Overview
- Rating: 2.85
- 2025 stats: 11 G, 19 PA, 0/1/2/0 HR/R/RBI/SB, -10 OPS+, -0.2 aWAR
- Date of birth: November 20, 1996 (age 28 season)
- 2025 earnings: $179,784 (per Spotrac, prorated amount from 1 yr/$760,000 contract)
- 2026 status: Signed minor league deal with Kansas City Royals
Voting overview
2025 review
My first player review this offseason, Jeff Brigham, had a very similar path to the team as today’s subject. Connor Kaiser came to the Diamondbacks via minor league deal signed early in the 2024/25 offseason after last playing in the Major Leagues in 2023, just like Brigham. Kaiser spent the 2023-24 seasons in the Rockies organization. In 2023, he got a 3 game cup of coffee with the big league club but then spent the entirety of the 2024 season in Albuquerque with their AAA affiliate.
I doubt his
signing was noticed by much of anyone around here, and his Spring Training numbers (.087/.192/.130) didn’t inspire much confidence that he would be anything more than organizational filler. He took a couple trips to the IL during the first half of the season in Reno and his numbers there were nothing too notable (he ended with an OPS lower than Jose Herrera in Reno). I certainly didn’t have him on my list of possible call-ups at any point in the year, but after the Great Selloff at the trade deadline and with Jordan Lawlar still on the mend from his latest IL stint, Kaiser got the call to join the Diamondbacks on August 1st.
Kaiser’s first action as a D-back came against the West Sacramento Athletics on August 3rd and he got a bases loaded walk for an RBI in his first plate appearance! It was mostly downhill from there, unfortunately. He got into a total of 5 games over the next couple weeks with the club and he could muster only a .414 OPS. On August 18th, he was optioned back to Reno, replaced by Ildemaro Vargas who was returning off the IL from his foot injury that had sideline him for nearly 2 months.
Kaiser got one more crack with the Diamondbacks in September, getting recalled September 2nd to fill the void left by Lourdes Gurriel and his torn ACL. He was able to stick on the MLB roster through the end of the year with the team in the midst of a Wild Card chase, but his impact on that chase was minimal. While Kaiser started 4 of the 5 games he had played with the Snakes during his first stint with the club, he started only one of the final six games he played in during his second stint. The club was desperately chasing the final Wild Card slot, so Torey and the staff must have felt the team was best served with Kaiser coming on as a late-game defensive sub and getting as few plate appearances as possible. The only game he started in September was the game the day after the D-backs were eliminated from playoff contention. He struck out in all three of his trips to the plate that night.
2026 outlook
One piece of the D-backs’ offseason puzzle was already solved when the team outrighted 5 players, including Kaiser, off the 40-man roster on November 5th to make room for bringing the Snakes’ stacked 60-day IL roster back onto the active roster. Kaiser elected minor-league free agency on November 7th and then signed a minor league deal with the Royals on November 8th. Kaiser is a KC-area native, a graduate of Blue Valley West High School in the suburbs south of Kansas City, so this is a nice little homecoming for him. I will say that if he gets called up to the Show at all in 2026, I wouldn’t expect him to provide much beyond what he gave the Diamondbacks this year. He is a playable glove all across the infield, but he’s an absolute zero in the batter’s box. In the event there is an injury in their infield, Kaiser would likely be called up only to fill the role of occasional spot-starter and late-game defensive replacement. He just doesn’t have the stick to play anything more than that in the Bigs.
Connor Kaiser’s stint in Sedona Red wasn’t a long one, but he’ll always have the memory of his first knock as a member of the Snakes. Good luck to you, Mr. Kaiser, in your next chapter!
