DEVELOPING AN IDENTITY
Diamondbacks’ no-name roster now ‘coming together’ after successful trip
Before their series began on Friday afternoon, Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker was asked about seeing the Diamondbacks for the first time in almost two years.
“I looked at the roster and I don’t know a lot of them,” Snitker said. “There’s a lot of guys I really haven’t heard of.”
Snitker probably isn’t alone in the baseball world with that assessment, but that anonymity won’t last if the Diamondbacks continue to play the way they did on their just-completed road trip, on which they went 7-3 on stops in Washington, Cincinnati and Atlanta.
It was a trip that will be remembered for the way it ended, with Madison Bumgarner one-upping Zac Gallen in a performance that was dominant on the field and controversial off it.
But, for the Diamondbacks, the past two weeks might also be viewed as a jumping off point. They were something of a mess before the trip began. They had lost 8 of 12 games to open the year. Bumgarner was struggling. Their offense was inconsistent. Their best player, Ketel Marte, was hurt.
Marte remains out with a hamstring injury, but nearly everything else about the club has taken a turn for the better, in part thanks to contributions from some of those no-names to whom Snitker referred.
“We’re coming together,” Diamondbacks catcher Carson Kelly said. “We’re relying on each other on certain days. It’s just awesome to see this group come together.”
Andrew Young launched a pair of key home runs on the trip. Josh VanMeter connected for another. Pavin Smith emerged not only as Torey Lovullo’s preferred option in the leadoff spot but also as a capable center fielder, a position he had never before played in his life.
“We’ve got guys that can play,” Gallen said. “Guys that didn’t probably expect to be in the starting lineup. …
“Torey talked about it in spring training. We’re just going to be a resilient team. We’re going to grind you down and when the series is over you’re going to be like, ‘OK, what just happened there?’”
But Bumgarner’s performance in two starts on the trip might be the most important development. He was named National League co-Player of the Week along with San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. If Bumgarner is able to regain the form he showed even for his final few seasons with the San Francisco Giants, the Diamondbacks would have another dependable starter to go with Gallen in their rotation.
“He’s been working his butt off in-between starts,” Kelly said. “He’s been working really hard. He cares. He really does. … You can see it starting to get better and better and better. This is a reward to all his hard work.”
Kelly was another star of the trip, continuing to show patience and power. David Peralta began to emerge from his slow start. Eduardo Escobar continued to produce.
It is enough to create legitimate optimism that, at the very least, it won’t be a lost summer for the Diamondbacks, something that looked like a real possibility in the season’s opening days. And with Marte and Christian Walker likely to return in the coming weeks, there is reason to hope for more than that.
The club will be tested, briefly, upon its return home. The San Diego Padres, who went toe-to-toe with the Los Angeles Dodgers in consecutive weekends, will be in town for a two-game series.
Lovullo said that when Diamondbacks left on their road trip two weeks ago they were still “chasing our identity.” Now, he said, they are beginning to “define who we are.”
“We’re a smart, tough baseball team,” he said, “that has a bend-don’t-break mentality, that goes out and fights and executes and claws for every inch they possibly can. This was a good road trip for this ballclub. We are finding out exactly who we are.”