Diamondbacks News
My Proposed Off-season Plan by ILIKEPOTATOES [AZ Snake Pit]. {Ed. Note: This was a fun article from one of our own and for some reason it’s not making it to the front page in the Feed. Figured I would try and give it a bump here.}
This exercise is more fun with a payroll limit. This article believes it’ll be somewhere between $170 and $180 million so I’ll aim for $175 million.
The free agent deals are rough guesses; I have absolutely no idea what these guys will sign, but I do try to be as realistic as possible. I also use Spotrac’s market value as a guide for a general idea. I don’t believe it’s completely accurate, otherwise I’d just cite their numbers.
While I’m trying to build a 90 win team for 2026, I’m also not willing to empty the farm system short term deals. Tarik Skubal is rumored to be available, but he’d also cost the whole farm system. The thing is that there isn’t a ton of high upside, surplus talent in the minors of majors. The strength of the farm system is overall depth as most of the team’s prospects are solid, not spectacular. This, combined with the fact that there’s a ton of holes on the roster, made this exercise tougher than prior years, but I had a ton of fun!
Arizona Fall League Midpoint: Hurley, Hagaman, Luis, and Amendt Updates by Michael McDermott [D-backs Under Review]
On [Kyle Amendt’s] best days, he has a three-pitch mix that can lock up right-handed hitters. Even though his fastball is averaging just 91.1 MPH, he’s producing a 45% whiff rate and a 41.2% putaway rate in two-strike counts. The slider is showing a 40% putaway rate against right-handed hitters in similar counts.
Based on what I’ve seen so far, he deserves a chance to compete for a bullpen spot next spring.
D-backs Catcher Gabriel Moreno’s Ceiling Depends on One Thing by Alex D’Agostino [SI]
But Moreno’s one weakness has been in his ability to call pitches and follow the flow of a game. Manager Torey Lovullo has spoken at length about the young backstop’s need to improve in that regard.
It was that very factor that led to Moreno beginning to split more and more time with veteran catcher James McCann, once Moreno was healthy toward the latter end of 2025.
It’s not that Moreno doesn’t have a high ceiling already. But that ceiling could be somewhat limited if pitchers were to perform worse when throwing to him.
Diamondbacks need pitching help. Who are the free agent pitchers available? by Alex Weiner [Arizona Sports]
Cubs LHP Shota Imanaga (32, so many options) – This contract is complex. The Cubs face a three-year, $57 million club option for the 32-year-old. If the team declines, Imanaga then has a $15 million player option for 2026 with further options tacked on later. He would seem poised to turn that down for more money in free agency. Imanaga was a top five Cy Young candidate in 2024, but he took a slight step back this year with injuries limiting him to 25 starts. He worked a 2.65 ERA going into the All-Star break and a 4.70 ERA in 13 second-half starts. Still, after a decorated career in Japan, Imanaga owns an impressive 3.28 ERA in two major league seasons.
Around the League
Freeman does it again! Walk-off homer ends epic 18-inning Game 3 by Anthony Castrovince [MLB]
When it was over, finally, the guy slated to pitch for the Dodgers the very next day had reached base so many times he needed an IV, and the guy who had hit a Kirk Gibson-like grand slam in the World Series just one year ago had somehow crafted another epic ending.
Freddie Freeman’s homer off lefty Brendon Little in the bottom of the 18th – yes, 18th – inning of Game 3 punctuated the Dodgers’ 6-5 victory over the Blue Jays and gave L.A. a 2-1 edge in this best-of-seven World Series.
It was an affair that lasted 6 hours, 39 minutes, and it tied another Game 3 at Dodger Stadium – the Dodgers’ 3-2 win over the Red Sox in 2018 – for the longest, by innings, in Fall Classic history.
Ex-wife of Eric Kay says Angels knew about his drug abuse by Michael Rothstein [ESPN]
The ex-wife of former Los Angeles Angels communications employee Eric Kay testified Monday that the organization was aware of his drug abuse multiple times before Kay supplied the drugs that killed Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs in 2019.
Camela Kay testified in the wrongful death civil suit that she witnessed team employees distributing nonprescription drugs to players, including once on a team plane where she described opioid pills being handed out. Her testimony was repeatedly interrupted with objections by team attorneys.
We Are the Jonas Brothers and We Are Just as Confused as You Are by Davy Andrews [FanGraphs]
It’s important to understand that this is kind of a big production. We do a lot of shows. We’ve played at Rogers Centre four times now, which puts us just one behind Trey Yesavage. All those big shows require a lot of logistics. We have managers. We have handlers. We have managers for our handlers. (We call them manhandlers. It is our favorite joke.) Once you’ve gotten to the point where you’re singing into a microphone with a giant MasterCard logo on it, you’re not necessarily the one making all the decisions. The point is, we stopped asking questions a long time ago. We’ve performed at the White House Easter Egg Roll. That constituted a normal day in the life of the Jonas Brothers.
So when we arrived in Toronto and they told us that our show would be 87 seconds long, that it would delay the sixth inning of a pitcher’s duel in Game 2 of the World Series, and that we would be playing on a tiny stage in front of the footlong hot dog stand, we rolled with it. We’re professionals. And honestly, the hot dogs smelled so good that we thought about cutting our set even shorter just so we could hurry over and chow down. That’s not to say that we didn’t have any questions. We had so many questions.
Mariners Notes: Naylor, Polanco, Suarez by Nick Deeds [MLB Trade Rumors]
While Naylor has been emphasized as the club’s priority, Divish suggests that it’s possible Polanco actually winds up being the one most likely to sign. That’s in part due to Naylor’s age, with Divish noting that he’s likely to seek a deal longer than three years in free agency. That’s the sort of contract that has typically fallen outside of Seattle’s comfort zone under Dipoto in free agency, although it’s not hard to imagine that the Mariners might view Naylor as an exception to that. After all, the club has been willing to go far beyond the two years and $24MM Mitch Garver deal that remains Dipoto’s largest expenditure in free agency when it comes to extensions. Luis Castillo extended on a five-year deal in his age-29 season, while Cal Raleigh’s six-year extension came in his age-28 campaign.
