Veteran ‘blindsided’ getting cut before World Series run
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The Arizona Diamondbacks stunned the baseball world in 2023 with their greatest season in 22 years, reaching the World Series, but their longest tenured player in franchise history couldn’t bear to watch.
Shortstop Nick Ahmed, who had been with the organization since 2011, didn’t watch a single pitch of their postseason run.
The anger was too much to even turn on the TV set and see his former teammates play on the biggest stage.
“It hurt; it was really hard,” Ahmed said Friday, putting on a San Francisco Giants uniform for his first game with another organization. “You give 10 years of your life to an organization. I was there longer than anyone besides the clubhouse guys and training staff. You build relationships with guys, you helped build something, you helped build the culture, you helped move the direction in the right direction.
“And then for it to end the way it did was really tough. It just ends in the blink of an eye.”
Ahmed, the Diamondbacks’ quiet and respected clubhouse leader, helped his teammates endure the anguish of their embarrassing 110-loss season two years ago. He hit 19 homers and drove in 82 RBI in 2019. He won two Gold Gloves.
And on the afternoon of Sept. 6, after the Diamondbacks’ 12-5 loss to the Colorado Rockies, Ahmed was summoned into manager Torey Lovullo’s office where general manager Mike Hazen awaited.
He was informed he was no longer wanted. He was being designated for assignment to make room for rookie Jordan Lawler.
The timing was absolutely brutal. There was no way for Ahmed to inform his family.
They were on a flight, halfway to Chicago, to meet Ahmed and spend the weekend for the Diamondbacks series against the Chicago Cubs. It wasn’t until they landed that Ahmed was able to tell his wife, Amanda, who tearfully had to break the news to their two sons and daughter.
Dad wasn’t coming.
He was fired.
They stayed at the airport and took the next flight back to Phoenix.
Ahmed drove back home to North Scottsdale.
The drive took 30 minutes, but felt like 30 years.
“I mean, I knew I wasn’t playing well,” he said. “I’ll take ownership of that. But there was no prior communication. Nothing.
“I was blindsided.”
Ahmed, who turns 34 in two weeks, was still recovering from his 2022 shoulder surgery. He was struggling at the plate, hitting .212 with two homers and a .560 OPS in a backup role. He started in just 56 games.
Still, to be released just three weeks before the end of the season, no matter how close he was to his teammates, the pain was too fresh to watch the rest of the season.
He didn’t see their glorious September run when they became the last team to make the playoffs. Not during their upset National League wild-card, division series and championship series triumphs. Or their World Series battle with the Texas Rangers.
“I couldn’t watch; I just couldn’t do it,” he said. “I was just trying to distance myself with it. You build a bond and a relationship with a lot of people, but there’s hard feelings obviously towards the organization how things ended.
“I’m happy for the players and the coaches that they could experience that, but now I’m going to be playing against them this year. It’s going to be interesting.”
If Ahmed wanted to get away from the reminder how baseball can be a cruel, coldhearted business, San Francisco is the wrong place. The man he’s trying to replace is Brandon Crawford, a Giants icon, who never wanted to leave.
Crawford, 37, spent 15 years with the Giants – winning two World Series championships, earning four Gold Glove awards and three All-Star selections, and playing more games at shortstop than any other player in franchise history – was cast aside, too.
On the same day Ahmed signed a minor league deal with the Giants, Crawford was flying to Florida to sign a oneyear contract with the St. Louis Cardinals.
“The bottom line is I was not wanted back by the one person whose (opinion) matters,” Crawford told The Athletic, referring to Farhan Zaidi, president of baseball operations for the Giants. “So I went with a team that gave me a major league contract.”
Like Ahmed, Crawford struggled last season, hitting .194 with a .273 on-base percentage and .314 slugging percentage. The Giants still have no idea who will be their starting shortstop but believed Crawford was no longer a viable candidate. Crawford gave the Giants one last chance to match the Cardinals’ one-year, $2 million offer, willing to be a backup player, but was informed they could offer him only a minor league deal.
“That was the nail in the coffin,” he told The Athletic.
That opportunity now belongs to Ahmed, who is battling with Marco Luciano, Casey Schmitt and Tyler Fitzgerald for the starting shortstop job.
He’s rejuvenated. Invigorated. And has a Grand Canyon-sized chip on his shoulder.
It was a rude awakening to sit around all winter and not get a single contract offer. He talked to the Cardinals as well but nothing ever materialized.
“The free agency market, my agent and I weren’t expecting it to be that slow,” Ahmed said. “There was a pocket of guys, especially the middle infielders, that didn’t move at all until mid-February. That was kind of surprising.
“I didn’t know really what to expect coming off a down year and the year before where I was hurt [shoulder surgery]. So, I knew I didn’t have a great platform coming into it, but still we were expecting it to be quicker. There were no offers, nothing. It was always like, ‘Hey, we’re monitoring the trade market and we’ll get back to you at some point.’ Everything was very vague, no urgency.”
When the Giants called and made their offer, Ahmed pounced. It was perfect.
“Having a chance to come in and compete for the starting shortstop job, that’s what kind of attracted me to come here,” Ahmed said. “We had conversations with other teams that looked like a backup-type role. I’m a point in my career where I feel I can be a good starting shortstop and do it a high level.”
If first impressions mean anything, he looked awfully good in his new colors in his Giants debut Friday, making several fine defensive plays while hitting a three-run homer.
“We’ve talked about the need to shore up our defense,” said new San Francisco manager Bob Melvin, with the Giants making 13 more errors than any other team in baseball last season, “and he can do that. He’s had some injuries. He’s fully healthy now. He looks good, really good.
“I’m excited to see what he can bring.” The Giants, after winning 107 games and the NL West in 2021, only to finish a combined 51 games out of first place the past two seasons, dropped $261.25 million in free agency in hopes of returning to glory.
They may play in the same division as the powerful Dodgers, but as Arizona proved last season, just get into the tournament, and anything can happen.
“I’d love to be a part of it,” Ahmed said, “and, yeah, beating the Diamondbacks too.”