SAN DIEGO — Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said he and the organization have “some decisions to make” about his future, suggesting his return wasn't automatic if the club wanted him back.
While he said
he “of course” wanted to be back, he included some qualifiers during his final postgame media session on Sunday, Sept. 27, after the Diamondbacks were eliminated from the playoff race at Petco Park.
“I want to win a world championship with this organization,” Lovullo said. “But I want to be wanted.”
He was asked if he would be open to another short-term deal, the kind he has worked under at various points in his 10-year run with the organization.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I just want to be wanted. I’ll leave it at that. It’s hard to say. It’s probably not the conversation to have right now. I need to think about a few things.”
Lovullo is well regarded throughout the industry, and many believe other clubs would be interested if the Diamondbacks chose not to retain him.
Lovullo, 61, is the longest-tenured manager in club history. He owns a 750-767 record in 10 years, though he has made just two postseason appearances. One of those was memorable: In 2023, the Diamondbacks won just 84 games but claimed a wild card before making a surprise run to the World Series.
His teams, however, have missed the postseason each of the past three years, each time falling short in the final weekend of the season. They won 89, 80 and 86 games the past three seasons.
“I keep asking myself that question,” Lovullo said when asked why his team has had trouble sealing the deal late in the season. “(General manager) Mike Hazen and I talk about that all the time. What happens inside of these moments in this environment that we can’t seem to win that last big push and make it happen?”
As for feeling "wanted," Lovullo said there was a perception that “at times spins out of control” that the Diamondbacks are not a good organization, the suggestion being that he was at the center of that.
“I’ve never felt unwanted,” he said. “But there’s some decisions that need to be made, and it’s gotten this far, so I don’t know what’s going on. Once I figure that out, if it works in my favor, I do want to be wanted.”
It was a trying season for Lovullo, who last month had to deal with the no-show of star second baseman Ketel Marte in Boston and the subsequent fallout from it. He caught criticism externally for not being tougher on Marte.
“I think Torey is great,” Diamondbacks third baseman Nolan Arenado said. “I think he had some tough things he had to deal with this year, and I thought he did a great job with it. At the end of the day, it's always on the players, and I think us as players, we just didn't do a good enough job when we had a chance to take care of business.
"That isn't necessarily on the coaches, even though I know sometimes he's going to get pointed at. But it's on us, and we didn't take care of business.”
Lovullo said he had been “compartmentalizing” his own status in recent weeks in an attempt to be present for his players.
“At this point, I don’t know where it’s at,” he said of his job status. “I have some decisions to make. I have some things to think about, as do the DBacks, and where it goes from here, I don’t know.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks' Torey Lovullo on his future. 'I want to be wanted'
