While it would be a historic and entirely unexpected run if the Arizona Diamondbacks make a push for the playoffs in the last two months of the season, there is still plenty to watch over the remainder of the 2025 season.
Namely, these two months will help shape what Arizona has to get done in the offseason to meet its goal of indeed contending in 2026.
How realistic that goal is will come down to a few positions and how much of a true “need” they become, depending on what is shown in August and September. The aftermath of the trades of Merrill Kelly, Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor leaves those positions open. Those spots and others were taken by young players who could fill needs beyond this year.
First, we’ll take a look at those three obvious positions of need before focusing tomorrow on two more position groups (bullpen and outfield) that have a lot of questions to answer.
Diamondbacks questions begin with starting pitching
Kohl Drake, formerly of the Texas Rangers. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
We start with the established commodities, who all have something to prove across this stretch. There is more than enough talent within the potential 2026 rotation for Arizona to survive and even thrive without Corbin Burnes as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. Will it meet its potential, though?
At this very second, your Opening Day starter for 2026 would have to be Ryne Nelson, a year after he was the odd man out for the 2025 rotation. What a world. He would leave that out of the question if he continues to pitch the way he has since the backend of last season. This year, his 3.20 ERA and 1.o46 WHIP are by far the best on the team post-deadline.
That claim is possible because Zac Gallen might not even be in Arizona next year, while Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt similarly have pedigrees to relocate.
Gallen remaining a D-back simply means trade offers were not clearly usurping the value of a compensatory pick, which is surprising given that from 2022-24 he made 93 starts and produced a 3.20 ERA and 1.089 WHIP. He will have 10 starts the remainder of the year to look more like that guy, and if he doesn’t, maybe a one-plus-one deal with a player option in Year 2 to attempt resetting his value (like Pete Alonso did in New York) is the best resolution for both sides.
Rodriguez in 29 D-back outings now has a 5.36 ERA and 1.60 WHIP. If the young arms pop from now until next April, the remaining two years and $40 million on his contract eventually hold less weight as a reason for him to remain in the rotation. He has a case as the most important pitcher to watch down the stretch.
Pfaadt in 74 D-back outings has a 5.04 ERA and 1.30 WHIP. He was good in 2024, a 4.71 ERA that got inflated by a rough last two months when he clearly wore down, but even then, he was sitting at a 3.92 ERA at the end of July. Declarations of future ace might have been premature. He’s going to have to prove he deserves decent footing in the middle of the rotation before those conversations rekindle.
Elsewhere, that fifth spot for the time being is held by journeyman Anthony DeSclafani, but he is simply a placeholder for the next young arm the D-backs feel is worthy for a look at the major league level. And, well, there isn’t one ready right now, an under-discussed issue before the deadline.
Cristian Mena and Yilber Diaz looked next up for opportunities after emergency duty last year, but Mena is on the 60-day injured list while Diaz was converted to a relief role for the Triple-A Reno Aces in June. Since then, he has been a mess, giving up 30 earned runs in 13 innings before he was sent down to Double-A.
Yu-Min Lin was rated Arizona’s No. 4 prospect just last year before plummeting to 18th in MLB Pipeline’s latest update, sporting a 6.59 ERA for Reno this year. Other top-30-ranked starters at this level in the system are has-not-pitched-in-2025 Joe Elbis, and then Dylan Ray, who has a 5.50 ERA across Double-A and Triple-A this season.
So, it’ll likely be more about if the two best prospects from the Kelly deal will be deemed ready to go in August or September.
Lefty Kohl Drake is the best candidate and someone who experts would deem the best player Arizona acquired in the sell-off. He’s 25 years old, so that typically tells you it’s go-time, but Drake just started pitching at Triple-A in July and only had 17 starts at the level below thanks to being a junior college selection who didn’t go until the 11th round in 2022. Experts believe his potential sits somewhere in the mid-to-backend of a rotation, with a four-seam fastball that has enough movement to be the backbone for a pitcher of that ilk.
There’s a case to be more excited about fellow lefty Mitch Bratt, and that’s because he sort of sounds like Kelly. As it says on MLB Pipeline, “his craftiness and mound presence stand out more than his pure stuff, giving him a high floor as a back-of-the-rotation starter.”
Bratt has only stayed at Double-A thus far, but he could make a quicker jump, even though he’s 22. Keep an eye on his velocity. Fangraphs’ prospect analysis absolutely raves about his command, noting that pitchers of his profile can explode if the fastball goes up a few ticks, which does happen from time to time.
All told, Arizona going into free agency with either multiple rotation spots open or a firm idea what its five is (and confidence in those five to pitch well). That will determine how it can go about addressing other needs and if pitching can finally be the backbone it should have been for this organization the last two years.
Third base
Jordan Lawlar #10 of the Arizona Diamondbacks (Getty Images)
This is the big one that isn’t too complicated.
Jordan Lawlar, a consensus top-10 prospect in all of baseball for over two years now, will get his first extended look as a big leaguer once he gets healthy here shortly. Two rather unsuccessful (and short) stints will now come with much more freedom to play through mistakes and prove himself.
With Suarez gone and Geraldo Perdomo improving yet again, Lawlar, for the time being, will have to get used to third base instead of shortstop. Perhaps there is a Ketel Marte move to designated hitter coming in the next year or two that would shift Lawlar to second base, but for now, it’s the hot corner.
Lawlar has clear and obvious star potential, which gives him the power to shift the D-backs’ trajectory over the next few years — unlike anyone else on the roster. Marte and Corbin Carroll give Arizona such a decent floor as two guys who can be in the running for MVP at their respective bests. But there is a big-time gap between those two and the rest of the position players, especially once you go past Perdomo. Lawlar is the outlier in terms of talent to fix that problem.
While Lawlar’s Triple-A numbers are sensational, a .993 OPS with 18 steals in 53 games, he’s got a ton left to prove.
Sports Illustrated’s Michael McDermott noted at the time of Lawlar’s 2025 call-up that he had major problems chasing right-handers and their breaking balls. That persisted in the majors, with Lawlar logging nine strikeouts in 19 hitless at-bats for the D-backs before getting sent back down. When he did at the end of May, Lawlar’s OPS across June was 1.058, so he’s clearly beyond that level now.
The rest of this season will determine how much that really matters, and if Arizona can indeed put Lawlar in pen on the depth chart of the foreseeable future.
First base
Tyler Locklear #28 of the Arizona Diamondbacks (Getty Images)
This is where the majority of the intrigue lies in terms of the new additions, as Tyler Locklear has stepped into a defined role immediately as the main return for Suarez.
The main question with Locklear is if the D-backs acquired him at the perfect time in the middle of a revelation, or if this was just a recent hot streak. If it’s the former, the D-backs pulled off a heist.
Locklear only had three home runs at the end of May before ripping off 16 with 55 RBIs across June and July for a 1.148 OPS. Fangraphs notes that Locklear was extremely pull-heavy before this surge and some tweaks have allowed him to have a better “contact profile,” as they call it, with where he puts the ball. Some tweaks have really opened up his offensive game, so is he now a different caliber of player because of those?
Based on the varying degrees of how Locklear is opined, the two main swing skills to watch will be how he works at-bats and his defense.
Locklear is looked at as someone with decent numbers from a strikeout and walk perspective, and if you’re going to hit somewhere moderately important in the batting order for Torey Lovullo on a Mike Hazen-run team, you need to work a good at-bat unless you destroy baseballs with the frequency of Suarez. Locklear probably won’t be that type of power hitter, so keep an eye on his improvement on his only previous MLB look thus far in 2024, when he struck out 20 times in 45 at-bats. So far through a few games, the approach has looked very good and improved.
The defense is cited as average by MLB Pipeline but excellent by Fangraphs, so that’s quite the difference to keep track of. Arizona quietly went from the best team in baseball in outs above average last season to being tied for 10th this year, a number impacted by the departure of Christian Walker and several other players regressing. Locklear being a positive fielder would go a long way.
First base is likely going to be some type of platoon situation with Locklear and Pavin Smith in 2026, depending on how the designated hitter also pans out, but Locklear has all the runway over the remaining season to lock down the No. 1 job permanently.
