After the Diamondbacks suffered an unfortunate situation that had the players go to Chase Field on Monday and watch the Braves VS Mets game, praying for a sweep by either team. Unfortunately for the Diamondbacks, the Braves and Mets split their series. Locking them into the playoffs and seeing the Diamondbacks get eliminated, despite having the same record as the Braves and the Mets.

Despite missing the playoffs though, the Diamondbacks can walk away from this season with their heads held high. 1st in the league for hitting, 1st in the league for fielding but 29th in the league for pitching. Injuries flooded the Diamondback’s starting pitchers, as the beginning of the season, saw Eduardo Rodriguez go down with an injury that kept him out for a series of time, then the late signing from the D-backs for Jordan Montgomery, then Merrill Kelly’s injury, then last but not least. Zac Gallen’s injury. Brandon Pfaadt thankfully escaped a big injury in July after being hit by a line drive in the leg. He was removed in the fifth inning but made his next scheduled start. Despite the tough hand dealt to them in their starting rotation, the Diamondbacks were able to end their season with a record of 89-73.

Tough Losses

The Diamondbacks suffered a very tough loss towards the end of September to the Brewers. After being up 8-0, the Diamondbacks lost the game 12-11. Now i know you can’t really blame the season on one game since there is 162 of them, but it makes you think, if they could have held the lead in one of 39 blown leads this season, if they’d be playing October baseball today.

Now below we will break down some of those unfortunate losses that took place throughout the seasons and the reasons behind the losses.

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• April 3rd, 2024: After pulling out to an early 1-0 lead in the 2nd inning against the Yankees, Aaron Judge belted a run one shot into right-center to bring the Yankees lead 2-1 in the top of the fourth. Then in the bottom of the fifth inning, Ketel Marte belted a 433′ no-doubter in left-center. This game went into extra innings with Kevin Ginkel on the mound. Then Alex Verdugo belted a 2-run shot on the very first pitch. The Diamondbacks were able to tie it up in the bottom of the tenth but then a rally from Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. But that wasn’t the final nail in the coffin, the Diamondbacks then came up in the bottom of the eleventh and had a rally going then put in Pitcher Scott McGough and went down looking on strikes. D-Backs lose 6-5.
• April 5th, 2024: The Diamondbacks traveled down to Atlanta and were able to put up 5 runs before the fifth inning. By the seventh inning, the Diamondbacks led 5-2. Then came the bottom of the eighth, where the Braves were able to put up a run to narrow the D-backs lead from 3 to 2. Then to the bottom of the ninth, we went, with Kevin Ginkel back on the mound. Olson drives in an RBI after a double, then Jarred Kelenic had some of the same magic to tie the ball game. 5-5. Then to the top of the tenth, The Diamondbacks had 2 strikeouts with a groundout. Then Travis a’Arnaud gets himself a walk-off single to end the ball game and complete the comeback.
• May 31st, 2024: The Diamondbacks came out swinging against the Mets, coming out to an early lead of 3-0 in the top of the first. Then the Mets punched back to lead 4-3. The Diamondbacks were able to put more runs on the board but a late rally in the top of the ninth wasn’t enough after the Mets won 10-9. Jordan Montgomery allowed 8 runs in 4 innings then Logan Allen did his best to close things out in the fifth onwards but it was the offense who couldn’t get these things after the hole, Montgomery dug the team in.
• June 27th, 2024: The Twins came down to Phoenix and had a chance to get a look at Jordan Montgomery, and boy did they get a look at him. Montgomery through 2.2 innings pitched had 7 earned runs, 1 K, ending his night with a 6.44 ERA. Once again, the offense wasn’t able to dig themselves out of the hole that Montgomery once again put them in.
• July 2nd, 2024: The Diamondbacks’ offense and starting pitching did well this game but it was, unfortunately, Paul Sewald who took the blame for this loss, after a 1-run double from Freddie Freeman, Lovullo the manager for the Diamondbacks kept Sewald out there then it was a 1-run single from Teoscar Hernandez to left field to end the game.
• July 5th, 2024: Despite another hole dug by the starting pitching, it was the offense who was able to get it turned around in the top of the ninth, scoring six runs. Bringing the lead to 8-7. But once again, it was Paul Sewald with a home run to Profar to tie the ball game, then a 2-run shot from Manny Machado to end the game 10-8 in favor of the Padres.
• July 8th, 2024: Despite a solid performance from the starting pitching today, it was once again Sewald allowing a 2-run home run to tie the ball game 3-3 in the top of the ninth. The Diamondbacks lost this game 4-5 in the eleventh inning. This marked Sewald’s third blown save
• August 30th, 2024: In the top of the seventh against the Dodgers, the Diamondbacks decided to put in Paul Sewald in a 6-5 ballgame. Then Sewald allowed a 3-run 392′ homer to left center. Putting the game 9-5. Despite Lovullo removing Sewald from the game, he went back out for another outing in the eighth inning and then allowed another solo shot to left-center to Shohei Ohtani. The Diamondbacks did their best to dig themselves out of another hole dug by Paul Sewald but 4 runs ultimately wasn’t enough for the D-backs. They lost 10-9.
• September 22nd, 2024: This loss stings for every Diamondbacks fan and player. The Diamondbacks had a huge third inning against the Brewers to bring the ballgame 7-1. Jordan Montgomery got the start after an injury in the rotation (he was moved to the bullpen during the season) and didn’t do horribly, he only allowed 3 runs and kept this game in the Diamondbacks’ favor. It was 8-3 going into the bottom of the sixth. Diaz was in for 1.1 IP then allowed his first run. 8-4. The Diamondbacks were able to get out of the inning but then the Brewers were able to get two runs on Ryan Thompson. Bringing this game 8-6. Randal Grickhuk came in clutch as he normally did this season, to help the Diamondbacks with some insurance, but then after a 4-run eighth inning, the offense wasn’t able to get going in the ninth, and saw the Brewers completing the 8-0 comeback.

Now the Diamondbacks did come back in 32 games that they were down in. Like I said, it’s hard to blame it all on one game but it’s easier to blame it on one portion of the season. I think the downfall of the Diamondbacks was the very tough September that they had. On July 31st, they had a record of 58-52 and 2nd in the NL West. At the end of August, they were able to walk away with 17 wins and 9 losses. A solid August to bring their record to 76-60, 6 games behind the Dodgers and 2nd in the NL West. Then September came 13 wins, 13 losses. Bringing their record to 89-73.

Offseason Preview:

Regardless though, the Diamondbacks can look at this season and find tons of positives and not too many negatives. Lots of the negatives are out of the Diamondbacks’ control. Other than the Jordan Montgomery signing managing general partner Ken Kendrick said that he’s the one to blame for the signing. I personally think the Diamondbacks don’t have any reason to start tearing down walls and trading players. If anything, those boys showed that they can play and that they wanna play in October.

This 2024 season, the Diamondbacks front office had a payroll of 177.5m, which broke records for the Diamondbacks being the highest salary in team’s history. With calculations and options currently, their payroll is expected to expand by 10m. I personally think it can hit above the 200m mark, since Ken Kendrick said, concessions we’re up 20% this season, and that they we’re planning to invest this offseason. Now i don’t think they are gonna go out and try to sign Juan Soto, but expect to see most of the same squad you saw last season.

Currently the Diamondbacks have 16 players eligible for Pre-Arbitration talks, 9 players on the Arbitration list, 4 players hitting free agency and 6 players with either, mutual, player or team options. The Diamondbacks front office is gonna be busy getting contracts written out this season, and big names like Zac Gallen and Christian Walker will be looking to get paid.

Pre-Arbritation List

Name – 2024 Contract Amount

P – Justin Martinez – 1yr/740k

P – Joe Jacques – 1yr/740k

C – Jose Herrara – 1yr/740k

P – Brandon Hughes – 1yr/740k

P – Bryce Jarvis – 1yr/743.6k

P – Drey Jameson – 1yr/749.7k

P – Brandon Pfaadt – 1yr/754.4k

C – Gabriel Moreno – 1yr/760k

P – Ryne Nelson – 1yr/764.3k

OF – Jake McCarthy – 1yr/766k

CF – Alek Thomas – 1yr/769k

P – Thyago Vieira – 1yr/777.5k

SS – Jordan Lawlar -1yr/740k

P – Andrew Saalfrank – 1yr/740k

P – Slade Cecconi – 1yr/740k

P – Tommy Henry – 1yr/760.5k

Arbritation List:

Name – 2024 Contract

P – Zac Gallen – 1yr/10.01m

C – Andrew Knizner – 1yr/1.82m

P – Ryan Thompson – 1yr/1.35m

P – A.J Puk – 1yr/1.8m

P – Kevin Ginkel – 1yr/1.23m

P – Joe Mantiply – 1yr/925k

INF – Geraldo Perdomo – 1yr/786k

P – Kyle Nelson – 1yr/757k

OF,1B – Pavin Smith – 1yr/740k

Free Agents/Option List

Name – FA/OL – 2024 Contract

INF – Kevin Newman – Free Agency / 1yr/946k

P – Paul Sewald – Free Agency / 1yr/7.35m

1B – Christian Walker – Free Agency / 1yr/10.9m

1B – Josh Bell – Free Agency / 1yr/16.5m

P – Scott McGough – Mutual Option / 2yr/6.25m

OF – Randal Grichuk – Mutual Option / 1yr/2m

P – Merrill Kelly – Team Option / 2yrs/18m

OF – Joc Pederson – Mutual Option / 1yr/12.5m

P – Jordan Montgomery – Player Option / 1yr/25m

3B – Eugenio Suarez – Team Option / 7yr/66m

Now the Diamondbacks have some questions that will need to be answered before the day comes that they are allowed to start issuing out contracts. The first one i wanna speak about is Brandon Pfaadt. Brandon was able to keep the injury bug away from his this season which put him as the top pitcher stat wise the Diamondbacks had available, he is Pre-Arb available so the question is, will the Diamondbacks wanna lock him down early before he officially hits arbitration or even free agency. Personally i can see him getting a contract similar to Corbin Carroll did to lock him in long term with the Diamondbacks.

Now Justin Martinez and Paul Sewald both battled it out for the closing position this season and with the high pay tag that Sewald might come with this free agency, I can personally see the D-Backs allowing Sewald to walk in Free Agency and giving Martinez a new contract, potentially a long term contract. The 100 mph fastball pitching machine is only 23 years old and had a 2.48 ERA through 64 games played this season. The Diamondbacks could potentially save some money here with this move.

Once again, the Diamondbacks are stacked with hitters all over, in Triple A and in their MLB roster, the D-Backs never had a specific DH this season as it transitioned throughout multiple players but a late trade deadline trade, helped the D-backs acquire Josh Bell while Walker was down with a injury. Now the Diamondbacks are figuring out who they should pay in this upcoming free agency. Josh Bell and Christian Walker are both set to hit free agency. Despite Walker’s injury, their batting stats are close to similar. Which we will break down below.

Name	AB	Hits	HR	.BA	Runs	RBI	SB	OPS	OBP	SLG
Walk	479	120	26	.251	72	84	2	.803	.335	.468
Bell	538	134	19	.249	62	71	0	.725	.319	.405

Now seeing these stats, they obviously don’t help at all in choosing a player to bring into their 2025 season, but if i was the Diamondbacks GM, i’d wanna keep both players, but keep Christian Walker in the first base position. I’d keep Josh Bell in the day-to-day designated hitter position and if needed, play first base if Walker ever needs a rest. Josh Bell has shown that he can bring in runs, and get on base. I wouldn’t be surprised if the D-backs allow one of these players to walk and throw Pavin Smith into the DH position or the backup first baseman.

Zac Gallen, despite his injuries has been the Diamondbacks ace pitcher since his arrival. He is on the arbitration list and this last 2024 season, he received a 10.01m contract, so the 29-year old will obviously be looking for a long-term contract, instead on a 1-yr contract. With Gallen set to hit free agency in 2026, this is another long-term contract i can see the Diamondbacks wanting to get done this offseason so they don’t create any future problems between them and Gallen. Gallen is one of three starting pitchers with the potential to walk this offseason.

Gabriel Moreno, Jake Mccarthy, Alek Thomas and Geraldo Perdomo all did big things for the Diamondbacks, whether that was offensively or defensively. But this offseason, they are available for long-term contracts if needed, now the Diamondbacks have bigger questions to answer first this offseason but they will need to start to think about locking them down long-term if they wanna keep themselves in playoff contention for years to come.

I mentioned earlier that Gallen was one of three starting pitchers that could walk, well the other two are Merrill Kelly and Jordan Montgomery. Now Merrill Kelly’s is a team option and the question everyone is asking, will they choose to resign him? Personally i think, with his career 3.82 ERA, his age of 35. I can see the Diamondbacks parting ways with him, freeing up more money to bring in a starting pitcher from free agency, and if you look at the list, there are tons available to choose from.

Just moments after the Mets VS Braves game finished, Ken Kendrick spoke on Arizona Sports, and said to blame him for the Jordan Montgomery signing. Saying it was a ‘horrible decision’. Now Kendrick could have just put the Diamondbacks in a terrible position as the player he brought in, is on a player option. It’s up to Jordan if he wants to play for the Diamondbacks again, and i think he can bring the final laugh to the situation. Forcing the D-backs into giving him a major contract then force them to find a trade suitor. Now will this happen, probably not, but Montgomery is in the position to do just that. Kendrick wasn’t wrong, as Montgomery pitched a 6.23 ERA through 117.0 IP. But let me make something clear, Montgomery didn’t get spring training, as he was waiting for a call from a team, he didn’t get a chance to pitch in a actual game. Now that is obviously already putting Montgomery at a huge disadvantage as he just doesn’t get the extra month of prep that other pitchers did.

Yes, Montgomery’s stats weren’t good, but you can’t put all the blame on the pitcher. I personally wouldn’t mind giving Montgomery another shot at the starting rotation and if it doesn’t work out, put him back in the bullpen rotation. Montgomery is 31 years old, so if the D-backs are able to sit down with Montgomery and figure out a contract that works for the both of them (not 25m) then i can see this move working out for both teams. But regardless, it will be the most interesting story to keep up with this offseason.

Top Players this season:

Now the Diamondbacks as i mentioned before, we’re hot this season. It’s going to be hard to pick one Bear Sports MVP, but as i mentioned before, this team was first in the league in hitting. The Diamondbacks top 9 hitters all combined for a .263 AVG. Ketel Marte had the highest average amongst the team at a .292 and Jake Mccarthy who is Pre-Arb eligible batted a .285 which was second on the team. Marte also led the team in HR’s this season, who was just a absolute unit in the leadoff position. Before Marte’s injury, he was starting to pop up in NL MVP conversations. Lourdes Gurriel Jr was also very impressive at the plate for the Diamondbacks, batting a .279 AVG with 75 RBI’s, 18 HR’s on 513 AB’s.

Name	AVG	AB	Hits	HR	RBI
Jake Mccarthy	.285	442	126	8	56
Lourdes Gurriel Jr	.279	513	143	18	75
Joc Pederson	.275	367	101	23	64
Geraldo Perdomo	.273	337	92	3	37
Gabriel Moreno	.266	305	81	5	45
Eugenio Suarez	.256	571	146	30	101
Christian Walker	.251	479	120	26	84
Corbin Carroll	.231	589	136	22	74
Ketel Marte	.292	504	147	36	95

Now as i said, i can’t personally just pick one player in this battle, but i am going to choose three top hitters and those are, Ketel Marte, Corbin Carroll and Eugenio Suarez.

Marte is obvious in this list, he was in conversations of MVP before his injury and i think if he didn’t get injured, he’d still be in those conversations. Corbin Carroll and Suarez would get off to a slow start in the beginning of the season but towards the end, Carroll reminded everyone on why he was ROTY last season, and Suarez made a strong case to keep him in the lineup for years to come.

Notable mention is the whole Diamondbacks squad, their farm system is extremely scary as you have players like Jordan Lawlar, Blaze Alexander and Adrian Del Castillo who saw some field time this season and didn’t disappoint. Everyone on the Diamondbacks team contributed in a big way and i’d give them all a trophy if a could.

Top Pitcher:

Brandon Pfaadt went out this season and impressed everyone once again, Pfaadt was the top pitcher and held things down as everyone else was getting injured. Pfaadt gets the Bear Sports Dbacks Top Starting Pitcher honors.

Final Thoughts:

With some questions that will be answered this upcoming offseason, regarding contracts, player options, etc. The Diamondbacks have started to build a real nice foundation to start bringing in consistent winning seasons. Ever since the embarrassing 2021 season, of 52 wins and 110 losses, the Diamondbacks turned it all around. Since then, they have went 247-239. Which after a losing season like the one they had is huge.

With young players like Corbin Carroll, Jordan Lawlar, Adrian Del Castillo and Blaze Alexander getting ready to make their official debuts in the MLB for their rookie season, the Diamondbacks will be scary for years to come.

Players like Zac Gallen, and Christian Walker are more then ready to teach the new guys some new things to help them improve their game and craft. That’s if the Diamondbacks keep those players, regardless the Diamondbacks will be back next season for revenge, ready to make October.