Speedy D-backs playing aggressively
PHOENIX – Veteran third baseman Evan Longoria plops in front of his corner locker, looks around the Arizona Diamondbacks clubhouse, and starts to reminisce as he watches his teammates leave for the night.
Here he is, entering his 16th major league season, suddenly starting to feel young again himself.
Longoria, 37 used to be one of those up-and-coming stars on the Tampa Bay Rays roster, playing with speedy AllStars Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton, mentored by veterans like Eric Hinske and Cliff Floyd.
Now, here he is, watching the same things unfold across the country, with 22-year-olds emerging into stars.
“You look at the guys in here, and it feels kind of like a full-circle moment for me, watching these guys run around, play great defense and create panic on the bases,” Longoria says.
The season is not two weeks old, but already these Diamondbacks are putting the rest of the league on notice with a style of play that resurrects memories of the old Montreal Expos outfield with Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom, Moises Alou and a young Rondell White.
“I’m telling you, as far as run prevention,” Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts tells USA TODAY Sports, “this as good as an outfield as I’ve ever seen. These guys are better than that Expos outfield. These guys are freakin’ unbelievable. You hit the ball in the air, it’s an out.
“They’re scrappy. It’s fun watching these guys run. Hopefully the industry will start getting guys like that.”
The Diamondbacks, playing their first 10 games of the season against the NL juggernauts San Diego Padres and Dodgers, are holding their own in the early going. Going into April 10, Arizona was tied for first place with a 6-4 record, winning games with some old-school flair.
When’s the last time you saw a team win a game with five stolen bases, a safety squeeze, a double steal, a steal of home, two sacrifice flies and no home runs?
“I think we are changing the game a little bit,” says D-backs infielder Josh Rojas, who stole 23 bases last season. “We’re going back to the old-school style, bunting guys in, hitting and running, being aggressive on the base paths.”
They are the Go-Go D-backs, leading the National League with 10 stolen bases, daredevil base running and phenomenal defense.
“This is who we are,” manager Torey Lovullo says, “and we are going to keep forward with a very uncommon way. We’re a good team. We’re an exciting baseball team. We’re loaded with athleticism. And we’re going to exploit things that we’re supposed to.”
The D-backs still are probably a year away from contention. They have the smallest payroll ($116 million) in the NL West, not even half the total of the Padres. They have only two reliable starting pitchers in Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly. They have a completely rebuilt and unpredictable bullpen.
But, oh, man, are they fun to watch. This team has superstar-in-waiting Corbin Carroll, Jake McCarthy and Alek Thomas patrolling the outfield, along with Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Kyle Lewis.
“It’s funny when people call it oldschool,” says McCarthy, who finished fourth in last year’s NL Rookie of the Year balloting.
“It’s just playing the game hard. And playing the game right. Maybe that’s considered an old-school brand of baseball but it’s all I know.”
“I would love to hit 40 home runs a year, but it’s not a choice. This is what I need to do.”
Yep, just like running 95 feet in five seconds this past week against the Padres at Petco Park, snaring a foul ball, somersaulting over the right-field fence, landing headfirst on the concrete floor,
jumping up and running back to the dugout.
“The plan wasn’t to go into the second row,” says McCarthy, who grew up with a picture of Derek Jeter’s diving catch on his bedroom wall, “the right-field wall just kind of came up pretty quick. The ball needed to be caught.”
Says Carroll: “That was just sick.” It’s just a glimpse on the D-backs’ style of play, taunting pitchers on the mound, faking as if they’re going to run – and running when you don’t think they will.
“It’s more than just the skill set,” says Gold Glove first baseman Christian Walker, “it’s understanding our skill set and using it to our advantage. It’s one thing to have Corbin Carroll, Jake McCarthy and Josh Rojas on first base, but it’s another thing to have them on first base and knowing they have the defense sweating a little bit, bouncing around, and giving fake breaks.
“It’s definitely something that opposing teams have to take seriously.”
It’s playing a full-court defense on a baseball diamond, rattling the pitchers with runners on base and watching them unravel in the most critical of times.
“We are going to use our speed and our athleticism against some teams that might get a little lackadaisical,” Rojas says. “I came up playing that way my whole life, being super aggressive, and using my athleticism to get the big league level. But once you get to the big leagues, the game changes a little bit.
“The speedy guys aren’t allowed to run too much when you get on first. You got a power hitter behind you and they don’t want you to get thrown out because you’re in scoring position.
“Well, we’re changing all of that, and these new rule changes are just promoting what we’re trying to do. The bigger bases. The pitch clock. It’s all foreign to the pitcher, so it makes them susceptible to being uncomfortable.”
Longoria, a three-time All-Star and Gold Glover, can’t help but smile, hitting .429 the first week. There is Carroll, who just signed an eight-year, $111 million contract this spring, still getting dropped off by his parents at Chase Field on their opening-night game.
There’s Longoria taking future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw deep one minute and watching Carroll, who was just 5 years old when Kershaw was drafted, follow with a homer of his own. And there is Druw Jones, the son of 10-time All-Star center fielder Anduw Jones – whom Longoria played against for five years – impressing in the D-backs minor league system.
It makes a fella feel, well, proud to be a part of something special rising in the desert.
“It’s nice coming to the ballpark with a hungry, very young group of guys,” Longoria says. “There’s very little cynicism. This game can beat you down, it can be grinding, but when you’re younger it’s easier to bounce back from those things. So when I come in here and see all of these guys turning the page quickly and looking forward to getting back out there, it invigorates me.”
This is what the D-backs envisioned growing up together in the minor leagues, spending the COVID-19 camp together in 2020 and now creating their own identity.
“We dreamed of playing together at this level,” Carroll says, “and here we are. We’re just having a whole lot of fun.”
And just getting started, letting the powerful NL West know Phoenix is no longer viewed as a mini-vacation.
“It’s an exciting time to be a Diamondbacks fan,” says Dodgers center fielder Trayce Thompson, who remains close friends with Thomas and Carroll from their days together during the 2020 camp. “They were going to be good players regardless, but the new rules just kind of promotes that athleticism, that kind of uptick, that pace of play, where they can excel in every facet of the game. I really can’t wait to see what that team becomes.”