With Pavin Smith and Tyler Locklear currently on the injured list, the Arizona Diamondbacks currently have no primary first baseman on the roster. As a result, they’ve resorted to trotting out Tim Tawa and Ildemaro Vargas at first instead, neither of whom are primary first baseman.
Given Locklear’s struggles hitting so far this year, I’d imagine some fans would be uncomfortable with first base being occupied via a platoon of Smith and Locklear next season. On paper, it actually makes a lot of sense
to do so considering Smith is a left handed bat, and Locklear is a right handed bat. I’d actually go so far as to assume that General Manager Mike Hazen acquired Locklear specifically for the purpose of platooning him with Smith, given Smith does much better against right handers than he does left handers. Against right handed pitching Smith is hitting .253/.339/.433 with a 111 wRC+, against left handed hitting he’s hitting .222/.296/.301 with a 67 wRC+. Smith hasn’t exactly gotten better with the adjustments he made over the last offseason either. When facing RHP this year, Smith is hitting .265/.361/.456 with 127 wRC+. When facing LHP this year, he’s hitting a paltry .167/.375/.167 with a 78 wRC+. Given those struggles against LHP it makes sense to try and acquire a right handed bat to compliment Smith. I can’t say for sure that Tyler Locklear is that bat, considering he’s actually done much better against right handed pitching than he’s done against left handers in the minors, but reverse platoon splits are generally something to ignore with hitters. I would keep an eye on his numbers vs LHP going forward though, as there is the tiniest possibility that trends holds true in the future. All that said, if I had to place a bet on what GM Mike Hazen does this offseason to address first base, I’d bet that he just sticks with a platoon of the two first baseman already on his roster. He could even potentially play Pavin against LHP with no platoon. Considering the aforementioned higher walk rate against lefties, he’s at least seen the ball well and there’s room for improvement.
If he doesn’t stick with Smith and Locklear though, what exactly are the other options in the farm system, via free agency, and potential trades. Down in AAA Reno there are two players that are capable of manning first: Tristin English and Ivan Melendez. We’ve already seen Tristin English struggle in small sample sizes at the MLB level, which isn’t exactly a surprise considering he’s consistently struggled at first during each stop in the minors. I wouldn’t write him off completely, especially considering he’s also a right handed bat that could potentially platoon well with Pavin Smith. Ivan Melendez is a once heralded prospect who struggled in AA, but appears he has finally made the adjustments needed this season to earn a promotion to AAA, but he stlll hasn’t found success in AAA yet, albeit in a very small sample. LuJames Groover is an actual prospect still, but the team appears committed to keeping him at third, and he too was just promoted to AAA, and is likely a half season away at the earliest. Further down in AA is Ben McLaughlin but he is even further away, having just been promoted to AA and is currently on no one’s radar. He’s a name I would keep an eye in the future though with how he’s hit so far since being drafted
On the free agent market, there aren’t a ton of realistic options. The Diamondbacks aren’t signing Pete Alonso. Nor are they likely to have a swan song reunion with Paul Goldschmidt, and even then, they probably shouldn’t. A reunion with Josh Naylor would seem plausible and maybe even likely if not for the fact that he’ll cost a lot more in free agency while the Dbacks are likely to cut payroll this offseason. Starting pitching is where most of the payroll is likely to go if Hazen makes any free agency signings.
There are some interesting FA options in Luis Arraez, Max Muncy, and Dominic Smith. All of whom seem like they may simple be out of the Dbacks price range.
Tbe trade market is something that I definitely can’t predict. Milwaukee’s Andrew Vaughn seems like an intriguing cost controlled trade target, but I’m wary of the cost. Tampa Bay’s Yandy Diaz seens like an actual realistic trade target he’s (probably) getting too expensive for the Rays, and they just happen to be Mike Hazen’s most frequent trade target. He does have a vesting player option for 13M after 500 PAs next season, which would be attractive for the 2027 season. Other than those two, I really have no idea who Hazen could potentially target in a trade over the offseason. Your guesses are as good as mine, so leave them in the comments down below!
