As is often the case in this category, there was no obvious stand-out candidate here. As ish95 noted, this was probably the first time we have had two off-field personnel nominated in this category. While
they ended up coming first and second, the votes were all over the place, and none of the six candidates reached even as high as thirty percent of the votes. Video co-ordinator Allen Campbell came in second, on 20.8% of the vote. It’s probably a good thing he didn’t win, because the only photo I could find of the man was a very small one out of a Diamondbacks Media Guide from years ago. He should perhaps be filed alongside Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.
But the winner, with 29.9% of the vote, is the team manager Torey Lovullo. And that sound you hear, is the heads of certain Twitter/X accounts exploding at the very concept of praise being given to the man. [And nothing of value was lost…] It feels like there has hardly been a month – and certainly not a season – without there being loud demands for Lovullo to be fired from his position. Even during the year he took the Diamondbacks to the World Series, just a couple of months earlier, an online poll – yeah, I know – had over eighty percent of fans not wanting Torey to manage a single more game for the team.
It is, inevitably, the nature of sports management. It’s especially true in a game like baseball, where luck plays a bigger element than in any other major sport. The difference between a grand-slam and a lazy pop-up to the outfield is a fraction of an inch on the spot where ball meets bat. All any manager can do, is make an educated guess as to what (very limited) inputs he has into the contest, are likely to have the best outcome. Sometimes it’ll work. Sometimes it won’t. Fans have an understandable but nasty tendency to forget the former conveniently, and remember only the failures. But managers need to be like closers, and have a short memory. Because the best choice last night in defeat, may well be the best choice today too.
But the team has stuck with Lovullo to the point that, providing he is still there at the end of this year, he’ll have managed more than twice as many games for the Diamondbacks as anybody else [He currently sits on 1,356 games, with the next most being Kirk Gibson, back on 728] That says a lot, I suspect. Not least because the vast majority of a manager’s activities and responsibilities are simply not visible to us. The in-game decisions mostly make themselves. But it’s the stuff in the clubhouse, where you seek to forge 26 different (and often disparate) personalities into a winning team, that a manager will really prove his worth. How can we, as outsiders, judge that objectively? The reality, of course, is simple. We can’t.
The problem is that fans want to fire managers, for things that are not under their control. Witness this July essay from PHNX Sports: The Diamondbacks Need To Move On From Lovullo After 2025 Season. This states, “It’s time for a new voice in the dugout. Diamondbacks fans have suffered through two painfully mediocre seasons in which having one of the top offenses in the league has been overshadowed by fielding one of the worst pitching staffs in all of baseball.” Because, of course, it’s Torey Lovullo’s fault that Corbin Burnes – starter of fourth-most major-league games over the previous three seasons – blew his elbow out, joining our two best relievers in the operating room.
Quite how firing Lovullo would fix the pitching staff, making Jake Woodford capable of working high-leverage situations effectively, is never quite explained. Indeed, the author even admits, Torey “has fantastic baseball sense, and is revered in the clubhouse.” Seems like a guy you’d want to keep, right? Apparently not: “The team’s progression has not met expectations, though, and in the end, someone needs to answer for that.” So, let me get this straight: your expectations are sufficient justification to fire Lovullo – somebody who possesses a very particular set of skills, skills he has acquired over a very long career?
Last season, the most high-profile demand came from Dan Bickley – just after the trade deadline where the team dealt away its best starting pitcher, two everyday players and its closer. “Welcome to Torey Lovullo’s last stand with the Diamondbacks,” he wrote. “Imagine the plot twist if these young guys start running and never stop, where Jordan Lawlar ignites and Zac Gallen leads the way, catching fire after no one wanted him at the trade deadline. Dreams are all we have left in Arizona.” They did, going 26-16 to make an unlikely push. But note: it was the players Bickley referenced as powering the turnaround, not the manager – a telling indictment of kneejerk reaction.
Lovullo certainly isn’t perfect, and he would be the first to tell you that, and accept responsibility – whether or not it’s his to begin with. “When we lose a game, it’s my fault. I am responsible for what happens here,” he said in August. He is loyal to a fault – perhaps too loyal, sticking with players beyond the point most outsides would consign them to Greenland. But that loyalty also got us one of the most incredible spells in franchise history. Between July 7, 2024 and July 21, 2025, Eugenio Suarez hit sixty home-runs over 170 games. If Lovullo hadn’t been so loyal, Geno would likely have been DFA’d and hit them for another team. Too much loyalty is certainly better than too little, I’d say.
The bottom line is, as ish95 pointed out, Lovullo gets no credit for the victories, and all of the blame for the losses. Starter blows up? Why didn’t he go to the bullpen sooner! Bullpen blows up? Why didn’t he leave the starter in! Personally, I definitely believe Torey has very much a positive impact on the team, and we’re lucky to have him here in Arizona. After ten years, it probably is about time for him to win one of these awards, and there’s likely none more fitting for him than Unsung Hero.
Previous winners
- 2024: Kevin Newman
- 2023: Kevin Ginkel
- 2022: Geraldo Perdomo
- 2021: Josh Rojas
- 2020: Tim Locastro
- 2019: Alex Young
- 2018: Clay Buchholz
- 2017: Zack Godley
- 2016: Chris Owings
- 2015: David Peralta
- 2014: Evan Marshall
- 2013: Josh Collmenter
- 2012: Brad Ziegler
- 2011: Ryan Roberts
- 2010: Stephen Drew
- 2009: Ryan Roberts
- 2008: Conor Jackson
- 2007: Chris Snyder
