself back in the desert to start the season.
Bryce Jarvis
While Nelson’s left-handedness and Hampson’s positional flexibility provide them extra utility for roster decisions, Bryce Jarvis occupies a unique space in the bullpen by effectively turning himself into a pitching Swiss Army Knife. In 2024, nearly half of Jarvis’ appearances were multi-inning affairs and he was fourth in innings pitched within the bullpen with only Justin Martinez, Kevin Ginkel, Joe Mantiply, and Ryan Thompson with more. Even better, he managed to handle that workload excellently – compiling a 3.19 ERA overall that included two months (May and July) where he was one of the most valuable Arizona relievers with a 2.19 and 1.50 ERA respectively. Concerningly, several of the peripheral stats belied that some of those topline numbers may not be sustainable as he carried a 5.12 FIP for the year while his WHIP, strikeout rate, and walk rate all worsened year-over-year. Even worse, with the signing of Kendall Graveman, the acquisition of Puk at last year’s Trade Deadline, and Drey Jameson’s return from Tommy John surgery, Jarvis’ roster spot is suddenly that much less secure.