Overview
- Rating: 3.25
- 2025 stats: 0-4 W-L, 3 SV, 36.1 IP, 6.44 ERA, 4.26 FIP, -0.5 aWAR
- Date of birth: October 28, 1996 (age 28 season)
- 2025 earnings: $406,452 (per Spotrac, prorated amount from 1 yr/$760,000 contract)
- 2026 status: Free agent
Voting overview
2025 review
Jake Woodford racked up the miles in 2025, criss-crossing the country and spending time with 4 different organizations over the course of the year. He was signed to a minor league deal by the Colorado
Rockies in early January with the intention to give him a look as a starter. Woodford pitched through Spring Training with the Rockies, but when he didn’t make the rotation he opted out of his minor league deal and Colorado granted his release. He was then picked up by the Yankees on Opening Day and spent the next 2 months in Scranton with their AAA affiliate. On June 1st, Woodford opted out of his deal with the Yanks when they called up Carlos Carrasco over him. He quickly signed with the Cubs and spent June with their AAA club before opting out of his deal on July 1st. From there he finally came to rest in the Arizona organization, signing his first major league deal of 2025 on July 2nd and made his season debut later that night.
Woodford’s first appearance came at home against the Giants where he came in to a 1-run deficit in the 8th inning. He gave up 2 runs over his 2 innings that night which ended up being pivotal as the Snakes offense fought back to tie it up, capped by Ketel Marte’s missile of a homer off Camilo Doval in the bottom of the 9th, but couldn’t scratch out any runs in the 10th and lost. It was an inauspicious beginning to his tenure in Arizona, but over the final three months of the season, no Diamondbacks reliever pitched more innings (36.1) or recorded more Saves (3 – low bar) than Mr. Woodford.
Jake Woodford began his career as a first round pick in the 2015 draft by the St. Louis Cardinals. Former Diamondbacks Josh Naylor, Kevin Newman, and – look away if your squeamish – Dansby Swanson were all drafted in that first round, as well. As alluded to in the opening paragraph, Woodford viewed himself as a starting pitcher when the season opened and his minor league track record backed that up. Woodford has started 156 of 168 career games in the minor leagues and he’s started 25 games at the MLB level. For whatever reason, the Diamondbacks never considered him as a starter, or at least I don’t remember him being discussed as even a possible spot starter, even when the rotation was forced to turn to the likes of Tony Disco. Maybe the organization just liked where he was fitting in to the bullpen, which was going through even more dire straits than the rotation when it came to injuries and ineffectiveness.
While that first outing with the Snakes was less than favorable, Woodford turned himself into a relatively reliable – again, low bar – arm for Torey to turn to in long relief. Over his next 18 games, from July 4 – September 7, Woodford pitched to a 3.39 FIP (slightly unlucky 4.35 ERA) thanks to an incredible job of keeping the ball in the yard. His mark of 0.29 HR/9 was the lowest in all of MLB during that timeframe of any reliever with at least 30 IP.
Unfortunately his story, as most stories associated with the 2025 D-backs, did not have a happy ending. The final 3 appearances Woodford made for the Diamondbacks resulted in multiple ER allowed, with the final outing being September 19th against Philly where he allowed 5 R (4 ER) in the 8th and 9th innings to seal a loss during our critical final stretch of the season. He entered into the game with a 1-run deficit and allowed the first runner to reach on an E5 (credited to Blaze) and then immediately let that runner score on a Nick Castellanos homer. Woodford didn’t allow anything else that inning, but 2 more runs came home against him in the 9th and those ended up being the final frames he would pitch in 2025. Two days later, he was DFA’d and outrighted to Reno where he finished out the season.
2026 outlook
Jake Woodford finds himself as a free agent for the 3rd straight offseason and it will be interesting if any teams reach out to him in the capacity of a starting pitcher or if his stint as a semi-effective reliever with us in 2025 pigeonholes him into a long relief role going forward. With age still on his side, I’m sure Woodford will find himself on a Spring Training roster this upcoming February/March and I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see him making appearances in the Show in 2026, but I feel his days as a starting pitcher are likely over.
